39 Worth Street Building

39 Worth Street | Tribeca | built 1915

Open on the map5 entries

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

1. 1837

   Fire engine builder James Smith moves his works to an earlier building at 39 Worth Street

   James Smith, a prominent builder of fire engines, bought the property at 39 Worth Street in 1837 and relocated his factory there from Elm Street, now Lafayette Street. A fire in June 1855 in the four-story brick building at the back of the lot ruined or damaged engines being made for fire companies across the country. Smith stayed on Worth Street through the Civil War, then redeveloped the lot around 1866 with the present cast-iron building.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

2. 1866

   Isaac F. Duckworth designs a cast-iron store and loft that mixes Italianate and Second Empire details

   Smith built the five-story building at 39 Worth Street as an investment, and Isaac F. Duckworth designed it with a cast-iron front made by Daniel D. Badger's Architectural Iron Works. Flat-arched windows with rounded corners, rope moldings and pilasters with leafy capitals show the Second Empire style arriving, while the flat roof and deep ornamented cornice stay Italianate. The Landmarks Preservation Commission dates it to about 1866; a Daytonian in Manhattan post, citing a city building report, puts construction in 1862 and 1863.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

3. 1894

   Carl A. Evertz's sample-book company employs some 130 people in the building

   By the early 1890s the sample-book maker Carl A. Evertz held a floor or more of 39 Worth Street, and in 1894 the firm, which made sample books, sample cards and card cases, employed 25 men, 11 teenage boys, 49 women and 45 teenage girls. Evertz, born in Germany in 1856, led the Frederick Gluech Quartet Club and the German Hospital Society and belonged to the Arion Singing Society.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

4. 1938

   The Weeping Willow Tea Room joins the textile firms at 39 Worth Street

   Textile companies filled 39 Worth Street from the 1860s into the early 1970s. The Weeping Willow Tea Room joined them in 1938 and stayed until 1941. Scher Textiles, founded by the brothers Morris G. and Edward Scher, bought the building in 1942, and the firm and its subsidiaries occupied it until at least 1955 before selling it in 1960. Residential tenants began moving into vacated lofts by the mid-1970s.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

5. 2013

   October 29

   The Landmarks Commission designates 39 Worth Street despite opposition from the White Rose Artists Corporation board

   The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated 39 Worth Street an individual landmark on October 29, 2013, after a public hearing on June 25. Speakers for the Historic Districts Council, the Victorian Society New York and Tribeca Trust urged designation. The White Rose Artists Corporation board's president testified against it, and three board members sent letters of opposition. The Commission had first heard the building in 1989.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Further reading

• Isaac Duckworth's Cast Iron 39 Worth StreetDaytonian in Manhattan

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