Henry J. Holbrook House

437 Washington Street | Tribeca | built 1900

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. 1830

    February

    Merchant Henry J. Holbrook lives in the Federal-style house days after a fire damages his dry-goods stock

    In early 1830 the 25-foot-wide, two-and-a-half-story Federal house at 437 Washington Street was home to Henry J. Holbrook. He kept a dry goods and cloth store at 427 Washington Street, where burning soot that had gathered near an old cellar fireplace ignited days earlier. Water and scorching badly damaged the stock he stored below.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1834

    August 23

    Mrs. McCoy's boarding house: a boarder charges her son William with robbing his room

    After Holbrook left, the house was leased to a Mrs. McCoy, who ran it as a boarding house. On the night of August 23, 1834, her son William McCoy, described in the press as a well-known rogue, entered boarder Samuel Long's room and went through his trunk. He was charged with taking $32 and clothing, the magistrate committed him for trial, and the family held a household auction the next April.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1842

    July

    Fire Department official Edward M. Hoffmire lives here as the city's Superintendent of Buildings

    Edward M. Hoffmire, the city's Superintendent of Repairs, lived at 437 Washington Street after the McCoys left in 1835, and stayed through 1847. He belonged to Engine Company 6, served on Fire Department committees and was a trustee of the fund for firemen's widows and orphans. In July 1842 he became Superintendent of Buildings, and his former employees gave him an embossed silver pitcher. He died in 1848 at 47.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1907

    Architect Otto Spannhake enlarges the old house into a loft for an ornamental glass maker

    After Arthur M. Bullows bought the property, plans were filed in 1907 to turn the two-story dwelling into a three-story loft with a rear extension. Architect Otto L. Spannhake's addition is visible in the change from the original Flemish-bond brick to cheaper running bond. The new tenant, Empire Ornamental Glass Co., signed a ten-year lease and made glass signs, with Coca-Cola among its customers.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1925

    November 25

    A longtime messenger known as Methodical Pat is found dead at the bottom of the elevator shaft

    By the 1920s the building held the American Fruit Growers' Association warehouse, where Patrick Powers had worked as a messenger since boyhood. Known on Washington Street as Methodical Pat, the 65-year-old went missing on November 20, 1925. An employee found his body at the bottom of the elevator shaft on November 25, and police believed he had fallen on November 19.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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All 564 buildings with stories in Tribeca