Fries Bros. Building

92 Reade Street | Tribeca | built 1878

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. 1878

    August

    A wooden pre-Civil War house at 92 Reade is cleared for a marble store building

    As late as 1876 a frame house stood at 92 Reade Street, a leftover from the days when the block was residential, with a small brick shop in the rear yard. After it changed hands several times in two years, William Zschwetske took title in August 1878, cleared the lot and hired architect John B. McIntyre. This was an earlier building on the site.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1878

    September

    John B. McIntyre designs a five-story white marble loft and store building for 92 Reade

    Plans were filed in the first week of September 1878, and the building cost $15,000. Four floors of white marble rose above a cast iron storefront, with Second Empire pediments over the second-floor windows. Because the lot was only 25 feet wide, McIntyre added a side panel to the loft entrance that opened to turn the door into a wide service entrance for large items.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1881

    January 3

    Charles Fries of the flavor and chemical firm Alexander Fries & Brothers buys 92 Reade Street

    Charles Fries, born in Bavaria in 1831, paid $32,500 for the building. He had co-founded the chemical manufacturing firm Alexander Fries & Brothers after arriving in New York in 1849. The company made scented oils and artificial food flavorings, and its fruit essences and oleo-margarine were praised at the 1876 International Exhibition. Fries also rented parts of the building to other businesses.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1885

    June 28

    Shoe-store partner Otto Fridberg leaves home and is later found dead in Cape May

    Otto Fridberg bought into the ground-floor shoe business, Fridberg & Adler, so he could stay close to his family. After his wife died in 1884 he grew consumed with caring for his two small children and neglected the store. On June 28, 1885 he left his brother-in-law's house and never returned. The Times reported on July 12 that he was found dead from escaping gas at a Cape May hotel.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1982

    November

    A Staten Island high school senior's mural is painted on the side of 92 Reade Street

    Fran Peduzzi of Port Richmond High School won the 1982 Paint a Bright Future for New York contest, run by the Hudson-Shatz Painting Company; she was one of 200 finalists from city high schools. Her winning design was applied to the building's east wall that November. The same year the upper floors were converted to apartments, one per floor, as Tribeca turned from factories to galleries and restaurants.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

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All 564 buildings with stories in Tribeca