589 Broadway

SoHo | built 1900

Open on the map4 entries

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

1. 1851

   Locksmiths Day & Newell of 589 Broadway win a transatlantic lock-picking challenge

   The locksmiths Day & Newell worked from the ground floor of 589 Broadway. In 1845 the firm advertised its bank lock as invulnerable and offered $500 to any rival who could do better. London's Bramah & Chubb accepted in 1851. The firm's W. Fisher Hobbs went to England and picked the Bramah lock within thirty days, while the best lock-picker in Britain gave up on the Day & Newell lock after a month.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

2. 1853

   Daguerreotypist Rufus Anson runs a portrait studio at 589 Broadway

   By 1853 directories listed Rufus Anson, a maker of daguerreotype portraits, at 589 Broadway, sharing the address with the locksmiths. A newspaper advertisement that September offered hand-colored portraits in velvet-lined morocco cases for fifty cents. Anson stayed into the Civil War years, and by 1860 his popular studio needed a staff of 15 camera operators.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

3. 1869

   E. Butterick & Co. publishes its fashion plates from 589 Broadway

   Ebenezer Butterick introduced graded sewing patterns in 1863 and was making women's dress patterns by 1866. In 1867 his company issued the first Ladies Quarterly of Broadway Fashions, and by 1869 E. Butterick & Co. was operating from 589 Broadway. By 1876 it ran branch offices across the United States and Canada, 100 of them, and had added menswear and uniforms.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

4. 1975

   Gunmakers Griffin & Howe move into the fourth floor of 589 Broadway

   Griffin & Howe, a gunmaker founded in 1927 that had been taken over by Abercrombie & Fitch and was independent again, moved into 589 Broadway in 1975. It manufactured guns and sold them from its fourth-floor space. SoHo's revival pushed rents up, and in 1986 the company moved to New Jersey.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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