58 White Street

Tribeca | built 1868

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

  1. 1868

    Samuel and Abraham Wood's 58 White Street goes up after an architect's rejected plans lead to a lawsuit

    Real estate partners Samuel and Abraham Wood bought an old building at 58 White Street in 1866 to replace with a modern loft. A nephew later testified that plans by a Mr. Alexander, probably the architect Charles A. Alexander, were rejected and that Alexander sued the Woods; the accepted plans were by I. F. Duckworth, who used cast iron only for the Corinthian-columned storefront and white marble above. Abraham died intestate in 1868, and the family fought over his half in court until Samuel paid his estate $30,000 in 1879.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1879

    October 15

    Bookkeeper E. Haight at Thorne, Carroll & Co. wins half of a $10,000 lottery prize

    E. Haight, bookkeeper for the hosiery and glove jobbers Thorne, Carroll & Co., spent $2 on two Louisiana State Lottery tickets at a Broadway shop on his way to work in October 1879. When the numbers were telegraphed from Louisiana on October 15, he held half of the $10,000 second prize. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle found him at the White Street store, smiling among open boxes; though a bachelor, he planned to put the money to sensible use.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1884

    September 15

    Fourteen-year-old messenger Charles Gillen is killed in an elevator fall at 58 White Street

    By 1884 the building had an elevator, an improvement over the open hoist shafts, but nineteenth-century elevators lacked the safety features the law now requires. On September 15 Charles Gillen, a 14-year-old messenger for the Brighton Cloak and Suit Company, which occupied several floors, plunged down the elevator shaft to the floor below. The Evening Post reported that he was killed instantly.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1885

    January 11

    A subcellar fire brings a third alarm at the Brighton Cloak and Suit Company at 58 White Street

    A fire began in the subcellar of the six-story building on January 11, 1885. The Brighton Cloak and Suit Company, led by Morris Finn, kept goods there, and the smoke alarmed the foreman of Hook and Ladder Company No. 8, who called a third alarm. Firefighters held the blaze to the cellar and basement, but stock worth $5,000 to $6,000 was damaged. A Grand Street store soon advertised the fire-saved cloaks at a quarter of their value, and the company left in 1886.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 2015

    The Jane Lombard Gallery opens on the ground floor of 58 White Street

    The Abraham Ellis Foundation had offices in the building by the 1960s, as Tribeca turned from textiles to the arts. The Jane Lombard Gallery took the ground-floor space around 2015. Each upper floor, where workers once stitched garments, now holds a single large apartment.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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