391 Broadway

Tribeca | built 1862

Open on the map3 entries

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

  1. 1862

    John D. Wolfe has John B. Snook build a cast-iron store at 391 Broadway on Lorillard estate land

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    John D. Wolfe (1791/92-1872), a hardware merchant who put his fortune into real estate, commissioned John B. Snook to design this five-story, 25-foot-wide store, erected in 1860-62. The lot was part of the Lorillard estate and had come to Wolfe's nephew Lorillard Spencer; the new building replaced two three-story buildings. Its cast-iron Italianate facade closely resembles a plate in Daniel Badger's 1865 catalog for the Architectural Iron Works foundry.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1872

    April 16

    Willcox & Gibbs exhibit over a thousand sewing machines at 391 Broadway, then sell them at auction

    The New-York Daily Tribune reported on April 16, 1872 that an exhibition was on view at 391 Broadway, with more than a thousand sewing machines of nearly every leading make, shown by the Willcox & Gibbs Sewing Machine Company and due to be sold at auction the next day. A follow-up column headed Willcox & Gibbs Triumphant described the sale as a success and praised the machine for easing the drudgery of women's housework. Thomson, Langdon & Co., makers of corsets, were also based in the building.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1873

    April 1

    A Thomson, Langdon & Co. salesman from 391 Broadway survives the wreck of the steamer Atlantic

    F. D. Markwell, a salesman for the corset firm Thomson, Langdon & Co. of 391 Broadway, was returning from a business trip abroad on the R.M.S. Atlantic, which left Liverpool on March 20, 1873. Early on April 1 the liner struck a rock near Halifax and sank, killing hundreds, in what was then the North Atlantic's deadliest disaster for civilians. The New-York Tribune listed Markwell among the saved on April 3. He telegraphed his employers that he was safe, was staying with the wreck to recover the bodies of friends, and needed a draft on Halifax bankers.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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All 564 buildings with stories in Tribeca