Square Diner

33 Leonard Street | also 190 West Broadway | Tribeca | built 1970

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.

1918
An earlier six-story building on the diner's lot is demolished for the extension of Varick Street
Before the diner, a mid-nineteenth-century masonry building stood here, replaced in 1881-82 by a six-story brick building that J. Morgan Slade designed for Richard P. Messiter. By 1912 it housed offices, including publishing offices. It came down in 1918, when the southern end of Varick Street was extended through to Leonard Street, and smaller buildings, including the diner, were built on the lot afterward.
“…demolished in 1918 when the southern portion of Varick Street was cut through from Franklin to Leonard Streets…”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1937
George Langer builds a Moderne diner of metal panels and glass block on West Broadway
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Maurice V. Grant designed the one-story diner at 192 West Broadway for owner George Langer in 1937, with P. Kretzer & Sons as builder. It extends almost 73 feet along West Broadway and only about 12 feet along Leonard Street. Its metal panels, stainless steel trim and glass block still mark it as a Moderne design, though a mansard-style roof has recently covered the top band.
“Designed by Maurice V. Grant, No. 192 was built in 1937 for George Langer.”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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