248 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
A fire in a rear building on this lot starts the 1853 Novelty Bakery blaze, which destroys the 1810 buildings here
The Novelty Bakery fire of 1853 broke out in a building at the back of the lot where No. 248 now stands. It destroyed the buildings from about 1810 that had stood on this part of the block, and the present building was put up shortly afterward. The same fire destroyed most of the other structures on that block of Front Street.
“The 1853 Novelty Bakery fire broke out in a rear building on the site of today's No. 248 and destroyed the early 1810 buildings located here.”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1853
The rebuilt 248 Front Street gets an especially elaborate cast-iron shopfront
Erected right after the 1853 fire, No. 248 has a cast-iron shopfront of paneled square columns carrying an architrave topped with egg-and-dart molding. Above, four floors of brick have segmental-arched windows under iron lintels, and a sheet-metal cornice on foliate brackets has panels decorated with paired swags. The landmarks report ranks it among the most richly detailed buildings in the South Street Seaport district.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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