The 1893 Fulton Building -- No. 130 Fulton Street (87 Nassau)

A 2005 upper addition successfully ruined the proportions and appearance of the building -- photo by Alice Lum

In the last decades of the 19^thcentury the Nassau-Fulton Street area, the center of the Manhattan jewelry district, was undergoing extensive change.  Small commercial buildings were quickly giving way to impressive multistory structures as new construction technology allowed for taller buildings.  In 1888 the four-year old architectural firm of De Lemos & Cordes had designed the striking brick and terra cotta No. 90 Nassau Street at the corner of Fulton.   Three years later they would be back to design its neighbor across the street at No. 130 Fulton Street.

Theodore W. E. De Lemos and August W. Cordes had been busy in the interim, working on Nos. 27 and 29 Pine Street for Kuhn, Loeb & Company; the Eden Musee and Arion Hall.  Before long they would be well-known for their monumental department stores like Siegel-Cooper on 6^th Avenue’s Ladies’ Mile and Macy’s Herald Square.

Begun in 1891 and completed two years later, the Renaissance Revival-style Fulton Building gently wrapped the corner.  Four stories of rusticated limestone formed the substantial base.  Above, tan brick was richly decorated with terra cotta.  A balcony at the fourth floor followed the curved façade which required the added expense of custom-made bowed glass for the widows.

An ornate terra cotta cornice at the fourth floor provide the transition from limestone to brick -- photo by Alice Lum

The building filled quickly with a mix of legal offices and jewelry firms.  Among the first were lawyers Siefel & Lauer; Henry Muller, importer of diamonds; and attorney Julius Lipman.   Lipman’s office would be the scene of a near-riot in September 1893.

The attorney had been put in charge of an estate with property at Madison Avenue and 116^th Street and hired contractor Joseph Dunn to do some work.   When Dunn presented Lipman with a bill, the lawyer refused to pay the full amount, citing less-than-satisfactory work.  Without the full payment, Dunn was unable to pay his Italian workers.  When the immigrant laborers demanded their money, Dunn instructed them to take the matter up with Julius Lipman.

Around noon on September 13, 1893, scores of workers and their wives besieged the building.    In the pandemonium Lipman was able to convince a few of the crowd that he was not responsible for their wages; then he gave up.  “Then he became tired and left the task to the janitor,” reported The New York Times.  The newspaper said that “the janitor of the building had a hard task in convincing them,” but “he finally cleared the building.”

While jewelry firms like Mabie, Todd and Bard, sellers of pen cases and pencil point protectors, moved in in 1897, another  group of merchants was establishing itself in the area—rare stamp traders.   One of these was Walter S. Scott who had already opened his shop in the building.    Scott’s father ran a similar stamp shop just around the corner.

Among Walter Scott’s steady customers that year were two young teenagers, Henry Cunningham and Harry Chase—neither yet 15 years old but both very knowledgeable in rare stamps.   What the dealer did not realize was that the boys—whom The Sun labeled “precocious youngsters”—had more than stamp collecting on their minds.  They were adept thieves.

Cunningham and Chase would innocently walk into the stamp shops and ask to look at particularly-valuable stamps which were customarily displayed in books.  When the proprietor turned away, they would carefully remove the stamp and replace it with an ordinary stamp to hide the theft.   For a few months during the winter of 1893 they had been successfully executing their ploy, netting themselves between $300 and $400—about $10,000 today.  Ironically, they often unwittingly took stamps stolen from Scott around the corner to sell to his father.

After losing several valuable stamps, Scott narrowed his list of suspected perpetrators to the guiltless-looking lads.   He kept a watchful eye on them and when, in mid-February, he caught them in the act of switching stamps, he had them arrested.    Both boys came from respectable families, yet each was deemed “incorrigible” by Agent King of the Gerry Society who told the magistrate that “they were both thoroughly bad youngsters and were so clever for their years that they ought to be placed in a reformatory.”

The Sun reported that while sitting in court “Neither boy was the least abashed by his position.”

In 1898 The Independent Magazineset up its offices in the building and would stay for two decades.  The popular periodical was founded in 1848 and provided political and social insights.

