281 Church Street

also 35 White Street | Tribeca | built 1867

Open on the map5 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. 1865

    October

    Jarvis Slade and Gardner Colby buy the corner of Church and White Streets to build a dry-goods loft

    Slade, a wealthy dry goods merchant, set out after the Civil War to turn Tribeca from old brick and wooden buildings into modern lofts. In October 1865 he and Gardner R. Colby bought the two old buildings at the southeast corner of Church and White Streets. In 1881 the Real Estate Record credited him with creating the district's dry goods trade.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1866

    April

    Neighbors sue over a missing shared privy when construction of 281 Church Street undermines the yard

    The seller of the wooden house at 35 White Street, Samuel Keyser, had a long agreement letting the boarding house next door share his rear yard and privy. In April 1866 the boarding house's owners sued him, saying Slade and Colby's builders had undermined the yard so the fence caved in and neighborhood boys carried off the privy building.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1876

    August 24

    Burglars steal silverware from the silversmith S. D. Johnson at 281 Church Street

    Two burglars broke into the shop of silversmith S. D. Johnson on August 24, 1876, and took silverware worth about $36,000 in today's money. Police named William Heany and Thomas Macaveny, whom the Evening Telegram called well-known Fourteenth Ward thieves, and picked them up on Hester Street the next day. They denied it and were held in default of bail.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1894

    The German perfumers Mulhens & Kropff have their New York branch in the building by 1894

    By 1894 Mulhens & Kropff, which imported colognes, soaps and extracts from its laboratories in Cologne, had its New York branch here and stayed through the turn of the century. In December 1895 Merck's Market Report noted brisk sales of its transparent glycerin soaps, with White-Rose a standout. A two-ounce sample of its Eau de Cologne cost 30 cents by mail in 1899.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1938

    February 1

    A morning fire destroys the Lincoln Fabrics store at 281 Church Street

    Lincoln Fabrics, Inc. held the store and basement on February 1, 1938, while the dry goods firm Henry Glass & Co. had the top floor. A fire that morning destroyed the Lincoln Fabrics store, and smoke spread through the whole building, damaging Henry Glass's stock. The Colby family, whose Gardner Colby had been an original owner, still owned the property then, more than seven decades after it was built.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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