241 Centre Street
Little Italy | built 1891
Open on the map3 entries
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.
- 1888
August Trenkmann builds a seven-story factory on Centre Street in two stages
The architects De Lemos & Cordes designed this through-block factory for August Trenkmann, whose estate still owned it when the district was designated in 2010. Nos. 241-245 Centre Street went up in 1888-89, and the section at 247-249, running through to Lafayette Street, followed in 1890-91. The Centre Street front is Romanesque Revival, with grouped windows set inside broad multi-story arches.
- 1896
Engravers, metal workers and ribbon makers rent the Centre Street loft floors
Tenants of the factory at 241-249 Centre Street included Francis Whitely, an engraver, in 1896 and Crown Art Metal Works in 1912. Old Town Ribbon & Carbon Co. was there from 1921 to 1928, followed by Blumenthal & Co., pen manufacturers, in 1936. Later occupants ranged from the Ornamental Leather Embossing Co. in 1950 to Star Machinery in 1966. By 1998 the Posterati Gallery had opened in the building.
- 1897
Widening of Lafayette Street forces a new facade on the Trenkmann factory
When Lafayette Street was widened in 1897, the factory's facade on that street had to be rebuilt. Trenkmann hired the same architects, De Lemos & Cordes, who gave it a Renaissance Revival face of rusticated brick, terra-cotta ornament and a pressed-metal cornice. The Landmarks Preservation Commission notes that the Lafayette Street side may originally have matched the Romanesque Revival design still seen on Centre Street.
Nearby
- 239 Centre Street2 entries
- 241-249 Centre Street (179-183 Lafayette Street)179 Lafayette Street | 3 entries
- 237 Centre Street3 entries
- Former Engine Company 55 firehouse185 Lafayette Street | 5 entries
- 154 Grand Street4 entries
- 407 Broome Street2 entries