The unscrupulous actions of one tenant in the Fulton Building nearly ended in tragedy in the fall of 1900.  Attorney Bonford Boniface lived with his mother at No. 144 East 58^th Street when he met the beautiful Adelle Cram of Greenfield, Massachusetts in Central Park.   The young woman, whose parents had both died, came to New York in October of that year to find work.  Boniface swept the girl off her feet and soon promised to marry her.  He simply forgot to mention his real name.

Adelle returned to Massachusetts to visit her aunt, telling her about her intended husband.  “He is William Bennett, a young lawyer, very handsome…We’re to be married October 24.”

The attractive Adelle Cram nearly came to an unfortunate end -- The Evening World November 10, 1900, (copyright expired)

Now trapped in his own deceit, Boniface tried to squirm out of his own trap.  He sent a letter to Adelle saying that he was to undergo an operation; “and then a friend wrote that he had died,” reported The Evening World.  It was too much for Adelle to bear.

She told her aunt she had to go to the funeral in New York and left.  But when she searched for the house on 58^th Street where he said he lived, there was no such address.   Her aunt, Mrs. Fuchs, received a letter from Adelle that read “I am writing this letter to you, dear aunt, sitting on the bench in Central Park where I was so often with him.  He is gone now.  When you receive this I will be dead, for I want to be with him.”

On the same day that Mrs. Fuchs received the letter the girl was found in room 488 of the Grand Union Hotel, overcome by gas.   Doctors at Bellevue Hospital, however, managed to revive her.   In the hospital she discovered that her fiancé was a fraud.  “He had,” reported the Evening World, “for several reasons, concealed his own name.”

Boniface “repented of his action afterward,” said the newspaper and as Adelle was being released from the hospital a mutual friend, Joseph Joachimson, was making arrangements for their wedding.   Adelle was apparently forgiving for the Evening World said “Miss Cram left the hospital in charge of Policeman Joyce, of the East Thirty-fifth street station.  She was well dressed, having on a new bonnet, silk dress and white automobile coat.  She walked leisurely up to First avenue and boarded a horse car, on her way to Yorkville Court.”

Before any wedding would take place Adelle had to face charges of attempted suicide.

Jewelry firms continued to rent space in the building, but by now the tenant list was more mixed.  The Guarantee Investment Company was here as were the attorney offices of J. P. Solomon and Oscar Aronson.   Architect R. L. Daus operated from the building for at least a decade and in 1906 Morgon Manufacturing Company had its headquarters here.  The firm produced “water faucet motors,” a clever device that attached to any faucet, using the water flow to power a small machine for polishing, grinding or sharpening.

During the early years of the 20^thcentury New York was plagued with Mafia-like groups like The Black Hand that extorted money from the wealthy--mostly Italian-Americans--with threats of violence that were often realized.   On August 5, 1908 Italian detective Gerardo Luisi organized “a new Italian society” in his offices here “to help in checking Black Hand outrages in the United States.”

Called the National Secret Service Information Bureau, the organization insisted on working independently of organized law enforcement.  “The new organization will do its work all alone.  It will not seek the aid of Commissioner Bingham’s Italian detectives.  It will have its own private detective system when trailing Black Hand suspects,” reported The New York Tribune.

There continued to be several legal firms in the building at the time, including Frank W. Jackson; German-born Frank von Briesen, a well-known patent attorney; and Milton Frank.  It was perhaps a good thing for the jewelry tenants because they were consistently finding themselves in legal trouble.

In July 1914 diamond dealers Herman J. Dietz and his son, Charles were indicted in a diamond smuggling plot which the Federal Grand Jury alleged involved bringing up to $1 million in gems across the Canadian border.  The pair reportedly traveled to Canada twice a month, rarely together, returning on night trains and secreting diamonds in their baggage.   The men also paid a Canadian named Wood $100 per trip to smuggle diamonds to their office.    By bypassing Customs the dealers saved 20 percent duty.

Another pair of diamond dealers in the building found themselves in hot water in 1918.  With World War I raging in Europe, brothers Paul, Max and Joseph Goldmuntz were indicted in February for conspiring to defraud the Government by smuggling diamonds into the country.   The brothers who had long been doing a successful business as Goldmunts Bros. were accused of having “secret agents who came from Antwerp, and from other territory held by the Germans.”

As if they were not in enough trouble, at the same time they also conspired with Oscar Kockeses, a jeweler on Maiden Lane who was on the road to bankruptcy.    When the brothers helped him to conceal assets from his creditors it landed them in the Atlanta Penitentiary in June of that year.

