Astor Building

583 Broadway | also 158 Mercer Street | SoHo | built 1897

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

  1. 1848

    John Jacob Astor dies in his house at 583 Broadway, an earlier building on the site

    In 1848 Broadway between Prince and Houston streets was still lined with Federal-style homes, and No. 583 was the home of John Jacob Astor, then the wealthiest man in the United States. Astor died there at 84, leaving an estate of about $20 million. His will left four houses on this stretch of Broadway, Nos. 579, 581, 583 and 587, to his granddaughters. Those houses are gone; this was an earlier building on the site.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1897

    Weil & Mayer replace older buildings with the twelve-story Astor Building

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    In 1896 the real estate firm Weil & Mayer, which owned Nos. 583 through 587, tore down the existing buildings and hired Cleverdon & Putzel to design a store and loft building. Finished in 1897, the twelve-story result was named the Astor Building in a nod to the site's earlier owner. Its front combines buff brick, terra cotta, cast iron and stone, with double-height fluted Corinthian columns above the ground floor. Hat and clothing manufacturers soon filled it.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1958

    April 21

    Women collapse in the basement of 583 Broadway a month after a deadly garment-loft fire nearby

    A month after a fire at 623 Broadway killed 24 textile workers, women in the basement lingerie factory of the Ginsburg Manufacturing Company began collapsing at their sewing machines on April 21. Fourteen women and one man went to hospitals. Carbon monoxide from a defective boiler was blamed, though a doctor thought many were victims of autosuggestion. The Fire Department later barred about 400 garment workers from the building, judging ten of its twelve floors fire hazards.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1983

    The New Museum moves into the first floors of the Astor Building

    Marcia Tucker founded the New Museum in 1977, and it started out in the New School's graduate center at 65 Fifth Avenue. In 1983 it rented the bottom two and one-half stories of the Astor Building at 583 Broadway. It eventually moved to a purpose-built home at 235 Bowery, which opened on December 1, 2007.

    Source: Wikipedia

Nearby

All 736 buildings with stories in SoHo