This cast-iron building was designed in 1868 in the Italianate/French Second Empire style by architect John Kellum for James McCreery. It was once home to the city’s most elegant department store, James McCreery & Co. Dry Goods, and introduced several important innovations in department storefront sales. It suffered multiple devastating fires over the years, but was saved from demolition by its resilient cast-iron frame and an innovative plan in the early 1970s to convert the building to residences — the first such legal conversion of a manufacturing loft building in New York, which paved the way for hundreds more in its wake.

For more information on the history of these and other buildings South of Union Square, click here.

See all Architecture of South of Union Square photos here.

Photos by Dylan Chandler
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