Pottier Building

47 Walker Street | Tribeca | built 1869

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

  1. 1869

    Eugene Pottier, a flower importer, builds a cast-iron loft building at 47 Walker Street

    Eugene Pottier imported artificial flowers and hired the brothers George and William Youngs to design a five-story store and loft building on a lot about 38 feet wide. Work ran from 1867 to 1869, and the Landmarks Preservation Commission notes that the iron front was cast by G.R. Jackson, Burnet & Company. It replaced a two-story frame building and a smaller structure at the back of the lot.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1888

    April 26

    A fire gutters the upper floors of 47 Walker Street and destroys its mansard roof

    On the evening of April 26, 1888, after the upper-floor firms had closed for the day, workers below heard a blast and then saw smoke at the fifth and sixth floors. A second and third alarm brought a large force of firemen, and within two hours everything above the second floor was gutted. The $8,000 repair did not bring back the mansard.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1923

    A lawyer is indicted for bribing a Prohibition agent over missing alcohol at a drug company here

    By 1923 the Panama Drug Company occupied the building, and Prohibition agent Edward Crabbe found that 150 gallons of alcohol meant for cough syrup and similar products were unaccounted for. The firm's lawyer, E. Paul Yaselli, a former assistant United States attorney, handed Crabbe $200 hoping for a favorable report. A federal grand jury indicted Yaselli for bribery, and he said the agents had extorted the money.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1935

    Ex-mayor Jimmy Walker picks the Evening Enquirer, published here, to announce he won't run again

    By the early 1930s the building housed the New York Evening Enquirer, whose publisher was William Griffin. In 1935 former mayor James J. Walker sent Griffin a letter from Vichy, France, saying he would not seek reelection and citing his long effort to regain his health. The paper had the scoop. Another tenant was the German-language Volkszeitung, a socialist daily with 30 workers here in 1932.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1976

    February 12

    The Chinese-language World Journal prints its first issue at 47 Walker Street

    The World Journal's first issue came out on February 12, 1976, from this building. Publisher Tih-wu Wang wrote that the paper would serve the Chinese community, and three rival Chinese papers protested to Taiwan's Nationalist government. The paper was edited in Taipei, with negatives flown to New York each day, and it had to move out by 1979, when the upper floors were converted to apartments.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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