Joseph J. Asch (1843-1927) was a Pennsylvania-born furrier, hat-maker, and real-estate investor. He was a charter member of The Lambs, joining the Club in 1877 as a non-professional member. His name is linked to one of the biggest tragedies in New York City history, the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.
Asch divided his time with homes in Manhattan and Westport, Connecticut. He owned a factory in South Norwalk that employed 200 in the manufacture of fur hats and forming hats.
Asch, who had a wholesale business on White Street, acquired Greek Revival row houses on Washington Place to raze, including the 1843 birthplace of author Henry James. It took Asch more than 10 years to acquire all of the lots to erect a 10-story structure, a modern factory building that could employ hundreds in the garment trade east of Washington Square Park. It opened in 1901 and he called it the Asch Building. Because it was only to be 135 feet tall, it was allowed to have wood floors, wood window frames and trim, instead of the metal trim, metal floors, and walls.
Near closing time on March 25, 1911, a fire broke out at the Triangle Waist Factory. Within 18 minutes, 146 people were dead as a result of the fire, most of them immigrant women and girls. Asch’s name is forever remembered as the owner of the Asch Building. The building still stands and is owned by New York University; it is called the Brown Building.
Joseph J. Asch retired and left New York City. He died Sept. 10, 1927, at his home in Belle Haven, Connecticut. He was 83 years old.
—Kevin C. Fitzpatrick research & writing.