79 White Street

also 81 White Street | Civic Center | built 1915

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

  1. 1861

    August 23

    The Union Army sets up a mustering office at 79 White Street

    Soon after the Civil War began, the five-story loft that Thomas & Sons designed for dry goods importer Solomon Kohnstamm was taken over for military use before it was officially finished in 1862. On August 23, 1861 the New York Times told regimental commanders to report to the mustering office here. In January 1862 the building also served as a temporary barracks, housing 1,046 men of the New Hampshire Seventh Regiment.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1862

    Recruits get their bounty and returned prisoners are paid at the White Street office

    The War Department used the building through 1862 as an office of record and a temporary shelter for men arriving in the city. In June, about 1,400 New York soldiers released from Confederate prisons were mustered here for back pay. In July the mustering office announced it would pay each new recruit a $28 part-bounty on the spot, hoping to speed up slow enlistments. The army left in 1864 and the building went to dry goods and clothing firms.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1888

    January 2

    A bookbinding fire guts 81 White Street and damages its neighbors

    Charles C. Haight had designed No. 81 in 1881 for the Hopkins estate, and the Caxton Bookbinding Co. was among its first tenants. At about 7:30 on the evening of January 2, 1888 a fire climbed the elevator shaft and reached the bindery's cloth, paste and chemicals. The Times reported No. 81 gutted and Nos. 79, 83 and 85 badly damaged. The heat blew out windows on Walker Street, and Caxton lost $35,000 in stock and machinery. Haight was hired to repair the building.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1906

    Raven Gloss Manufacturing sells white shoe polish from 81 White Street

    In 1906 Louise D. Hopkins leased No. 81 to the Raven Gloss Manufacturing Company, makers of Button's Raven Gloss shoe dressing. That year the firm introduced Cadet White, a polish for the fashionable white canvas shoes. The Boot and Shoe Recorder reported on August 29, 1906 that daily shipments of it left the White Street factory in enormous numbers.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1919

    January

    A brass and copper firm buys 81 White Street and joins it to No. 79

    In January 1919 the U. T. Hungerford Brass and Copper Co., headquartered in the 17-story building facing Lafayette Street, bought No. 81 for warehouse use. Architect William E. Austin opened passages through the walls, linking the upper floors of Nos. 79 and 81 inside, and the firm bought No. 79 in 1921. Case Brass and Copper acquired the business in 1927 and stayed for decades. The two buildings have been connected ever since.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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