Minot, Hooper & Co. Building

51 Leonard Street | also 53 Leonard Street | Tribeca | built 1882

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

  1. 1882

    J. Morgan Slade remodels the 1867 Minot, Hooper & Co. store with neo-Grec details

    Dry goods firm Minot, Hooper & Co. had built its store at 51-53 Leonard Street in 1867. It hired Jarvis Morgan Slade, who was also designing a new corner store at No. 45, to remodel it, and the work was completed in the fall of 1882. Slade kept the Italianate look and added neo-Grec incised decoration to the sandstone piers. Five floors rise above the cast iron storefront, and the upper floors survive intact.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1882

    September 2

    The Record & Guide credits Nathan Hobart with solving plumbing and ventilation problems at the building

    After the 1882 remodeling, the Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide singled out Nathan Hobart, head of Minot, Hooper & Co., for gratitude on September 2. It said he had solved the vexed problems of plumbing and ventilation in a business building, at great expense, so other builders could profit from his experience. In November the firm advertised offices here, with a top floor reached by Otis elevator in about twenty seconds.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1908

    June

    A linen supplier here furnishes a new Fall River Line steamer

    J. A. Ludlow, a linens manufacturer in the building at the turn of the century, won a sizable contract in 1907 to equip the new Fall River Line steamer Commonwealth. It supplied the tablecloths, napkins, sheets, pillow slips, bedspreads and towels. The table damask carried patterns designed just for the ship and reserved for the New England Navigation Company. Trade papers described the job in mid-1908.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1933

    October 31

    William Jay Schieffelin addresses textile workers here during the LaGuardia mayoral campaign

    In the Depression years the Downtown Textile Workers Committee, an industry political group, met at 51-53 Leonard Street. On October 31, 1933, members listened to Dr. William Jay Schieffelin, who chaired the Committee of One Thousand, speak. According to the New York Sun, he said the campaign's central question was whether a political machine would govern the city, and said the people backed Fiorello LaGuardia's candidacy.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 2002

    The upper floors become apartments, including a triplex on the old top floor

    Tribeca's loft revival reached 51-53 Leonard Street slowly. In April 1993 the building still housed a fabric seller, Friedman & Distillator, whose customers were mostly lampshade makers. Residential conversion of the upper floors came in 2002, and the top floor became part of a 3,287-square-foot triplex. Travelzoo publisher Holger Bartel sold that apartment in February 2018 for $8.9 million.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

Nearby

All 564 buildings with stories in Tribeca