The Cary Building at 105-107
Chambers Street, extending along
Church Street to Reade Street, in the
Tribeca
Tribeca (), originally written as TriBeCa, is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. Its name is a syllabic abbreviation of "Triangle Below Canal Street". The "triangle" (more accurately a quadrilateral) is bounded by Canal Stre ...
neighborhood of
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, was built in 1856-1857 and was designed by
Gamaliel King
Gamaliel King ( Shelter Island, New York, 1 December 1795 — 6 December 1875) was an American architect who practiced in New York City and the adjacent city of Brooklyn, where he was a major figure in Brooklyn civic and ecclesiastical architectu ...
and
John Kellum
John Kellum (1809–1871) was an American architect in practice in New York City.
Kellum, born in Hempstead (town), New York, Hempstead, Long Island, was trained as a carpenter; he was largely self-taught in architecture, and was taken int ...
("King & Kellum") in the Italian Renaissance revival style, with the cast-iron facade provided by
Daniel D. Badger's Architectural Iron Work. The five-story twin-facaded building was constructed for William H. Cary's Cary, Howard & Sanger, a dry goods firm.
[Gray, Christopher]
"Streetscapes: The 1857 Cast-Iron Cary Building at 105 Chambers Street; Facades Meant to be Seen, a Brick Wall that Wasn't"
''The New York Times'' (16 July 2000) accessed 30 January 2011.[, p.30]
Although built as a commercial structure, the Cary Building is now residential. As a result of the widening of Church Street in the 1920s, a 200-foot-long wall of unadorned brick is now exposed on the east side of the building; as
Christopher Gray
Christopher Stewart Gray (April 24, 1950 – March 10, 2017) was an American journalist and architectural historian,Schneider, Daniel B (August 27, 2000)"F.Y.I. Hell's Kitchen in the Raw" ''The New York Times''. March 4, 2010. noted for his week ...
observed in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', comparing the structure to cast-iron buildings with facades obscured by modern signage, "There is not too little of the Cary Building but too much."
[
In 1973, the artist ]Knox Martin
Knox Martin (February 12, 1923 – May 15, 2022) was an American painter, sculptor, and muralist.
Born in Barranquilla, Colombia, he studied at the Art Students League of New York from 1946 until 1950. He was one of the leading members of the N ...
was commissioned to create a 280-foot canopyMaquette for the Wrap-Around Canopy of a Building on Chambers Street, Manhattan
/ref> that wrapped around the building. Ada Louise Huxtable
Ada Louise Huxtable (née Landman; March 14, 1921 – January 7, 2013) was an architecture critic and writer on architecture. Huxtable established architecture and urban design journalism in North America and raised the public's awareness of the ...
wrote in ''The New York Times'': "...credited Knox Martin with the graphics, including the supersign on the building's side and the continuous, brightly patterned abstract awning sheltering the shops. It is a fine example of combining new with old for practicality, continuity and art."[Huxtable, Ada Louise]
"Construction in the Capital"
''The New York Times'' (9 June 1974)
The building was designated a New York City landmark
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
in 1982, and was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1983.The New York Sun
''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...
.
See also
* List of New York City Landmarks
These are lists of New York City landmarks designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission:
* New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan:
** List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan below 14th Street
** List o ...
*
References
Notes
External links
*
1857 establishments in New York (state)
Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan
Cast-iron architecture in New York City
New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan
Tribeca
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