Albert Wagner Building

84 Wooster Street | also 134 Spring Street, 88 Wooster Street | SoHo | built 1896

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. 1895

    January 19

    Albert Wagner files plans for a $150,000 loft with growling terra-cotta lions

    Architect and developer Albert Wagner bought the old buildings at 134-136 Spring and 84-88 Wooster in October 1894 and filed plans on January 19, 1895. His Renaissance Revival design had huge arches, oak-leaf terra cotta, and lion heads below the sixth-floor cornice. The New York Times noted it was rented months before completion, though Wagner sold it before it was finished in 1896.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1909

    November 23

    Workers here are among the first out in the 40,000-strong shirtwaist makers' strike

    In January 1909 plans were filed to add a sprinkler system, two years before the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. Conditions in the shops were still harsh, and on November 23 the union ordered a general strike of 40,000 shirtwaist makers. Among the first to walk out were the 200 workers of Joseph Rosenberg & Co., a firm in the Spring Street building.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1912

    April 27

    A purse-snatcher's story that he was just helping a dropped bag gets laughed out of court

    Gertrude Huberman was carrying about $319 for Joseph Rosenberg & Co. when Henry Kirschner grabbed her package near Broadway and 12th Street. A passing delivery driver, James Clinton, beat him up. Kirschner said he was only trying to be a gentleman after she dropped the bag. Magistrate Barlow laughed at the story and held him without bail for the grand jury.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1916

    August 14

    A runaway elevator kills a new operator on his first day in the loft

    After a 1916 renovation, veteran operator Joseph Rossi began training a new elevator operator on August 14. The novice shoved the lever so far that the cable flew off the drum and the car shot upward. Rossi leaped out at the fifth floor, but the trainee was caught between the car and the wall and died. About 200 workers in a waist factory ran for the exits, thinking there was a fire.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1980

    Persicol Gallery and the art-book dealer Jaap Rietman move into the former garment loft

    As SoHo turned from garment lofts to art, the Persicol Gallery opened in the building in 1980. A store called Downtown, selling vintage American furniture of the 1930s, followed at street level, and later in the decade the art-book specialist Jaap Rietman opened here. Architect Shael Shapiro later restored the deteriorated sheet-metal cornice at a cost of about $750,000.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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