SoHo cast-iron storefronts
— — Corinthian columns bolted together in a foundry, painted cream.
Not only on a wall.
“Most of SoHo's storefronts were built between 1850 and 1880, when cast-iron columns let merchants put up taller buildings with wider windows than stone allowed. Greene and Broome and Mercer and Prince still read as the catalogue of that decade. The district was named a National Historic Landmark in 1978 and holds the largest concentration of full cast-iron architecture in the world. Look for the foundry plates at the base of the columns. from the studio
SoHo cast-iron storefronts, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The SoHo Cast Iron Historic District covers 26 blocks of Lower Manhattan roughly bounded by Houston Street to the north, Canal Street to the south, West Broadway, and Crosby Street. It was designated a New York City Historic District in 1973 and a National Historic Landmark in 1978. The district contains roughly 250 cast-iron buildings, the densest such concentration in the world. Most were built between 1850 and 1880 for the dry-goods and textile trade that shifted south to Tribeca and Chelsea by the early twentieth century.
Cast iron let merchants build five and six stories with column-thin piers and window openings stone could not match. The columns and lintels were cast at foundries in Manhattan and Brooklyn, shipped in pieces, and bolted together on site, then painted to imitate cut stone. Notable buildings include the Haughwout Building of 1857 at Broadway and Broome, designed by John P. Gaynor with the first commercial Otis safety elevator, and the E. V. Haughwout-derived facades along Broadway. Foundry plates at column bases name Daniel D. Badger and James Bogardus among the casters.
The district is open ground. The best walking corridor runs from Greene and Broome north to Prince, with detours west on Spring and east on Crosby. The Haughwout Building at 488 Broadway is the standard first stop. Subway access is the N, R, and W at Prince Street or the 6 at Spring Street. Most ground floors are now retail, but the upper stories carry the district's architecture intact. Late morning light catches the cream paint and the column shadows best on the west side of Greene.