A peek into the backstory of 25 Park Place

Wonderful old signage is back in view downtown at 25 Park Place, an 1856 loft building in that Tribeca-City Hall area that was the center of the city’s dry-goods district in the 19th century.

Aren’t those great rusty, weathered letters over the entrance? The Hercules Seating Company occupied the site from the 1930s at least into the early 1960s.

Like most New York City commercial buildings, 25 Park Place has cycled through lots of diverse tenants, each a reflection of the changing face of the neighborhood.

Built for a dry-goods firm called Lathrop, Ludington & Co., 25 Park Place hosted different businesses since then, among them a German book publishing company, a bank, a pool hall, a boxing gym, and a women’s clothing store, according to a 2007 Landmarks Committee Report.

Its last commercial incarnation was as an Off Track Betting Parlor, which had a sign that left the Hercules signage covered up for decades.

In the 1920s, 25 Park Place had a noteworthy tenant: the New York Daily News, according to the report and the accompanying photo at left.

Tags: 25 Park Place, Hercules Seating Company Park Place, New York Daily News Park Place headquarters, New York dry goods industry, old Tribeca, OTB Park Place, Tribeca in the 19th century, vintage store signs NYC