832-834 Broadway Building

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. 1896

    Two older brick buildings, one housing a snuff mill and a bindery, stand on the site of 832-834 Broadway

    Before 1896 the site held two brick commercial buildings, one of six stories and one of four. Both were classified as special hazards: the southern building held manufacturers of artificial hair and woolen mills, and the northern one held book binderies and snuff mills. A developer bought the property from Jacob Hirsch in 1896 to build a tall loft. This was an earlier building on the site.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1896

    Ralph Townsend decorates 832-834 Broadway with laurel wreaths, torches and stylized dolphins

    Ralph S. Townsend, who had a New York practice by 1881, designed 832-834 Broadway in a Renaissance Revival style with Greek and Roman motifs: laurel wreaths and torches along the crown, fruit-and-ribbon festoons, and dolphins on the pilasters of the fourth through sixth floors. Soon after finishing it he formed a short-lived firm with Herbert Harde, and in 1901 he formed Townsend, Steinle and Haskell, a firm known for elaborate Upper West Side apartment houses such as the Kenilworth.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1896

    Abraham Bohem and Lewis Coon buy the lot and put up 832-834 Broadway, and cloakmakers move in by 1899

    In 1896 Abraham Bohem and Lewis Coon, who owned the Commercial Realty Improvement Corporation, purchased the lot from Jacob Hirsch and built a tall loft with a steel skeleton, which allowed thinner walls and larger windows. Its 50-foot Broadway front suited garment makers moving north from lower Manhattan. The cloak makers Bauman and Sperling moved in during 1899, and garment firms such as Six Little Tailors and Joseph Skolny and Company stayed into the 1920s.

    “832-834 Broadway was constructed in 1896 when Abraham Bohem and Lewis Coon, the owners of the Commercial Realty Improvement Corporation, bought the property from Jacob Hirsch.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 1909

    Shirtwaist strikers picket a factory at 832 Broadway

    In 1909 and 1910 nearly 20,000 workers struck the city's shirtwaist factories, affecting about 500 companies. Sixty to 70 factories saw pickets for weeks, and one of them stood at 832 Broadway. By early 1910 most owners had accepted raises, a 52-hour week and union-only shops.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  5. 1940

    Communist Party publishers move into 832-834 Broadway, starting with Worker's Library Publishers in 1940

    In 1940 Worker's Library Publishers, owned by the Communist Party USA, became a tenant of 832-834 Broadway, around the corner from the party's headquarters at 35 East 12th Street. New Century Publishers replaced it around 1945 and Mass and Mainstream followed in 1950. They turned out leaflets and pamphlets, and these publishers and a few others helped distribute some 10 million leaflets a year.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  6. 1966

    The last Communist Party publisher leaves 832-834 Broadway as the party shrinks and sells off its businesses

    As Communist Party membership fell, the party began liquidating its businesses, including Mass and Mainstream, the last of its publishing houses at 832-834 Broadway. The 1966 phone directory listed none of the party's businesses in the building. The party's headquarters had also left the blocks below Union Square, and its membership never recovered to the size of the 1930s and 1940s.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  7. 2012

    July 24

    Forbidden Planet moves its New York store into 832 Broadway

    The New York store of the Forbidden Planet chain relocated on July 24, 2012, to 832 Broadway, a few doors south, with 3,400 square feet of retail space. The shop had opened in 1981 at Broadway and East 12th Street and later crossed the street to a much smaller space at 840 Broadway.

    Source: Wikipedia

Nearby

All 518 buildings with stories in Greenwich Village