Abraham Stark did business from the 4th Floor when this photograph was taken in the 1920s -- NYPL Collection

Abraham Stark ran his jewelry shop on the fourth floor here in 1921 and he found an inexpensive way to get valuable jewelry.  He made a deal with Elwood Adams, a jewel thief.   Adams, also known as Cox, would be charged with jewel thefts totaling $50,000, at least $10,000 of which ended up in the showcases of Stark.

Some of the loot was snatched by Jean Cunningham, a maid in the home of Lawrence Craufourd at No. 125 East 56^thStreet.   The women managed to sneak out $5,000 in jewelry before being caught.   The maid talked, resulting in Adams’s arrest and his accompanying detectives to Stark’s shop in the Fulton Building where the stolen jewelry was found.

Among the jewelers who did not go to jail through the 1920s and ‘30s were diamond merchant Ely W. Harwood; H. M. Manheim & Co. who advertised a wide array of goods including “diamonds, watches, jewelry, silverware, ivory pyralin good, etc.;” Leopold Strasser and John Weiner.

In fact, Wiener, a diamond cutter, was the victim of theft when on May 15, 1920 a $5,000 necklace disappeared from his shop.  Two years later on June 3, 1922 a salesman from the firm of Barzilay & Der Linden appeared at Wiener’s door with jewelry offered for sale.  Among the items was Wiener’s own necklace.

Wiener seized the necklace, resulting in a larceny charge which he won in court.   Undaunted, Barzilay & Der Linden obtained another summons and Wiener was forced to re-appear in court.  He won that case too.

The Fulton Building continued to house stamp dealers, jewelry firms throughout the 20^th century.   Then, as the downtown area became as attractive for residential as for business purposes, the building was converted to coops under the direction of head architect Elliot Vilkas in 2005.  A nondescript four-story addition was plopped onto the roof that succeeded in destroying the proportions of the building and adding nothing other than 20 more income-producing apartments.

photo by Alice Lum

N.Y. County National Bank Building - 14th Street and 8th Avenue

On September 21, 1902 depositors in the New York County National Bank grew nervous.  The bank showed a deficit of $43,250 and its reserves were wiped out.

Bank president Francis L. Leland, however, refused to allow his bank to crash. Leland’s father, Francis Sr., had been president from 1857 until his death in 1885. The New York County National Bank was essentially a family business.

Extraordinary carved detail in the entranceway -- photo by Alice Lum

Within four years Leland’s bank had recovered so well that a new, imposing structure was planned for the southwest corner of 14th Street and 8th Avenue -- directly opposite of the classical white marble New York Savings Bank on the northwest corner.

The bank’s board selected the architectural firm of DeLemos & Cordes to design their new headquarters. The firm was responsible for the magnificent Siegel-Cooper Dry Goods Store and the Adams Dry Goods Store on 6th Avenue, and for the beautiful new Macy’s Department Store on 34th Street. Rudolph L. Daus, a graduate of the Paris Ecole des Beaux-Arts, was given the project.

photo NYPL Collection

Daus produced a limestone-clad neo-classical temple with Beaux-Arts touches. Enormous Corinthian columns support the majestic entranceway above a short flight of steps where a recessed arch rises the equivalent of three-stories. In the pediment above, a striking vigilant eagle in near full-relief cranes its neck beyond the cornice-line.

Four arched windows on the 14th Street side match the entrance.  Separated by Cornithian pilasters, each window arch incorporates classical pseudo-doorways where Daus included in the ornamentation caduceuses – so often associated with the medical profession – as a reference to Mercury, the god of commerce.

The two Roman temples, each commanding a corner of 14th Street and 8th Avenue, created an imposing composition; what the AIA Guide to New York City called “A rare occurrence for this city; a pair of classically inspired sentinels guarding the western corridor of 14th Street.”

Francis Leland died in 1916 and five years later the bank was taken over. The New York Times reported on November 8, 1921 “Louis G. Kaufman, President of the Chatham and Phoenix National Bank, announced yesterday that his institution has purchased control of the old New York County National Bank at Eighth Avenue and Fourteenth Street…” and that “the old New York County National Bank will not lose its identity wholly.”

photo Alice Lum

The bank did lose its identity wholly, however, in the 1930s when it was absorbed by Manufacturers Trust Co., later to be renamed Manufacturers Hanover Trust in the mid 1960s. The institution used the building until it merged with Chemical Bank in 1994. Afterwards the monumental building sat empty until it was briefly used as a theatre. Then, in 1999, Lee Harris of Hudson River Studios and John Reimnitz converted the space for Nickel, a men’s spa created by Philippe Dumont; and designed an addition for residential apartments.

