Wood & Selick Building

34 Hudson Street | also 161 Duane Street, 163 Duane Street, 36 Hudson Street | Tribeca | built 1910

Open on the map6 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1891

    November 7

    Wood and Selick, makers of W&S Cough Drops, outgrow Jay Street and plan a Hudson Street warehouse

    Charles H. Selick came from Germany at 14 and formed Wood & Selick with Charles Wood in 1880, selling bakery and candy supplies. Their side product, W & S Cough Drops, sold nationally in pressed glass containers. With their Jay Street building too small, architects Babcock & Morgan filed plans on November 7, 1891 for a seven-story brick warehouse here, estimated at $75,000.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1892

    Babcock and Morgan complete a seven-story Romanesque Revival warehouse for Wood and Selick

    Built in 1891-92 for the wholesale grocers Wood & Selick, the warehouse at the corner of Hudson and Duane Streets was designed by Babcock & Morgan, who specialized in commercial buildings. Arcaded bays rise to large molded arches on the sixth story, below a corbelled cornice and arcaded parapet. The corner has a turret-like bartizan treatment.

    “Built in 1891-92 for wholesale grocers Wood & Selick, this building was designed by Babcock & Morgan, a firm noted for its commercial commissions.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1897

    April 12

    A trial over stolen supplies has the court clerk unable to lift Exhibit A, a barrel

    A former employee, Jeremiah Sauer, left Wood & Selick in 1896, opened his own supply firm and arranged to steal stock from his old employer by scraping off the markings and shipping goods via New Jersey. A colleague exposed the theft in 1897. At the trial that opened April 12, a barrel of evidence proved too heavy for the clerk, and it took three court officers and the prosecutor to roll it.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1919

    February

    Employees dig up the boiler room floor in search of a dead engineer's buried gold coins

    John Henry Dayton, the firm's engineer for 27 years, was dying of influenza in February 1919 when he told his young wife he had buried $7,375 in gold coins in the building's basement. He died before saying where. The Sun reported that employees were tearing up the cement floors in the engine room and the boiler room, with watchmen standing guard, and whether the money was found is unclear.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1951

    May 21

    Charles Triller, Wood and Selick's president, dies days after stepping down to chair the Philharmonic board

    In May 1951 Charles Triller left the presidency of Wood & Selick to chair the board of the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Society. A week later, on May 21, he died at 95. The New York Times had reported a month before that Harold E. Selick and others sold the Hudson Street building, which ended nearly sixty years of ownership.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  6. 1997

    Chef David Bouley buys the building and plans a restaurant, cooking school and his own home

    After the Mohawk Electric Supply family sold it in 1997, celebrated chef David Bouley bought the building. The New York Times reported on March 13, 1997 that it would hold a first-floor cafe, a formal restaurant, a cooking school and library, and Bouley's home on the top floors. Plans changed, and his restaurant remains on the ground floor with apartments above.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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All 564 buildings with stories in Tribeca