78 Reade Street

also 177 Church Street, 82 Reade Street | Tribeca | built 1930

Open on the map5 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1858

    March 18

    Two women who ran a so-called panel crib at 78 Reade Street are arrested for robbing a customer

    Before the current building went up, the lots at Nos. 74 through 78 held old houses that had slipped in reputation. The New York Times reported on March 19, 1858 that Mary Graham and Louisa Smith were arrested for stealing a gold watch from Michael Fee at what it called a noted panel crib. The term meant a brothel with sliding secret panels, through which accomplices could enter the rooms and rob customers. This was an earlier building on the site.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1860

    George Bradshaw has James H. Giles replace old houses with an Italianate loft building at 78 Reade

    In 1859 George Bradshaw leased the properties at Nos. 74 to 78 Reade Street from Trinity Church and hired architect James H. Giles to replace the low houses. The five-story Italianate stores, finished in 1860, were identical, with cast iron fronts from the Architectural Iron Works. No. 78 was made L-shaped by adding a leased Church Street lot, owned by St. George's Episcopal Church, which gave it a side entrance there.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1901

    June

    A Faber pencil company bookkeeper vanishes from 78 Reade with about $30,000 and is caught in Buenos Aires

    A. W. Faber & Co., the pencil maker, was a tenant by about 1900. In June 1901 its confidential bookkeeper, William Hoeppner, stopped coming to work, and a cancelled check showed he had raised amounts, such as $347 to $847. His wife and children left for South America, and Argentine police found him in Buenos Aires in September, after Brazilian police tracked the family by telegraph. Detectives set out in October to bring him back.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1913

    February

    Sonora Phonograph Company leases space at 78 Reade Street

    George Brightson's firm had made chime clocks at 5 Cedar Street until Seth Thomas bought the rights to its movement in 1908. He reincorporated the business as the Sonora Phonograph Company in February 1913 and took space at 78 Reade Street that same month. According to Daytonian in Manhattan, the firm stayed for years and grew into a major phonograph maker, producing many models in the building.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1917

    July 21

    A drug-sundries merchant at 80-82 Reade slips a plea to a child after his son has him committed

    At the corner building, Nos. 80-82, Robert J. Pierce ran a drug-sundries firm until his son Clifford took control and had him declared insane. Repeatedly committed, Pierce was held again in 1917 at Bloomingdale Hospital and passed a note to a child, asking that his lawyer seek a review. Four physicians testified he was sane and he was released, but the son had him sent to a Flushing sanitarium that August.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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