Rudolph Daus’ impressive limestone bank was designed a New York City Landmark in 1988.

The 1900 Adams & Co. Building - 675 Sixth Avenue

http://www.flickr.com/photos/edenpictures/3709077714/

Samuel Adams had made a name for himself in Colorado before returning to New York City in the 1880s. There he not only owned a silver mine, but was elected to the State Senate.

Adams opened an important dry goods store at the north end of The Ladies Mile at 675 6th Avenue, between 21st and 22nd Street. While his neighbor to the south, the Hugh O’Neill Dry Goods store, sold moderately-priced goods, Adams & Co. catered to those women looking for more expensive and decidedly conventional merchandise.

By 1899 Adams’ business was so successful, with assets of $3.6 million, that a new and grander structure was necessary. He commissioned architects DeLemos & Cordes who were responsible for the palatial Siegel-Cooper store further south to design his new emporium. In sections, he began razing his store and rebuilding – precluding the necessity of closing his business and losing customers or sales.

On December 23 of that year The New York Times anticipated the six-story structure which would cover seven acres of floor space. “The new store will be in the Renaissance style of architecture, light colored materials being used in its construction, and it will be fireproof throughout. Three handsome entrances in Sixth Avenue will give access to the store, each flanked by pilasters of polished granite with artistic bronze scroll work. In the center of the store and extending to the fifth floor there will be a handsome and well lighted rotunda surrounded by ornamental columns and arches.

“Broad and handsome marble stairways will rise from the main floor, one from the rotunda and one from each street entrance. The large central stairway will lead directly to a richly decorated parlor for the convenience of women patrons and to the manicuring establishment on the second floor.”

Shoppers would find departments for women’s and children’s garments, a “commodious” restaurant, and a photograph gallery. A pneumatic tube system connected the sales floor to the offices, whisking away the customer’s cash and returning the change. To awe the turn-of-the-century shoppers, Adams had engineer Harry Alexander outline the rotunda in electric lights as a glittering nighttime display.

“When completed the building will be a noteworthy addition to the architecture of Sixth Avenue,” remarked The Times.

Actually, the completed building was Beaux Arts in style, not “Renaissance” as The New York Times had promised. It was, nonetheless, “noteworthy.” The great granite structure signified solidity and success. Four three-story Corinthian columns separated five recessed, arched windows above the second story. The restrained ornamentation bespoke of the high-quality merchandise within.

That high-quality merchandise within, as well as many of the high-quality shoppers, was injured when, at 5:00 on May 29, 1906, the 10,000 gallon water tank on the roof gave way and crashed through the stained glass skylight over the rotunda. Over 3,000 shoppers were in the store when the tank plummeted five stories to the dress department on the first floor.

In the panic that followed “many of the shoppers lost their purses and handbags, while some threw away their bundles and wraps. Some had their clothing torn…There was considerable screaming among the women when the accident occurred,” reported The New York Times.

Amazingly there were only a few serious injuries and, despite the three inches of water that covered the first floor and the $2000 damage to inventory, Adams & Co. was back in business within a few days.

That same year Samuel Adams merged with his neighbor to the south, the Hugh O’Neill & Co. Adams was growing older and his daughter Eileen, married to the son of John Phillips Sousa, was not interested in the dry goods business. With the merger, Adams would remain as President. A tunnel under 21st Street would join the two retail palaces.

Adams said “The individual management of the two stores will be as heretofore and nothing will be done to disturb the pleasant relations which have existed between them and their patrons. But the stores, occupying two city blocks, by combining their facilities, can offer greater attractions to the public than they have been able to do as individual units.”

Unfortunately, with the migration of the retail stores uptown, The Ladies’ Mile slowly declined. In 1913 Adams & Co. closed for good. The green and white marble rotunda, the scrolled metal work and the polished stone floors became home to small businesses and lofts.

In the 1920s Hershey Chocolate Company made candy here and two decades later it was home to the Central Time Clock Company, and other small industrial firms.

