H. H. Upham & Co. Building
508 LaGuardia Place | Greenwich Village | built 1891
Open on the map3 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.
- 1891
H. H. Upham & Co., sign makers, leave Canal Street for a new office, showroom and factory building
Henry H. Upham went into sign making in 1858 and became sole owner in 1870; by 1880 his firm employed up to 49 painters and craftsmen. In 1890 it decided to move out of its old offices at 250 Canal Street into a larger building combining offices, showrooms and a factory. Architects Brunner & Tryon designed it at 54 South Fifth Avenue, later numbered 508 LaGuardia Place, and it was completed in 1891.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1891
Brunner & Tryon design a Romanesque Revival loft with bronze cartouches reading Founded 1858 and Erected 1891
The five-story store-and-loft building is faced in iron-spot Roman brick with terra-cotta and brownstone trim. Its middle stories sit under one monumental round-arched bay, and the top floor has an arcade of round-arched windows. Bronze cartouches below the cornice are inscribed with the dates 1858 and 1891, marking the sign firm's founding and the building's completion.
- 1959
H. H. Upham & Co. makes signs at the address until the end of the 1950s, under the Haber family
Once Upham died, Louis Haber took over as the firm's president, treasurer and director, and his sons Ferdinand and Harold joined him, Harold as secretary. Signs were still being made at this address through the end of the 1950s. Afterward the building served various commercial and warehouse tenants until a conversion to apartments decades later.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
Further reading
- The 1891 H. H. Upham & Co. Building -- No. 508 LaGuardia PlaceDaytonian in Manhattan
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