104 Third Avenue; 142 East 13th Street | Block : 558 | Lot #28

Description & Building Alterations

According to tax assessment records, a factory was constructed on Lots 28, 29, and 30 between 1836, when the lots were vacant, and 1839. The tax records between these years are missing, so the original owner and year of construction are uncertain. The lots were owned by Ebenezer Pray from 1839 up until 1865. In a map from 1853, the lots, still combined as one, were labeled “Pianoforte Manufactory.” By the time the 1862 map was published, the single lot had been divided into three. In 1903, an alteration application suggests that the building was used as a store and eight-family tenement housing and was still owned by the Pray family. At that time, a new vent shaft was installed with fireproof partitions through which new windows were cut. Four years later, when the front of the building was extended and a show window was installed, the building had been sold. In 1925, the store was divided and a new storefront was built.