Finally, with the rebirth of the Ladies Mile in the 1980s, Israel Taub’s Chelsea Green took ownership and began a restoration, with input from the Landmarks Preservation Commission – although the building had not yet received landmark status. Architects V. J. Kale and Reginald Grasmick restored the exterior and reconstructed the central rotunda.

Mattel took over the top three floors, giving the Adams & Co. building the new name “The Mattel Building” and in 1994 Barnes & Noble Booksellers moved into the ground floor for a 14-year stay.

Late in 2010 Trader Joe's took over half of the ground floor space vacated by Barnes & Noble.  The Adams & Co. Building remains as dignified, beautiful and aloof as it did in 1900.

The 1868 Hoyt Building -- Nos. 873-879 Broadway

photo by Alice Lum

In 1868 the Broadway blocks just north of Union Square were quickly becoming the main shopping district of Manhattan.   Wide brick homes were rapidly being replaced by retail emporiums and that year the well-known merchant Edwin Hoyt, a partner in Hoyt, Spragues & Co., commissioned architect Griffith Thomas to design an imposing store at the northwest corner of 18^th Street and Broadway.

On the north end of the block retailer Arnold, Constable & Co. planned a second store to supplement its white marble Canal Street location.  Whether by coincidence or not, Griffith Thomas was given the task of designing this building as well.  The result would be two architecturally harmonious structures that visually flowed together as one.  

The well-dressed shoppers of New York’s carriage trade would enter a five-story Second Empire Commercial-style building clad in rose-colored marble.  A delicate street-level arcade supported ranks of arched openings separated by pilasters and columns. 

A year after completion, Shannon's Manual published this view -- Shannon's Manual 1869 (copyright expired)

Part of the massive structure was leased to smaller firms.  On July 24, 1871 W. M. Humphrey & Bro. advertised in The Sun for “Bow and scarf hands wanted; also, an operator on Wheeler & Wilson machine; only experienced hands need apply.”

photo by Alice Lum

But by 1875 Hoyt, Spragues & Co. was gone and that year Aitken, Son & Co. moved in.  The dry goods store catered to a well-heeled feminine clientele who shopped for dress fabrics, French bonnets, ribbons, and home decorations.     As the Christmas holiday approached in 1878, the firm advertised “Elegant sashes, antique tidies, made-up lace goods, fine hosiery, ties and handkerchiefs, fancy scrap baskets and numerous minor articles of use and ornament.” 

Women shoppers today might be mystified at an earlier advertisement that year which hawked “pringes and galloons.”

When the Arnold, Constable & Co. building sprouted a handsome mansard roof the continuity of the two buildings was lost.  photo by Alice Lum

During the last quarter of the 19^th century the popular Aesthetic Movement swept the country and every up-to-date household boasted an Asian-themed nook or room.  A. Vantine & Co., which called itself “The Oriental Store,” sold exotic gifts such as Chinese porcelains, lacquered ware, Turkish rugs and colorful Japanese lanterns.   The firm shared space with Aitken, Son beginning in 1887, when the Hoyt Building became essentially two separate, equal-sized stores. 

A year later owner Solomon Loeb contracted architectural firm Delemos & Cordes to enlarge the two buildings.     The northern structure at mid-block was extended backwards, to the west and south, creating an L around the corner building which was simultaneously extended 23 feet along 18^th Street 23 feet.  The nearly seamless extensions, clad in marble, closely matched Thomas’s design; although they exceeded the height of the original building by three stories.

The extension, at left, matched the Broadway facade -- photo by Alice Lum

Following Loeb’s death the owner of A. Vantine & Co. purchased the building.  On November 25, 1905 The Real Estate Record and Builders’ Guide noted that Irving C. Raymond had hired architect Thomas H. Styles to “add 1 story, alter windows, elevator, stairs” to Nos. 873-879 Broadway at a cost of $15,000.  Unlike Delemos & Cordes’ alterations, this would not be so architecturally-sympathetic.   The decorative triangular pediments, balustrades and bulbous finials were replaced by a nearly-industrial looking addition.

The new top story resulted in an unexpected scandal.   Not only was added floor not fireproof, it was 18 feet higher than the application filed by the architect.   A Special Examination of the Accounts and Methods of the Office of the President of the Borough of Manhattan was ordered by Mayor George B. McClellan to look into the possibility of graft.   Raymond’s addition was closely reviewed.

