5 Chatham Square

also 8 Mott Street | Chinatown | built 1913

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.

1883
Grocer Wo Kee buys 8 Mott Street in one of the first documented Chinese property purchases
In 1883 the grocer Wo Kee paid $8,500 for 8 Mott Street, on the lot now part of 5 Chatham Square, among the first documented real-estate purchases by Chinese buyers on lower Mott Street. Tom Lee bought number 16 for $15,000 that year, and merchants bought 10 and 12. The deals stood out because Irish leaders of Transfiguration Church had rented a row of townhouses from Pell to Park Street to keep Chinese residents out.
Source: National Register nomination
1904
Tattoo pioneer Samuel O'Reilly moves out of his first shop at 5 Chatham Square
On December 8, 1891, Samuel O'Reilly received the patent for the first electric tattoo machine. His first shop stood at 5 Chatham Square on the Bowery, in a building that preceded today's on this lot. In 1904 he relocated to number 11 after Elmer Getchell, a tattoo artist who had rented it, left the city.
Source: Wikipedia

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