The Rogers Peet Building is an eight-story building in the

Civic Center A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, the ...

and

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 ...

neighborhoods 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. Built between 1898 and 1899, it replaced a five-story structure that was home to the

Rogers Peet Rogers Peet was a men's clothing company founded on November 6, 1874. Rogers Peet introduced several innovations into the men's wear business: they attached tags to garments giving fabric composition, they marked garments with price tags (the establ ...

clothing store between 1863 and 1898, when the original structure burned down.

Original building

The original building, located at

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

and Warren Street, belonged to the Emanuel Hoffman estate. For 25 years the ground floor of the Rogers Peet Building was occupied by tailors Devlin & Company, who paid an annual rental of $45,000. The Rogers Peet Building had a double basement. The lower cellar housed the

Beach Pneumatic Transit The Beach Pneumatic Transit was the first attempt to build an underground public transit system in New York City. It was developed by Alfred Ely Beach in 1869 as a demonstration subway line running on pneumatic power. The subway line had one sto ...

railroad, a

pneumatic tube Pneumatic tubes (or capsule pipelines, also known as pneumatic tube transport or PTT) are systems that propel cylindrical containers through networks of tubes by compressed air or by partial vacuum. They are used for transporting solid objects, a ...

that ran across Broadway to Mall Street between 1870 and 1873. The tunnel was used as a shooting gallery after the abandonment of the railroad.

Fire

At the center of the business section of late 19th century New York City, the conflagration spread to the sixteen-story

Home Life Building The Home Life Building, also known as 253 Broadway, is an office building in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It is in Manhattan's Tribeca and Civic Center neighborhoods at the northwest corner of Broadway and Murray Street, adjacent to City H ...

. At 2 A.M. on December 4, 1898 bystanders on Broadway watched as another floor of the burnt out Rogers Peet Building collapsed and fell. The outer edge of the structure, which fronted on Warren Street, bulged a foot or a foot and a half outward at its top. Flames first emanated from the basement of the Rogers Peet Building, yet it was uncertain how the fire began. A single pane from the top floor of the edifice fell onto a statue of

Nathan Hale Nathan Hale (June 6, 1755 – September 22, 1776) was an American Patriot, soldier and spy for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He volunteered for an intelligence-gathering mission in New York City but was captured b ...

, and broke into a thousand fragments. At the time of its destruction the Rogers Peet Building was occupied by Rogers, Peet & Company, clothiers; Brown & Sheehan, lawyers; John Brien, contractor; L.T. Smith, architect; and the

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company The Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, also known as MassMutual, is a Springfield, Massachusetts-based life insurance company. MassMutual provides financial products such as life insurance, disability income insurance, long term car ...

. Today, the site is occupied by part of the

Home Life Insurance Company Building The Home Life Building, also known as 253 Broadway, is an office building in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It is in Manhattan's Tribeca and Civic Center neighborhoods at the northwest corner of Broadway and Murray Street, adjacent to City Ha ...

Current building

The current eight-story building at 258 Broadway was designed by John B. Snook & Sons and completed in 1899. It is a

New York City designated 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 ...

References

1863 establishments in New York (state) 1898 disestablishments 1899 establishments in New York City Broadway (Manhattan) Commercial buildings completed in 1863 Commercial buildings completed in 1899 Commercial buildings in Manhattan Demolished buildings and structures in Manhattan Rail transportation in New York City Civic Center, Manhattan New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan {{Manhattan-struct-stub