The investigators found that “The plans and application on file in the department show a state of facts which would not permit the approval thereof in good faith, it appearing upon their face utterly impossible to construct the new story as proposed in the amended application.”   The commissioners concluded “The fact that it was never intended that the law should be complied with in this case is indicated by the findings of our expert, Mr. Hamilton.”

Testimony in the hearings revealed the a mason employed in the alteration, George Potterton, stated that a “payment of money” would secure the approval of the additional story by the Bureau of Buildings.  Building Superintendent Murphy found himself in hot water over his acceptance of bribes.

“This seems to us to be so gross a misuse of discretionary power as to constitute an unfitness for office,” the Report concluded.

photo by Alice Lum

In February 1912 A. A. Vantine & Co. leased the entire building at Nos 436-468 5^th Avenue and moved in with its companion firm, Aitken Company, leaving the marble building on Broadway that had been their home for decades.   The Hoyt Building now filled with a variety of smaller tenants, many of them manufacturers. 

While the Sitt & Howell Company was selling rugs and carpeting from the first floor retail area, Gottschalk, Dreyfuss & Davis, Inc. moved here from No. 45 East 20^th Street in January 1916.  The wholesale manufacturer printed “hand-painted, die-stamped, offset and lithographed cards” which were sold to stationers.

Through the 1920s the trend continued.  Fishbein & McCabe, leather goods manufacturers, moved here in 1920.  A year later Valkone Dye & Finishing Works took an entire floor.

Bahner, Doscher Company imported dolls and toys from Europe at the same time.  The Pottery & Glass Salesman noted in 1921 that “Among the toy novelties is a mechanical cat, with sparkling eyes, that walks over the floor in most life-like fashion.  The sparkling eyes constitute the novelty feature of the item.  Then, there is a beetle, with sparkling eyes, that walks, lifts its wings and hums.  And so on it goes.”  Bahner, Doscher’s array of dolls included “a wide range of both French and German products, and takes in both dressed and jointed dolls in all sizes.”

The marble ornamentation remains crisp a century and a half after it was carved -- photo by Alice Lum

For years, beginning around this time, Moe Levy & Son would sell men’s clothing from here.   On the corner, from 1920 through 1951 a bank leased the corner space at street level.

In the second half of the century offices on the upper floors became headquarters to the Socialist Workers Party.   Here the leader of the Trotskyite Communist Party planned his Presidential campaign and other Socialist members ran for various offices.    What would seem to be a mere rental agreement proved dangerous to the building.

In 1966 Socialist Judy White was running for Governor of New York and Richard Garza was seeking the office of Lieutenant Governor.  On September 29 four bombs exploded at the headquarters, “causing extensive damage,” according to The New York Times.

Three years later Paul Boutelle was a candidate for Mayor.  On April 24, 1969 15 workers inside the headquarters at No. 873 Broadway were visible from the street.  A hand grenade was tossed at the closed window.  It bounced off the glass and demolished a parked car.

Although the graceful arcade that once graced the first floor has been long-demolished, the rest of the Hoyt Building has been little changed since the 1905 renovation.   The middle four floors still blend harmoniously into the old Arnold, Constable & Co. department store, providing a glimpse back to the days of the post-Civil War shopping district.

The 1888 Armeny Building -- No. 90 Nassau Street

photo by Alice Lum

Frank Raub was proficient at two things in 1888—real estate development and the saloon business.  For several years he managed the successful saloon known as “Hillen’s” near the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge and had dabbled in real estate.   With the population of Manhattan exploding and the financial potential of the downtown area ripe, he combined his two talents into one project.

Purchasing the small buildings at the corner of Fulton and Nassau Streets, he hired architects De Lemos & Cordes to design an office building with restaurant space on the first floor.   Theodore W. E. De Lemos and August W. Cordes had been in partnership only four years and their robust design would foreshadows the grand office buildings and department stores to come; among them the New York County National Bank and the department stores of Siegel-Cooper, Adams and Macy’s on Herald Square.

Early in 1889 the Real Estate Record & Builders’ Guide remarked on the new structures appearing along Nassau Street.  “Another Nassau street building, on the southeast corner of Fulton street, is being put up for Frank Raub, who will have a café and restaurant on the first floor and rent out the offices above.  It is up to the roof and will be completed, so the architects, De Lemos & Cordes, say, about November.”

