E. R. Mudge, Sawyer & Co. Building

45 White Street | also 43 White Street | Tribeca | built 1868

Open on the map5 entries

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

1. 1866

   September

   E. R. Mudge, Sawyer & Co. moves into its new White Street building before it is finished

   Commission merchant Enoch R. Mudge bought the two small buildings at 43 and 45 White Street in 1866 and began a new one in the French Second Empire style, with a cast-iron base, four stone floors and a mansard roof. His firm, E. R. Mudge, Sawyer & Co., sold cotton and woolen goods for several mills and was in the building by September 1866, well before construction was formally completed in 1868.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

2. 1869

   Cloth importers Halsted & Stiles occupy the new Second Empire loft in 1869

   The building has a mansard roof with a prominent central dormer flanked by round windows, and it replaced two smaller structures, one of brick. In 1869 it housed Halsted & Stiles, which imported and wholesaled cloths, cassimeres and vestings; later other dry goods firms kept offices, storage and manufacturing here. A 1939 remodeling by architect Arthur Rosenfeld covered the first floor in stucco.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

3. 1881

   Enoch R. Mudge, former Astor House manager turned dry goods merchant, dies in 1881

   Mudge managed the Astor House Hotel at 24 and in 1840 opened the St. Charles Hotel in New Orleans. His son Charles was killed at Gettysburg, and he paid for a Romanesque Revival church in Lynn, Massachusetts, in the young man's memory. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on October 3, 1881 that Mudge had died at his summer home in Swampscott at 69, before the church was finished; his firm was liquidated.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

4. 1882

   March

   Mudge's heirs sell 43-45 White Street to the estate of James C. Ayer for $183,750

   After Mudge's death the firm was liquidated, and in March 1882 his heirs sold the building to the estate of James C. Ayer. Around 1900 commission merchants Hesslein & Co. were leasing it, and stayed for decades. In 1939 the Ayer estate, still the owner, covered the cast-iron storefront with stucco; the following year the textile firm Central Processing Corporation leased the store and second floor.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

5. 2003

   Renovation turns the upper floors of the Mudge building into apartments

   Mid-century tenants included the apparel maker Mae Marie, Inc. and New York Sun Transporters, Inc. Renovations began in 2003 to convert the upper floors to residential use. By 2009 each upper floor held two apartments and the storefront had been restored, though without the elaborate Corinthian capitals that once crowned its columns.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

• The 1868 E. R. Mudge, Sawyer & Co. Building - 43-45 White StreetDaytonian in Manhattan

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All 564 buildings with stories in Tribeca