Silk Exchange Building (Haggin Building)

487 Broadway | also 449 Broome Street, 451 Broome Street, 60 Mercer Street | SoHo | built 1896

Open on the map4 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. 1896

    April 25

    John T. Williams completes a 12-story, 29-bay office building for himself on Broome Street

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    John T. Williams was both owner and architect of the building at the corner of Broadway, Broome and Mercer Streets, started in March 1895 and finished in April 1896. It rises twelve stories, with three bays on Broadway and twenty-nine along Broome Street. The district report calls it an extravaganza of stone, brick, terra cotta and iron, with florid Baroque terra-cotta ornament on the top three floors.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1899

    Western millionaire James B. Haggin buys the new building for $850,000

    Williams put the building up for sale in 1899 after several buyers negotiated for it. James B. Haggin, whom the New York Times called the Western millionaire, won it for $850,000. The Evening Post ranked the deal among the best made in a long while. The loft tower had filled quickly with silk firms, which earned it the name Silk Exchange Building.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1912

    July 8

    The Silk Association of America weighs leaving its Silk Exchange Building headquarters

    Early tenants included Cheney Brothers, the Phoenix Silk Manufacturing Company and Belding Brothers. By 1912 the silk district was moving uptown, and rumors spread that the Silk Association of America might leave its headquarters here. Its members met on July 8 to gauge opinion among downtown firms. Before long, no silk merchants were left in the building, and later tenants included a clock maker, a trade magazine and an Italian bank.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1985

    The building, now called the Haggin Building, becomes 25 artists' live-work lofts

    After SoHo fell into grime and neglect in the 1960s and 1970s, the old silk-trade tower was converted in 1985 into 25 residential units. The Department of Buildings described them as joint living-work quarters for artists. The silk dealers who once filled the building are long gone.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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All 736 buildings with stories in SoHo