Catharine Lorillard Wolfe's 121 Spring Street

90 Greene Street | also 121 Spring Street | SoHo | built 1878

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Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1878

    November 30

    Heiress Catharine Lorillard Wolfe has John B. Snook build a store and loft on Spring Street

    Wolfe inherited about $12 million when her father died in 1872. She was a major philanthropist who also developed real estate. In 1878 she bought the old houses at this corner and hired architect John B. Snook. Ground was broken on May 22, and the red-brick and sandstone building, with a Corinthian corner column, was finished on November 30.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1879

    February 23

    A thief pleads guilty to stealing 95 dozen hat bodies from the Corn & Co. hat factory

    The new building filled with hat makers during SoHo's millinery boom. Julius Corn's firm, Corn & Co., had the ground floor and one upper floor. The New York Herald reported on February 23, 1879, that George Cautine had pleaded guilty to stealing ninety-five dozen hat bodies, and a hat dealer on Avenue A was charged with receiving the stolen goods.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1887

    April 4

    Catharine Lorillard Wolfe dies and leaves the building to her sister

    Catharine Lorillard Wolfe died on April 4, 1887, leaving 121 Spring Street to her sister, Dorothea Wolfe Hoffman. Dorothea's main tenant in 1888 was Johnson, Cowdin & Co., silk ribbon makers with a mill in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. In 1900 the firm brought home a gold medal, three silver and four bronze from the Paris Exposition.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1983

    The Sonnabend Art Gallery takes the store space, and the lofts become artists' live-work spaces

    By the 1980s SoHo had become an art district. The Sonnabend Art Gallery took over the store space in 1983, and two years later the upper lofts were converted into living and working quarters for artists. The Rosa Esman Gallery opened here in 1984, and in 1996 the artist lofts became condominiums, one per floor.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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