27 Howard Street

SoHo | built 1889

Open on the map4 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. 1888

    Samuel Inslee replaces an old Howard Street house with a cast-iron loft

    By 1855 the earlier house at 27 Howard Street was running as a brothel known as Mrs. Hardy's, in a block that had slid from respectability. In 1888 developer Samuel Inslee bought the lot and hired architect Samuel A. Warner, who had already designed a chapel and a Worth Street loft for him. The result was a five-story cast-iron building mixing neo-Grec, Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival details.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1906

    Peter Woll & Sons sterilizes curled hair for mattresses on Howard Street

    After 1890s tenants in buttons, trimmings and dry goods, the Philadelphia firm Peter Woll & Sons, founded in 1858 to prepare bristle for brush makers, had a New York branch here by 1906. Its main product here was curled hair, which was sterilized and then sold in bulk for stuffing mattresses and upholstery. Automakers wanted it for car seats, and a 1913 hospital manual praised it for mattresses because it could be fumigated.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1979

    October 8

    The New York Center for Visual History works on a film series from 27 Howard Street

    As SoHo shifted from industry to art, the New York Center for Visual History made the building its home in the 1970s. The New York Times reported in October 1979 that the Center was working on an educational film series about the city in the 1930s, touching on the Depression, the 1939-1940 World's Fair, family life and ethnic groups.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 2000

    Designer Ted Muehling opens a jewelry and decorative-object studio here

    Around the turn of the 21st century, Ted Muehling, a 1975 industrial design graduate of Pratt Institute, opened his shop and studio here. Known first for jewelry, he expanded into glassware, vases and porcelain objects. When he left in 2011, Michele Varian moved her home furnishings store in from Crosby Street, and the upper floors became residences in 2013.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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