Landmarks Preservation Commission May 16, 2000, Designation List 313 LP-2061 SWIFT, SEAMAN & CO. BUILDING, 122 Chambers Street/ 52 Warren Street, Manhattan. Built 1857-58. Landmark Site: Borough of Manhattan Tax Map Block 136, Lot 10. On March 28, 2000, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing on the proposed designation as a Landmark of the Swift, Seaman & Co. Building and the proposed designation of the related Landmark Site (Item No. 2). The hearing had been duly advertised in accordance with the provisions oflaw. Three people spoke in favor of designation, including representatives of the Historic Districts Council and Tribe~a Community Association. In addition, the Commission received letters in support ofd esignation from 52 Warren Street Owners, Inc., and Community Board 1. This bui Id ing was previously heard at public hearing on September 19, 1989 (LP-1730). Summary Erected in 1857-58 for Emily Jones, a daughter of the late Isaac Jones, third president of Chemical Bank, the Swift, Seaman & Co. Building at 122 Chambers Street extends through the block to 52 Warren Street. It is a distinguished example of the mid-nineteenth-century store-and-loft buildings that comprised the Tribeca area of lower Manhattan, containing such wholesale and manufacturing businesses as drygoods and various branches of hardware. From 1858 to 1879, the building housed the saddlery hardware business of Swift, Seaman & Co. and its successors. Both facades of the five story structure are similarly articulated and inspired by the Italian Renaissance palazzo. The stories above the base are clad in tan-colored Dorchester stone, prized in the second half of the nineteenth century by architects and stonecarvers for its color and durability. The building is embellished with round- and segmental-arched, molded surrounds, many of which are surmounted by ornately carved Rococo Revival style ornament. These carved details are extraordinary surviving elements of 1850s ornamentation. The building is surmounted by modillioned and bracketed metal cornices. The original cast-iron storefronts were replaced by the current stone-clad ground-story remodeling in 1921- 22. For nearly ninety years, this building continuously housed saddlery hardware, hardware, and saddlery/harness businesses. It remained in commercial use until l 980when it was converted to apartments.

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS The Development of southern Tribeca and Chambers located on Pearl Street to the south, until the Fire of Street 1 1835) migrated to this area, causing store-and-loft Throughout most oft he eighteenth century, the area buildings5 to be constructed for drygoods (and other) between Broadway, the Hudson River, and Fulton and merchants. Some of these structures were built for Duane Streets (as well as an irregular section extending wealthy investors as profitable rental properties. northward, west ofH udson Street to Christopher Street) Facade materials were typically cast iron, stone, and was owned by Trinity Church. This land had brick, often in combination. On Chambers Street, the previously been held by the Dutch West India Co., then cast-iron-fronted Cary Building (1856-57, King & passed to the British Crown, and then, in 1705, to the Kellum), at No. 105-107,6 was among the first store church. The first phase of urbanization in the area of and-loft buildings on this block. what is now known as southern Tribeca (the "Triangle By 1870, hardware and cutlery merchants, Below Canal" Street) occurred in the late 1780s, as previously centered around Beekman Street, were Trinity either sold lots, or more often, rented properties concentrating around Warren, Chambers, and Reade through long-term leases. Individuals and speculators Streets. The many branches of hardware included constructed frame or brick workshops and modest domestic commission merchants, fancy hardware, dwellings. After about 1806, new leases required specialties, importers, manufacturers, supplies a

… (truncated, full text in PDF)