244 Front Street

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.

1853
The Novelty Bakery fire destroys the earlier buildings on the lot at 244 Front Street
An earlier building stood on this lot until the Novelty Bakery fire of 1853, which also swept away most of the other structures on the block between Peck Slip and Dover Street. Jones & Rowland, flour merchants, owned the new buildings that went up on this lot and its neighbor soon afterward.
“…built shortly after the disastrous Novelty Bakery fire of 1853 which destroyed the earlier buildings on this site as well as most of the structures on this block…”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1853
Jones & Rowland's rebuilt store at 244 Front Street gets a cast-iron shopfront and a sheet-metal cornice
Built after the 1853 fire for the flour merchants Jones & Rowland, this store was given a cast-iron shopfront with square columns carrying round-arched panels, then the newest commercial fashion. Its pressed-brick facade is plain vernacular work with simple stone lintels and sills, and it stands a full story higher than its neighbor at No. 242. Some of the early iron shutters were still in place when the district was designated in 1977.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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