Antonio Di Giovanni Bakery Building

228 Elizabeth Street | Nolita | built 1910

Open on the map6 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

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

  1. 1893

    March

    Baker Marino Giardino is beaten and stabbed by the Leather Shoe Gang for refusing to pay beer money

    By 1893 the house held a bakery run by Antonio di Giovanni, whose worker Marino Giardino had been paying the gang that haunted Elizabeth Street between Prince and Houston. When he refused to hand over money, the gang beat him in front of the door, and one member stabbed him in the shoulder, The Sun reported. Two gang members were arrested, though not before another man, Pietro Venio, was stabbed in the leg.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1900

    Bullowa & Bullowa buys the old Federal house and the census counts 81 residents, 75 of them Italian

    The Federal house at 208 Elizabeth Street, later renumbered 228, had housed tenants since 1827 and was raised to four floors around 1872, when most of its families were Irish. After Antonio di Giovanni leased the whole building on August 1, 1900, the law firm Bullowa & Bullowa bought it that September. The 1900 census recorded 81 people at the address, 75 of them Italian immigrants.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1903

    Kurtzer & Rentz give the tenement a French-style facade with a balcony and pineapple finials

    In August 1903 the owners hired architects Kurtzer & Rentz to remodel the building. Above the storefront they added a balustraded balcony with two pineapple finials and paired French windows, and arched cast-metal window surrounds with palmettes and cherub faces. Juliette balconies protected the upper windows, and the stepped parapet ended in a sunburst.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1904

    November

    A resident dying of consumption is stabbed in a hospital ward by a rival who feigned madness to get in

    In November 1904, Allio Salvatore, a resident of this house that year, entered Columbus Hospital suffering from consumption. The New York Times reported that Giuseppe Alizea, a rival in a feud, had pretended to be insane to be admitted to the same ward. While the nuns were at evening prayer, Alizea attacked Salvatore with a knife, and police called it the climax of a vendetta.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1973

    December 6

    A resident and three co-workers grab a bag of cash that falls off a Brink's truck

    Joseph Dimaggio, a 25-year-old construction worker living here, was working on a West Street urban renewal site on December 6, 1973 when a bag of one-dollar bills fell from a passing Brink's truck. He and three co-workers took it, and the money was split. An anonymous caller tipped off the company that night, detectives arrested all four on grand larceny charges, and the full $16,200 was recovered.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  6. 1994

    October

    Kremer Pigments sets up in the former bakery space, selling natural artists' pigments

    In the 1990s and early 2000s the ground floor held Kremer Pigments, run by German chemist Dr. Georg Kremer, who made artists' pigments from natural materials. New York magazine's October 1994 profile described the shop as tiny but blazing with color. These days the ground floor houses an eyewear store, and nine apartments sit above it.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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