The Haughwout Building, located in the trendy Manhattan district near Broadway, was the site of one of the most enduring porcelain manufacturers in America. 

The original home of E.V. Haughwout & Co. the 5 story miracle of ironwork housed the company that created mirrors, chandeliers, fine china and many other delicacies for such clients as the Czar of Russia and the Imam of Muscat.

Gifts from the company were given to such esteemed recipients as the King of Siam and the Emperor of Japan.  The structure was built in 1856 under the architectural guidance of John P. Gaynor.

By the 1860’s Haughwout was widely known as one of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln’s favorite stores. In Philip Kundhart’s book The American President,the First Lady’s plans to upgrade The White House during the Civil War is described in financial detail. “E.V. Haughwout & Co. billed $3,195 for a porcelain dining service with the Arms of the United States on each of the 190 pieces. Pretty soon, Mary Lincoln’s refurbishing added up to $26,000, $6,000 more than Congress had allotted.”

Such expenses could’ve created a political nightmare for President Lincoln, who was not exactly known as a fan of gaudiness. He also didn’t want to seem too extravagant while soldiers fought with next to nothing in the last leg of America’s bloodiest war.

Still standing strong and surviving the threat of being torn down to make way for a proposed Lower Manhattan expressway project during the 1960s, the Haughwout Building went through a massive renovation in 1995 and today the first floor houses a branch of the office supply store Staples.

The structure itself was the first to have a passenger elevator. This new “luxury” would change building construction forever and later make it possible to create the first generation of skyscrapers like the Woolworth Building and the Empire State Building.