Smith & Gray Company Building

The Smith and Gray Company Building at 103 Broadway stands as a rare, surviving example of the cast-iron architecture that once defined commercial expansion in post-Civil War Williamsburg. Completed in 1870, this five-story structure served as the retail headquarters for one of the nineteenth century's most successful ready-made clothing manufacturers. Edward Smith, a tailor who began his business in Manhattan in 1833, revolutionized the industry by pioneering the production of ready-made clothes specifically for children. When he partnered with his brother-in-law Allen Gray and moved the firm to Brooklyn in 1864, they chose this site to anchor their operations on what was then the neighborhood's most important commercial artery.