Architecture Tour

Now known as “the Cast Iron Building,” this former dry goods store converted to residences deserves that singular name for its unique role in New York City history. Built in 1868 as one of the city’s premier stores, it was commissioned by James McCreery who owned the dry goods emporium, James McCreery & Company. The building was designed by architect John Kellum, known for his work in the new medium of cast iron. His reputation stemmed in part from his design of the A.T. Stewart Department Store. The James McCreery & Co. building occupied a large lot fronted by both Broadway and 11th Street. Both facades were cast iron from the foundry of J. B. & W. W. Cornell Ironworks. The Italianate/French Second Empire style exemplified the extravagant goods housed inside, namely the luxurious silks unavailable elsewhere. The cast iron construction allowed for large shop windows, an innovation for its day.
Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square.
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The area south of Union Square contains a stunning array of residential and commercial architecture from the 19th through the early 20th century. There is a particularly rich array of late 19th and early 20th-century factory/loft/warehouse architecture, in every style from Italianate to Gothic and Romanesque Revival, Neo-classical, Queen Anne, Victorian, and Byzantine. Work by some of America’s greatest architects, including James Renwick Jr., Henry J. Hardenbergh, Emery Roth, Griffith Thomas, Napoleon LeBrun, Harvey Wiley Corbett, David, and John Jardine, George B. Post, Carrere and Hastings, John Kellum, and Charles Rentz, among others, can be found here. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of these and other historic buildings south of Union Square.