830 Broadway Building

830 Broadway | also 832 Broadway | Greenwich Village | built 1896

Open on the map7 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. 1847

    Merchant Richard Smith Clark builds a large town house on the site of 830 Broadway

    In 1847 the prosperous merchant Richard Smith Clark built a large house for his family at 830 Broadway, part of a fashionable residential district then spreading toward Union Square. The Clark family still owned the property in 1868, when it was advertised as a prime spot for any first-class business, and for the next three decades it housed small firms, many of them in the garment trade. This was an earlier building on the site.

    “Richard Smith Clark, a prosperous merchant, who built a large town house for himself and his family in 1847 at 830 Broadway…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1897

    Builder Ferdinand Mela, a German-born fireproofing inventor, buys the Clark house and files plans for 830 Broadway

    Ferdinand H. Mela, born in Germany in 1854 and brought to New York as an infant, started in the stove and plumbing trades and became a builder of fireproof loft buildings around Houston Street. He founded a company to make his patented fireproof partitions. For 830 Broadway he bought the old Clark house and filed plans with Cleverdon & Putzel, the architects he often worked with, for an 11-story store-and-loft building put up in 1897-98.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1898

    January 1

    A trade paper predicts builders will copy the stairs and elevators of Mela's new 830 Broadway

    The Real Estate Record and Guide reported on January 1, 1898, that builder F. H. Mela had just finished an 11-story mercantile building at 830 Broadway with features likely to be imitated, particularly how its stairs and elevators were arranged. Mela reported strong demand for lofts, and more than half of the new building was already rented.

    Source: Village Preservation

  4. 1898

    Garment firms fill 830 Broadway as soon as it opens, including a wholesaler that moved up from Tribeca

    More than half of the lofts at 830 Broadway were leased by the time it was finished in 1898. Hammerslough Bros., a men's and boys' clothing wholesaler and retailer founded in 1865, had moved up from Tribeca, SoHo and NoHo. Other early tenants made women's tea gowns, neckwear, children's coats, men's vests and furs.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  5. 1950

    Publishers of Catholic books, pulp fiction and comics rent lofts at 830 Broadway in the 1940s and 1950s

    By the 1940s and 1950s the tenant roster included toy makers and publishers. Sheed & Ward, a publisher of Catholic authors, was here, as was Padell Book and Magazine Company, a distributor of pulp fiction and comic books that also published joke and foreign-language books. Willey Book Co. sold remainders, overstocks and unbound books.

    “…publishers and distributors like Sheed & Ward, publishers of Catholic authors; Padell Book and Magazine Company, distributors of pulp fiction and comic books…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  6. 1980

    Artists, musicians and record producers fill 830 Broadway, and the building becomes a co-op in 1980

    After World War II the building's manufacturers were replaced by young artists and musicians drawn by large, cheap lofts. Zoning allowed only work or studio use then, so many lived there illegally while artists fought for the right to live in their lofts. The building attracted photographers, musicians, record producers and artists, and in 1980 it became a residential cooperative with commercial ground floor space.

    “830 Broadway attracted photographers, musicians, record producers, and artists many of whom continue to reside in the building…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  7. 2019

    June 11

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates 830 Broadway as one of seven Broadway buildings

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission put 830 Broadway on its calendar on September 25, 2018, one of seven Broadway buildings grouped together for their individual merit. At the hearing on December 4, 2018, twelve people spoke in favor and none opposed. The commission designated the 11-story Renaissance Revival loft building an individual landmark on June 11, 2019.

    “…calendared on September 25, 2018 as part of a cluster of seven buildings on Broadway…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby

All 518 buildings with stories in Greenwich Village