Campe Building

85 Franklin Street | Tribeca | built 1862

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. 1862

    John Mack completes a five-story marble loft at 85 Franklin Street and opens a revenue office there

    John Mack, a manufacturer and wholesaler of ruches, began the 24-foot-wide building in 1860 and finished it in 1862, using part of it for his firm and renting out the rest. Soon after, he was named a Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and his office there was open daily. A New York Times notice told distillers, brewers and coal oil distillers in his district to apply to the Collector for forms and record books.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1863

    August 23

    Drafted men can buy out of Civil War service by paying $300 at Mack's office on Franklin Street

    After Congress passed the Conscription Act in 1863, a drafted man could avoid service by paying a fee or hiring a substitute. On August 23, 1863, the New York Times announced that drafted men in the Fourth District who preferred to pay the $300 commutation fee could do so at John Mack's office at 85 Franklin Street.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1903

    December 17

    Basement fire at 85 Franklin Street leaves a battalion chief and two firemen cut by falling glass

    A basement fire broke out here on December 17, 1903. To keep the flames from the adjoining buildings, full of valuable and flammable goods, firemen ran hoses through neighboring windows. Two big windows broke and fell onto Battalion Chief Thomas Larkin and his men, cutting the chief's scalp and the hands of two firemen. Damage to the building was put at $10,000.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1935

    Campe Corporation has Thomas W. Lamb cut the building to two stories and give it a Moderne front

    The Campe Corporation owned the building in 1935 when architect Thomas White Lamb remade it. The top three stories were removed, and the front was rebuilt in the Moderne style using glass, cast stone and metal. The Landmarks Preservation Commission describes the result as a largely glass facade in three parts, capped by a geometric frieze.

    “In 1935 the upper three stories were removed and the facade was rebuilt of metal, cast stone, and glass in the Moderne style…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  5. 1946

    August 26

    National Cancer Foundation sets up headquarters at 85 Franklin Street

    Shortly after the Campe Corporation moved uptown, the newly formed National Cancer Foundation opened its headquarters here, according to the New York Sun on August 26, 1946. Spokesman Jay Pearlmutter said the group would lobby for government aid in the fight against cancer. Its first project was to be the Hope Institute, a private-room hospital for patients in the last stages of the disease.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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All 564 buildings with stories in Tribeca