41d. Wall Street Historic District

Location: Roughly bounded by Cedar Street, Maiden Lane, Pearl Street, Bridge Street, South William Street, Greenwich Street, and Trinity Place.
Built: N/A
Architect: N/A
National Register Number: 07000063
Listed: February 2, 2007
Visited: December 30, 2007



18 and 20 Beaver Street are the kinds of buildings historic districts are made for: too minor to landmark on their own--neither of them appear in the AIA Guide to New York City--but too redolent of a lost architectural context to give up. 20 Beaver Street looks like a Federal-style (right? Federal?) warehouse. Some net-sleuthing connects the site (and probably the building itself) to the Holmes & Haines cabinetmaking company starting at some indeterminate point early in the 1800s. By 1901, it is home to George A. Kessler & Co.; Kessler was a wine merchant written about in numerous New York Times articles, including this one about his escape from the Lusitania disaster and another on a mad expensive $300-a-plate "polar party." Later it became home to Samuel Lakow's custom office furniture business. Now it's a pizzeria.



Apart from its connection to a once-renowned furniture enterprise, the history of 18 Beaver is less obvious, but OMG would you just LOOK at this little neo-Renaissance hors d'oeuvre! OK, it looks decrepit up-close--the brick is quite possibly stucco and if I didn't know any better I'd say the moldings are painted cast-iron--but it might be a nice fixer-upper for somebody with money and a passion for this kind of thing.