Workers dig a trench for the installation of the high-pressure water system at the northeast corner of Hudson and Thomas Streets; undated photo. The sidewalk shelter at right covers the loading area for the R.C. Williams & Co. building at 56 Hudson Street. Established in 1811, the wholesale grocers had been headquartered in this building since the late 1880s. Contemporaneous trade publications show the firm to have been an active player in the city's produce distribution sector (albeit with predictably dry headlines, e.g.: "Green Olive Importers Engage in Advertising"). In 1926, R.C. Williams purchased a full-blockfront site on Tenth Avenue, between West 25th-26th Streets, in anticipation of the construction of the High Line freight railway. The ten-story R.C. Williams warehouse, designed by Cass Gilbert and completed in 1928, occupies the full site between Tenth Avenue and the elevated trestle to its west. In fact, when the High Line opened to rail traffic on August 1, 1933, the first carload was delivered to R.C. Williams. After R.C. Williams departed, the Hudson Street warehouse was demolished to make way for Ralph Walker's Western Union Building at 60 Hudson Street.