Annin Building

85 5th Avenue | also 1 East 16th Street | Union Square | built 1901

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. 1854

    March 3

    Captain William A. Spencer dies, leaving the corner mansion he built to his son

    Captain William Augustus Spencer, a Navy veteran, bought two lots on the Fifth Avenue frontage at 16th Street, the northeast corner, for $21,500 and built a three-story Italianate mansion, a home he shared with his second wife, Catherine Lorillard. He died on March 3, 1854, and title passed to his son Lorillard Spencer. The house stood until it was demolished in 1898, on the site later covered by the Annin Building.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1888

    January

    Levi P. Morton leases the Spencer mansion at 85 Fifth Avenue just before becoming Vice President

    After Lorillard Spencer died in January 1888, his Italianate mansion at Fifth Avenue and 16th Street was leased almost at once to the banker and politician Levi Parsons Morton. Morton became Vice President of the United States in March 1889, and the Mortons occupied the house through 1894. The mansion stood on the site of the Annin Building.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1893

    A caretaker's family sets off a street commotion at the Morton house at 85 Fifth Avenue

    In April 1893 the Mortons were away, and the caretaker's family had moved into the house and gained access to the wine cellar. Passers-by near 16th Street heard cries of murder from the conservatory, but the police officer who came found no sign of violence. Then the caretaker's brother pulled a large knife on a bystander and ended up slashing his own cheek. The house stood on the site of the Annin Building.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1901

    Louis Korn's loft building for Leo Wise replaces Levi P. Morton's house, and a plaque remembers Morton

    Read more

    Architect Louis Korn designed this loft building for owner Leo Wise in 1899, on the site of Levi Parsons Morton's four-story stone-fronted house, which had a two-story stable behind it. Morton's career took in Congress, the post of minister to France and the vice presidency (1889-93), and he ended it as New York's governor (1895-97). On the Fifth Avenue front, a plaque near the south end commemorates his residence at this address.

    “A plaque at the south end of the Fifth Avenue facade commemorates his achievements and residency at 85 Fifth Avenue.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  5. 1906

    Publisher Houghton Mifflin is listed as a tenant of the Annin Building

    The building of 1900-01 began with ten stories, and later additions brought it to thirteen. Publisher Houghton Mifflin was listed as a tenant in 1906, along with costumers, cloak and suit merchants, neckwear dealers and book stores such as Milton Bradley. The name Annin comes from Annin & Co., who owned the building in the 1920s.

    “Tenants included noted publisher Houghton Mifflin, listed in 1906. The building received its name from Annin & Co., owners in the 1920s.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby

All 28 buildings with stories in Union Square