Swift, Seaman & Co. Building

History and architecture

Erected in 1857-58 for Emily Jones, a daughter of the late Isaac Jones, third president of Chemical Bank, the Swift, Seaman & Co. Building at 122 Chambers Street extends through the block to 52 Warren Street. It is a distinguished example of the mid-nineteenth-century store-and-loft buildings that comprised the Tribeca area of lower Manhattan, containing such wholesale and manufacturing businesses as drygoods and various branches of hardware. From 1858 to 1879, the building housed the saddlery hardware business of Swift, Seaman & Co. and its successors.

Both facades of the five-story structure are similarly articulated and inspired by the Italian Renaissance palazzo. The stories above the base are clad in tan-colored Dorchester stone, prized in the second half of the nineteenth century by architects and stone carvers for its color and durability. The building is embellished with round- and segmental-arched, molded surrounds, many of which are surmounted by ornately carved Rococo Revival style ornament.

These carved details are extraordinary surviving elements of 1850s ornamentation. The building is surmounted by modillioned and bracketed metal cornices. The original cast-iron storefronts were replaced by the current stone-clad ground-story remodeling in 1921 22.

For nearly ninety years, this building continuously housed saddlery hardware, hardware. and saddlery/harness businesses. It remained in commercial use until 1980 when it was converted to apartments.