ONCE UPON A TIME ON CHAMBERS
In the discussion of the closing of the Patriot, James Bogardus sent a link to a 14-year-old video posted by the philosopher and musician Henry Flynt (he coined the phrase ‘concept art’ among other things) where he describes coming to Yoko Ono’s loft at 112 Chambers, next door to the Patriot, in 1961. It’s a fun recounting of Coltrane licks, Yoko’s standoffishness, and the cultural pyramid with Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage at the top.

But it also reminded me to dig into the Tribeca South Historic District Extension designation report to learn a little bit about the buildings there — as well as ACRIS to see if, as G. has predicted, someone is assembling the buildings there for some sort of project.

So to the second question: from what I can see in the city finance records, the Patriot building, 110 Chambers, was sold to William Stone in 1972. His estate owns it now. The deed for 112 and 114 seem to have the same block and lot number, those two buildings were transferred to the Si Jei Mei LLC in 1993; nothing has happened since. (The LLC also owns 18 Murray, which had Lily O’Brien’s in it, until it was damaged by the collapse of Tent & Trails.)

c. 2014

110 Chambers (Patriot) was built in 1954 with a facade of cement stucco by Dr. Austin L. Sands, a well-known physician. Over the next decade it had electricians, hardware and cutlery merchants, printers and engravers, but in 1940 and for the next 15 years it had a Tribeca institution: Pearl Paint. By 1980 it had residents on each floor, and I know a bit about that: the rent was $65 and it came with no windows.

112 Chambers (the former Popeye’s) was also developed by Austin Sands, on land leased from Trinity Church. Over the years, the building housed a variety of hardware, cutlery, printing and automotive supply firms, including the B.F. Goodrich and the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (c.1930s) In the ’70s there were a couple discount record and tape companies.

114 was built in 1857 by Henry W. Olcott, a stockbroker who had been leasing the property from Trinity Church since 1835. Olcott, who lived at 114 Chambers from 1835 to 1841, redeveloped the property at a time when the residential streets to the west and north of City Hall Park were being rapidly improved with new commercial buildings for the dry goods trade. There was a luncheonette there in the ’40s, and as the sign says, it was Craig’s Shoes from 1950 to 1975.