Using buff-colored brick with limestone and terra cotta trim, the architects created a refined 6-story structure in five sections, ending with a complex cornice.  Cast iron enframements enabled spacious window openings that allowed exceptional sunlight into the office spaces.

No. 90 Nassau Street shortly after completion -- American Architect & Building News, October 6, 1889 (copyright expired)

The neighborhood was the center of the jewelry trade at the time and Raub’s completed building filled with related businesses.   Among the first was Armeny & Marion, makers of high-end gold pens. 

Gyulo Armeny had arrived alone in New York from Austria-Hungary at the age of 19.  After learning the jewelry trade in the Bronx, he started his own business at No. 75 Nassau Street.    When he met pen-maker William Clayborn Marion his life would change.

Gyulo Armeny -- The Jewelers' Circular April 14, 1920 (copyright expired)

Unlike the immigrant Armeny, Marion was born to a prestigious family with French roots who settled in Kentucky in the 18^thcentury.   In 1900 biographer Cornelius Burnham Harvey would say of him “Breathing in his father’s house a wholesome mechanical atmosphere, and having received at the district schools a good rudimentary education, he left home at the age of fourteen and apprenticed himself to Andrew J. Berrian, a maker of gold pens at 75 Nassau Street, New York.”  In 1884 the two men, now both masters at their craft, formed Armeny & Marion.

Marion's biographer, in 1900, called him "without doubt or question the oldest living working gold pen maker in the world --"Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey" (copyright expired) 

The Jewelers’ Circular noted that “This business grew to such proportions that in 1890 it was moved to 90 Nassau Street.” 

Advertisement in The American Stationery (copyright expired)

In the building with Armeny & Marion was the prosperous watch dealer Charles D. P. Gibson.   The interesting Gibson had served in the Civil War and for about 25 years was connected with the United States Secret Service.   But Gibson’s viewpoints on religion were extreme.

The New York Times noted on June 28, 1894 that “On ordinary questions he seems to think pretty much as other people, but in regard to his Roman Catholic fellow-citizens he entertains sentiments that would have seemed impossible even in the dark ages.”

Mercury, the Roman patron of commerce, peers out from above the fourth floor -- photo by Alice Lum

Gibson was an officer in the American Protective Association, a society “organized to hunt down Catholics.”  In words that presaged those of a future German dictator, he announced “There is no room in this country for Roman Catholics and the American Protective Association will soon demonstrate this.  They will have to go elsewhere.  They can’t exist much longer here, for they will starve.”

When a reporter for The Times asked the jeweler “What would you do with these millions of people whom you condemn simply on religious grounds,” he answered “I wouldn’t do anything with the ___.  I’d simply drive them out and make it impossible for them to live here, where they are a curse to good people who love the American institutions.”

Happily the rest of the tenants in the building drew less negative press.  Jacob Horowitz quietly dealt in diamonds and Rudolph F. Albrecht sold rare stamps.

In 1893, with the building fully-leased, Raub commissioned architect A. L. C. Marsh to enlarge it.  The handsome cornice was removed and two stories were added.  Although Marsh attempted to meld the architecture with banded piers and terra cotta trim, the proportions were somewhat skewed.

The 1893 upward addition upset the attractive proportions -- photo by Alice Lum

Meanwhile the business of Armeny & Marion continued to flourish.  In 1893 Gyulo Armeny purchased the building from Raub, renaming it the Armeny Building.  Frank Raub continued running Raub’s Saloon at street level.

In 1900 the National Loan Association took space in the building, about the same time that Raub hired a new cashier, the 21-year old Martin J. Tighe.   Tighe, whom The New York Times described as “an inveterate cigarette smoker,” was abusive to his young wife.  In the Fall of 1900 he threatened to kill his 17-year old wife and her father, but when police disarmed him he “promised then to do better and was not arrested,” said the newspaper.

In April 1901 the couple had a baby boy and when the abuse continued, the young mother left Tighe to move back into her father’s home.   Tighe stalked the building and on June 11, finding the door unlocked, he went up to the apartment.  When his wife opened the door he grabbed her by the hair, dragged her into the hall and beat her with his fist.   The enraged man bit his wife’s wrist until blood ran.

