311 Broadway Building

History and architecture

This distinguished commercial building located on the west side of Broadway between Duane and Thomas Streets was erected c. 1856- 57 by John and Daniel Jackson Steward. The building is a fine example of Italian Renaissance-inspired commercial palaces that flourished from the 1850s through the 1870s in the former wholesale textile and dry goods district of lower Manhattan. In the midnineteenth century, Broadway was the city’s most prestigious business and shopping street, lined with commercial palaces. Clad in stone, the building is articulated with a restrained design employing symmetrical square-headed windows with stone surrounds at the upper stories.

Today, few mid-nineteenth century commercial palaces have survived on Broadway south of Franklin Street, making the 311 Broadway Building a rare survivor. Constructed during a period when Worth Street emerged as a center of the wholesale textile trade in the United States, the 311 Broadway Building is a significant reminder of New York’s mercantile history. Early tenants included two importing firms, and then the well-known scale manufacturing company, Fairbanks and Company. William Waldorf Astor, one of the largest landowners in New York City, and then his estate owned the building for 64 years.

Prominent twentieth century tenants included L.C. Smith & Brothers Typewriter Company, David T. Abercrombie Company, and Hagstrom Company, the first owner of the building that appears to have occupied it. The 311 Broadway Building remains in commercial use at the basement and first story with retail and restaurant tenants, although the upper stories are now residential.