47 Worth Street
also 53 Worth Street | Tribeca | built 1915
Open on the map5 entries
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.
- 1873
Dry goods commission merchants Watson & Bartholow move into the cast-iron loft
After William Watson bought the five-story cast-iron building at 47-49 Worth Street in June 1871, his son Robert C. Watson and partner J. M. C. Bartholow moved their dry goods commission business in by 1873. Wool merchants Stevens, Sandford & Handy leased space before the decade was out. The block was filling with dry goods manufacturers and sellers.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1881
The National Knit Goods Association meets here to fight a proposed revenue law
On April 23, 1881, members of the National Knit Goods Association gathered for a general meeting inside the private offices of Lawrence & Co., a tenant at 47-49 Worth Street. They wanted quick, coordinated action against a proposed revenue law that they saw as a danger to the knit goods trade. The meeting shows the address's standing in the dry goods industry.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1898
A woolen merchant with offices here wins a lawsuit after a judge has his wife model the gown
Woolen merchant Jacob J. Wallenstein, whose offices were at 47-49 Worth Street, was sued in 1898 by a Lexington Avenue tailor over an unpaid $55 gown that his wife had taken back for alterations six times. Justice McKeen had Mrs. Wallenstein put the dress on in his chambers, with an officer on guard. He agreed it fit poorly and ruled for Wallenstein.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1952
Chicopee Mills buys the building and consolidates its textile and Lumite operations here
Chicopee Mills took the top three floors in 1945, and in August 1952 bought 47-49 Worth Street to unite its textile offices with its Lumite screen division across the street. Two years later it was making Chux disposable diapers. When it moved uptown in 1965, The New York Times described it as the final big textile firm on Worth Street, which had been the industry's base for nearly a century.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1966
New York Law School buys the building, and a 2009 restoration returns its cast-iron front
A year after Chicopee left, New York Law School purchased 47-49 Worth Street and renovated the former loft and office space. In 1969 the AIA Guide complained that a well-meaning admirer of history had misunderstood the building's architecture. After a 2009 restoration that replaced the mullioned windows with plate glass, the AIA Guide said the building was back to its Corinthian-columned cast-iron front.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
Further reading
- "Cast Iron Grandeur" -- Nos. 47-49 Worth StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
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