Although he was arrested, his father signed his bond and he was released.  It was a move that would end the 18-year old mother’s life.

The girl returned to her father’s apartment and so too did her husband, who loitered around throughout the afternoon.  Around 9:00 that evening with the protection of her aunt, Margaret Schaffney, Mrs. Tighe went back to the former apartment she had shared with her husband.  She hoped to get clothes for the baby.  After only a few minutes of their being in the apartment, Tighe burst in and threw Schaffrey out, locking the door.

When the aunt failed to find a policeman, she rushed back to the apartment and broke the door down with her shoulder.  Tighe flew past her and into the street.   The young wife was on the kitchen floor slashed in several places by a razor.

As the 18-year old mother slowly died, Tighe slit his own throat then, bleeding, sat smoking cigarettes and playing the piano in his father’s saloon awaiting police.  Tighe’s father blamed the tragedy on the girl’s family interfering “with the household affairs of the young couple.”

photo by Alice Lum

Within the next few years jewelry firms were slowly replaced by law offices.  In 1902 Ralph Gillett opened his practice here and two years later the law firm of J. & W. Shrady was here.   Scandal visited the building in 1913 when former policeman Robert E. Ullner had his law offices in the building.  That year an indictment was filed again him and his wife, Annie Grey, who, according to The New York Times “amassed a fortune as a keeper of disorderly resorts.”  It was a polite term for brothels.

By 1917 Raub’s Saloon was gone and in its place was the liquor store owned by Joseph Varon.   Varon would remain here for at least two decades.

On March 9, 1920 Gyulo Armeny was at his home in West Bronx, New York, suffering from gangrene poisoning as workers prepared an improvement to the building on Nassau Street.  At 5:00 in the afternoon—the peak of rush hour—construction workers maneuvered an 800-pound cast iron flagpole base into position high over the sidewalk.  Hundreds of businessmen and secretaries rushed along the sidewalk below.

Suddenly the rigging broke.   The giant iron base held for a second by a portion of the rigging, long enough for workers to shout a warning.  The crowd below scattered in all directions not knowing exactly what the danger was.   The Times reported that “In a second or two the 800-pound weight snapped the remaining ropes and shot downward…The cast-iron base broke, and the street was filled with huge fragments of iron and broken lumber.”  Only three persons were injured.

A month after the accident, Armeny succumbed to his 11-week illness.  The sons of William Marion continued the pen manufacturing firm.

Within a year The United Happiness Candy Store was here.  The store had several branches, along with a club.  “The purpose of the United Happiness Candy Club is to introduce our various kinds of Candy, and have the story of their goodness spread by all the members. Everybody who buys automatically becomes a member," promised an advertisement.

Not all the jewelry firms left No. 90 Nassau Street and they proved to be a temptation for thieves.  Charles Kresney ran his jewelry manufacturing shop here in 1924.   On April 28 the cleaning woman walked in on a robbery by four gunmen and was immediately taken captive.   The four bandits made off with $125,000 worth of jewelry.  Kresney and the scrubwoman were found bound and gagged later.

A year later, two days before Christmas in 1925 the jewelry manufacturer Folmer Pripp was robbed by stepbrothers Jacob and Leon Kraemer, along with gunman Milton (Shuffles) Goldberg.

The boys were members of the notorious Whittemore gang, led by Richard Reese Whittemore.  Goldberg was, according to newspapers, "the closest lieutenant" of Whittemore.  A year later the robbers were sentenced; Goldberg getting 20 to 40 years in Sing Sing prison.  His attorneys pled for a reduced sentence because he had an advanced case of tuberculosis.

Judge Koenig, however, was unmoved.  The New York Times reported that he "rebuffs plea of mercy based on his weakened physique."

Dripping garlands, radiant discs and lions' heads are among the lavish ornaments -- photo by Alice Lum

In 1955 jeweler Charles Krensky operated his business in the building.  That year three hold-up men barged into the shop.  Before they fled Krensky lay dead.

By 1975 the street level housed a restaurant and bar, but the upper floors had been vacant for over a decade.  Then in 1999 the building was renovated, creating residential space on the floors above the restaurant.

Other than the zig-zagging fire escape, No. 90 Nassau Street looks much as it did after the 1893 alterations when the vibrant neighborhood was filled with jewelry merchants.

photo by Alice Lum