Walkerspace

46 Walker Street | Tribeca | built 1858

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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. 1845

    February 22

    John LeConte, a vice president of a Texas annexation rally, lives in an earlier house here

    Before the present building, 46 Walker Street was a 25-foot-wide home belonging to John LeConte, well known in city politics and business. On February 22, 1845, thousands gathered in City Hall Park to back the annexation of Texas, and the crowd named him one of its vice presidents. The next year he was appointed a trustee of the Fifth Ward's Common Schools. In 1857 he demolished this earlier house to build the commercial building that stands here now.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1858

    John LeConte's marble-fronted loft rises at 46 Walker Street, a design copied next door

    Built in 1857-58 for John LeConte, the five-story building has a marble front with a cast-iron base, tiers of arched windows and a bracketed cornice in the Italianate style. The Landmarks Preservation Commission notes its design is identical to the wider building at 52-54 Walker Street, erected in 1858-59 by builder Charles Sandford. The LeConte estate owned the property for almost a century.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1859

    September

    Publisher W. A. Townsend & Co. issues an anonymous book about a prostitute

    W. A. Townsend & Co., the first tenant, published Out of the Depths, subtitled The Story of a Woman's Life, in September 1859. The book followed a prostitute struggling to regain respectability and was so sensitive that the author stayed anonymous. Reviews hedged: one paper found nothing offensive, while the Boston Atlas could not decide whether it would deter young women or tempt them. The firm also held the exclusive contract for James Fenimore Cooper's works.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1863

    James G. Gregory publishes a Christmas poems book illustrated by Thomas Nast

    In 1863 publisher James G. Gregory, working from 46 Walker Street, engaged Thomas Nast to provide pictures for Clement Clarke Moore's 'A Visit from St. Nicholas' in a volume called Christmas Poems & Pictures. The New York Times listed it on December 19 but barely mentioned the Moore poem. In a 1908 letter to the Times, Albert Bigelow Paine wrote that Nast drew his first Santa Claus for this book.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1991

    Soho Rep moves its theater into 46 Walker Street and calls it Walkerspace

    Soho Rep, an off-Broadway company founded in 1975 in a converted hat warehouse at 19 Mercer Street, moved to 46 Walker Street in 1991 after stints at a Bellevue Hospital theater and in Greenwich Village. It nicknamed the new home Walkerspace. The company rented the space for about 25 years.

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 2016

    September 28

    Soho Rep closes suddenly when its Walker Street space turns out to lack permits

    Playbill reported on September 28, 2016 that Soho Rep had closed suddenly. The company later explained that the building had no permits for use as a theater and a maximum occupancy of 70, three fewer than its 73 seats. The cast and crew of Gideon Irving's show learned of the closing the day before opening. With help from the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, Soho Rep then renovated the space to meet code.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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