Leggett Building

222 West Broadway | also 130 Franklin Street, 6 Varick Street, 220 West Broadway | Tribeca | built 1882

Open on the map6 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1882

    Francis H. Leggett's nine-story grocery warehouse replaces eight older buildings

    Francis H. Leggett, owner of one of the country's largest firms importing groceries, teas and coffees, built this warehouse in 1881-82, designed by George W. Dacunha. It originally had three similar facades, blending neo-Grec and Queen Anne styles. Leggett's business stayed until at least the mid-1910s.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1885

    March

    A trusted cashier at Leggett & Co. takes $2,000, then turns himself in

    Assistant cashier Arthur G. Wainwright was found $400 short in March 1885 and told his supervisor the money was in the safe, though it was not. He then took $2,000 from the cash drawer and left in another clerk's hat. He was thought to have fled to Canada but had gone to Brooklyn. Two weeks later he came back before closing time and gave himself up, saying his conscience would not let him keep the money.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1903

    October 19

    A wrongly accused credit manager wins $35,000 from Leggett & Co.

    In 1901 credit man Bryan L. Rawson resigned after a check of his accounts found them $35,000 short. Two years later an investigation showed the money had been taken by Max Borchardt, a clerk already convicted of stealing only $113.51. Rawson sued the firm and was awarded $35,000 on October 19, 1903.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1914

    Widening Varick Street demolishes half of the warehouse

    The city's extension and widening of Varick Street lay across more than half of the building. In March 1914 Leggett & Co. announced it would move out, and demolition was well under way by August. The firm hired C. P. H. Gilbert to erect a simple brick wall on the new western line.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1940

    July 21

    A ruptured sub-ocean cable disrupts Martinique's communications, and repairs take five months

    By 1931 the building housed All American Cable and Radio, Inc., which handled the submarine cable link connecting the United States with Martinique, a French island. The cable broke on July 21, 1940, and communications were disrupted. Because no cable ships were in the North Atlantic, the company needed five months to repair it.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  6. 1988

    The upper floors are converted into 22 residences

    Tribeca's shift from warehouses to housing reached the old Leggett warehouse in 1988, when the upper floors were converted into 22 apartments. The ground-floor spaces were rented as stores, galleries and a restaurant. The building that remains is only part of the original structure from 1882.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

Nearby

All 564 buildings with stories in Tribeca