Townsend Building

49 Walker Street | Tribeca | built 1869

Open on the map5 entries

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

1. 1859

   Publishers W. R. C. Clark & Meeker release a history of New York from the older building here

   Before the iron building rose, 49 Walker Street held an older structure that housed publishers. In 1859 W. R. C. Clark & Meeker worked there and brought out The History of the City of New York. Two other publishers, Doolady's and M. Gauntt, and a book jobber named David Davidson shared the premises.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

2. 1869

   Silk merchant Richard Townsend builds a Second Empire cast-iron loft at 49 Walker Street

   Richard H. L. Townsend, a silk merchant from Astoria, commissioned architect Isaac F. Duckworth, with John Sidman as builder, to replace an older masonry building. The five-story front is only 23 feet wide and uses Composite pilasters and curved-corner windows in the Second Empire manner. A finial tops the cornice, which carries the words "Erected 1869" and fixes the date.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

3. 1888

   April 26

   Suspender makers suspect firefighters of stealing stock during a fire here

   A fire broke out on the night of April 26, 1888, and was put out fast with little damage. Even so, the Morris Brothers suspender factory said goods vanished during the blaze. Abram Morris was sure a member of the Fire Department took them, since no outsiders were inside. The brothers called their loss small but resented having to watch the people paid to protect their property.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

4. 1916

   March

   Surveyors find that the building at 49 Walker Street stands eight inches onto its neighbor's lot

   In March 1916 Daniel P. Morse tried to buy 49 Walker Street, and title work showed that eight inches of the building sat on the lot of No. 47 next door. The two had gone up at the same time in the late 1860s. The estate of George Bell, which owned No. 47, sold the sliver to Morse for roughly $2,500.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

5. 1928

   July 23

   Irish World publisher Austin Ford dies at his desk in the third-floor offices

   The Irish World, founded in 1870 by Patrick Ford, who had come from Ireland in 1847 and worked for Irish freedom, had its editorial offices on the third floor here by 1921, with printing above. On July 23, 1928, editor Francis P. Jones found Ford's son and successor, Austin J. Ford, asleep, as he thought, at his desk. Ford, 58, had died, apparently of a heart attack, according to The New York Times.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

• Isaac Duckworth's 1869 Cast iron 49 Walker StreetDaytonian in Manhattan

Nearby

• Pottier Building47 Walker Street | 5 entries
• 51 Walker Street3 entries
• 45 Walker Street3 entries
• Artists Space55 Walker Street | 3 entries
• 54 White Street2 entries
• David Lewis Gallery57 Walker Street | 1 entry

All 564 buildings with stories in Tribeca