Ever since we moved downtown I’ve been fascinated with and studying the local architecture. I
Ever since we moved downtown I’ve been fascinated with and studying the local architecture. I think it comes from growing up in very historic Moscow Every time I see a date on a building, I’m instantly drawn to discover what’s the story behind it. I’ve been eyeballing this building for a few years now. Meet the 1899 Bazzini Building: The members of the extended Mohlmann Family were respected wholesale grocers in 19th century New York City, living in Greenwich Village and operating their businesses in the Washington Market neighborhood. In 1880 John H. Mohlmann began assembling a substantial building lot by buying up the small brick buildings in the dairy and produce district. Mohlmann died before he could develop the plot; but his heirs carried on the project. In 1898 the estate of Mohlmann commissioned civil engineer and architect C. Wilson Atkins to design an ambitious six-story loft building. Construction began in 1899 and was completed a year later. Atkins’ building was the result of a happy marriage of Renaissance and Romanesque Revival styles. The Mohlmanns used the new building for its wholesale grocery business and leased out space to other wholesalers like Tarrant & Co., a wholesale druggist firm, but the building was completely wrecked by fire and explosion in 1900 before it was completed. Although the Mohlmann family stayed in the building, they leased the entire structure to the Central Consumers’ Wine and Liquor Company in 1904. One other tenant was Henry Sloane Company. The firm conducted a wholesale business in canned and frozen eggs, landing the lucrative contract for supplying the National Biscuit Company with its preserved eggs early in 1907, whose owner was arrested in the same year for “conducting his business under an assumed name”. In 1912 Goode Brothers & Kiefer Co., was here, dealing in butter. 1918-1920s J. W. Meloney Co. was here, wholesalers in “fancy white eggs”. But towards the end of the century food distribution and processing was a thing of the past in Tribeca. Warehouses were converted to restaurants and residential loft spaces, and rents and taxes soared. By 1999 the building had been converted to just ten luxury spaces. (at Tribeca) https://www.instagram.com/p/CKw2b0sjcbB/?igshid=147c9eh090fpc -- source link