112 Duane Street: Review and Ratings

Review of 112 Duane Street by Carter Horsley

This handsome, 5-story building at 72 Reade Street extends through the block to Duane Street and was built in 1857 as an investment property of William M. Bliss, a partner in the dry goods wholesaling firm of Bliss, Douglas & Wheelock and he sold a half interest in the building to his partner, Charles Douglas, at its completion. 

It was designed by Samuel A. Warner, who was the architect for the Early Romanesque Revival Marble Collegiate Reformed Church at 275  Fifth Avenue and an addition to the H. B. Claflin Store at 151-7 West Broadway.  When completed in 1891, the Claflin store occupied the block bounded by Worth, Thomas and Church streets and West Broadway and was thought to be the largest building in the country ever erected for the wholesale dry goods trade. 

This building extends through the block to Duane Street.

Bottom Line

An attractive, mid-block, 5-story, 19th Century commercial building that was eventually converted to a few, large residential condominiums in TriBeCa South.

Description

The 50-foot-wide building was originally and Italianate store and loft building that extends through the block from Reade Street to Duane Street.  Initially, it was divided into two stories. 

Its primary façade on Reade Street was faced in stone above the first story and each story has six bays of window openings with segmentally-arched heads, molded surrounds and bracketed stone stills.  The building has a bracketed stone cornice. 

The building replaced four dwellings with commercial bases.  The present building originally was divided into two stores.  No. 70 was leased to Robbins, Royce & Hard, a dry goods importer.  No. 72 was occupied by Losechigk, Wesendonck & Co., an importer of German textiles.  In the 1880s and 1890s, tenants included boot and shoe wholesalers, dealers in rubber goods, a perfume showroom and factory and a paper box factory.  From the 1900s, the building had a cotton duck manufacturer known as John Boyle & Co.

Amenities

The building has a keyed elevator and allows pets.

Apartments

Apartment 2N is a two-bedroom unit with 3,864 square feet of interior space and a 294-square-foot balcony.  It has a 37-foot-long living area, with a 14-foot-long open kitchen with a 10-foot-long pantry and a 20-foot-long dining room and a 16-foot-wide family room. 

The fourth-floor unit is a three-bedroom unit with a circular foyer that opens onto a 53-foot-long living/dining/family room with an open 16-foot-long kitchen with an island, a 23-foot-long terrace and a 14-foot-long office.