Then and Now: West Broadway at White Street, NYC

West Broadway at White Street, Manhattan

West Broadway at White Street, NYC, looking south in 1979.

There is a lot more history on display in Manhattan than is apparent at first glance. What survives and what does not often is a matter of location and the survival of surrounding structures rather than any plan or intent. Everyone notices the big things that change - the replacement of the Twin Towers, for instance - but there is a lot of unchanging subtlety that you can notice as you walk the streets. This review of a 1979 photo from lower Manhattan concerns some of my personal favorite reminders of the past that usually don't get much attention and which we will get to below. This is a comparison of White Street at West Broadway in TriBeCa in lower Manhattan from 1979 to 2018.

West Broadway at White Street, NYC, looking south in November 2017 (Google Street View).

It took a little hunting around to find the exact spot where the 1979 photo was taken, but this looks like it. This is a T-intersection on West Broadway, with White Street running off to the left. The spot was probably chosen for the 1979 concert for that reason, as it would disrupt the least amount of traffic while still providing an open backdrop with gorgeous views in the background. Several of the buildings are the same. Of course, the World Trade Center looming in the background is gone, but you can still just barely see the top of its replacement peeking over another building (which also was there in 1979). This comparison really gives a good idea of how much less space the current World Trade Center takes on the horizon for people looking south than the original World Trade Center did. There is another, more obvious, proof that we have the same location, but it is obscured by the (new) trees. Let's move a little further down the street and you'll see what I mean.

West Broadway at White Street, NYC, looking south in November 2017 (Google Street View).

It's still a little obscured, but this view shows the "Goodall Rubber Co." sign that was so prominent in the 1979 photo. Old advertisements painted on the sides of buildings are one of my personal favorite reminders of the past in Manhattan.

West Broadway at White Street, NYC, looking south, in 2000.

Above is a photo of the same corner from an unknown date. Beginning in 1911, Goodall's original New York City location was at 12 Gold Street. It was located in that building on the corner, 5 White Street/217 West Broadway. Since Goodall moved into this building a few years before World War II, the sign likely was painted in the late 1930s. Sometimes these signs are painted and then another building is constructed in front of them and they remain unseen for decades, only to be rediscovered when the newer building is demolished.

West Broadway at White Street, NYC, looking south, on 6 January 2007 (Wally Gobetz, Flickr).

Here we have proof that the Goodall Rubber Co. sign did not suffer that fate, having survived in the light of day at least since 1979 and undoubtedly for many decades before then. It's an unusual sign, occupying both walls of this corner, made possible by the low building occupied by Goodall on the corner.

West Broadway at White Street, NYC, looking south in November 2017 (Google Street View).

The sign says that Goodall Rubber Co. made "Industrial Rubber Products." This is a reminder that once upon a time, lower Manhattan had a thriving manufacturing base. That is mostly gone in the 21st Century, and so is the Goodall Rubber Co. - at least from lower Manhattan. The usual story is that Howard W. Goodall, William S. Feeny, and Frederick D. Stovell, who worked together for another firm in Philadelphia, apparently founded Goodall in 1906. However, other sources say the company was founded in 1870. The company is listed under that name in Hendricks' Commercial Register of the United States, Part 3, of 1891, so the earlier date appears to be correct. Goodall and Feeny had been employed at Latta & Mulconroy Co. of Philadelphia (a distributor of rubber goods) from around 1890, while Stovell had been in the paint and valves business, also in Philadelphia. Apparently, they were just a bunch of friends who one day got together and decided to take their show on the road. Perhaps Goodall's father founded the firm and the younger Goodall simply took over in 1906. Anyway, the origins of the company are a bit murky, but it's definitely been around for well more than a hundred years.

A 1945 ad for Goodall Rubber Co., Inc.

The Goodall company moved its Manhattan office to Rutherford, New Jersey, in the late 1970s (like the Giants). So, at the time of the 1979 photo, Goodall had only recently vacated the spot. As of this writing, Goodall is a subsidiary of Lewis-Goetz and Co Inc., headquartered in Pittsburgh PA. It has gotten its money's worth from the cost of those signs.

West Broadway at White Street, NYC, looking south in November 2017 (Google Street View).

If you look very closely at the Goodall signs, you can see that they were painted over other signs. You can just make out "Manufacturer of Handkerchiefs" on the left sign. It is unknown what company occupied that space, but it's pretty impressive that a sign that at the very least dates from the 1930s, and likely much earlier, is still visible at all. Now, unless people were using industrial rubber for their handkerchiefs in the early 20th Century, some other company had their signs there long before Goodall came along. Incidentally, it is worth pointing out that the old Goodall building was vacant as of late 2017. Goodall had held down that spot for forty years, but the departure of manufacturing from New York City for a variety of reasons in the later years of the 20th Century has had long-term consequences.

I hope you enjoyed this entry in our "the more things change, the more they stay the same" series. Remnants of the past abound in New York City, you see them everywhere, and which survive and which do not often is a matter of sheer chance. Please visit some of our other pages in this series!

2019