237 Centre Street

Little Italy | built 1827

Open on the map3 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. 1827

    A Federal-style house is built at 237 Centre Street for George Lorillard or Cornelius Roosevelt

    According to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the three-story brick building at 237 Centre Street began about 1827 as a Federal-style dwelling, built for either George Lorillard or Cornelius Roosevelt. It went up while the Fourteenth Ward was growing quickly, and by the 1820s that ward had become the city's most populous. The record names no architect for the original house.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1869

    James Hamel remodels the house into an Italianate store for Henry McCadden Jr.

    In 1869 the architect James Hamel remodeled the old house for its owner, Henry McCadden Jr. He raised the peaked roof into a full third story, built a new brick front wall, and added cast-iron columns and a storefront at street level. The upper floors were later converted from residences to loft space, and the cast-iron columns on the ground floor survive today.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1911

    Small manufacturers fill the loft: lamps, machine shops, umbrellas and radios

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission lists the tenants of 237 Centre Street over the years. F.P. Doyle sold lamps in 1874, Carl Mischke ran a machine shop in 1901, and A. Schneider made umbrellas in 1911. The Alrex Co. dealt in radios in 1922, the Hercules Machine Co. was here in 1928, and the Al-Mar Leather Products Co. was in the building in 1966 and 1967.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby

All 76 buildings with stories in Little Italy