55 Crosby Street (former New York Edison powerhouse)

55 Crosby Street | SoHo | built 1906

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.

1906
New York Edison builds a powerhouse at 55 Crosby Street, replacing a nineteenth-century brick building
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The New York Edison Company designed and built this Beaux-Arts power plant itself in 1905-06, in tandem with another Edison plant directly behind it on Lafayette Street. It took the place of an older brick building. Edison's successor, Con Edison, kept the property until 1971.
“…designed and built in 1905 by the New York Edison Co. at a time when many of SoHo's remaining small houses…”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1971
Artists and galleries, including Frank Gehry and Leo Castelli, take over the old powerhouse at 55 Crosby Street
After Con Edison gave up the building in 1971 it became loft space, and a run of artists and galleries moved in. Among the occupants the Landmarks Preservation Commission lists are Frank Gehry, the Leo Castelli Gallery, the Joni Weyl Gallery and a gallery named for the address itself. It was later converted to joint living and working quarters.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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