Neighborhood Playhouse ARCHITECT: Ingalls & Hoffman DATE: 1913-15 STYLE: Neo-Georgian The Neighborhood Playhouse was constructed in 1913-15 by sisters Alice and Irene Lewisohn as part of the Henry Street Settlement. A theatrical group by the same name founded by Lewisohn sisters was located here from 1915 to 1927. One of the city’s early “little theaters,” it was an experimental theater that presented innovative drama, song, and dance. The redbrick neo-Georgian style facade was designed by the architectural firm of Ingalls & Hoffman.

This building is one of the four surviving fieldstone religious structures built in the late Federal era in lower Manhattan. The fieldstone was quarried from Mount Pitt, a hill that once stood at the present corner of Pitt and Grand Streets. Bialystoker Synagogue, originally the Willett Street Methodist Episcopal Church, has a richly hued interior with statuary and paintings. A concealed corridor discovered during renovations in the 1990’s led to speculation that the building was a safe house on the Underground Railroad. The building is a New York City Individual Landmarks and is listed on the State and Nation Register of Historic Places.

Where do you usually work? We asked this question to our Urban Archive community and mapped their answers. Take a look!

Rivington Street, north side, west from Ludlow Street, showing a station of the Second Ave. Elevated Line on Allen Street.

Anshe Chesed and Rodeph Sholom are respectively the oldest and second oldest surviving synagogue buildings in the city, and some of the oldest in the country. Both were constructed for German Jewish congregations in German architectural styles: Gothic Revival and Rundbogenstil (“round-arch style”), and feature red brick, central staircases and symmetrical façades with recessed central sections and square towers. Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue is the only Greek Synagogue in New York and the only synagogue of Romaniote Jews in the Western Hemisphere. The Eldridge Street Synagogue was America’s first major house of worship built by Eastern European Orthodox Jews. The yellow brick building features Moorish and Romanesque details and rich ornament. At its peak in the early 20th century, the synagogue hosted as many as 1,000 worshippers at services, but was forced to close in the mid-20th century when the area’s Jewish population began to dwindle. In 1986, the Eldridge Street Project funded a large-scale restoration of the building, which was repurposed as a museum. The Former Congregation Anshe Chesed, Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and the Former Eldridge Street Synagogue are all designated New York City Individual Landmarks.

108 East 1st Street Building Date : 1841 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : George H. Rofs Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations As evidenced by the tax records and map evidence this was a row house built 1840-41 and a rear building was constructed in 1853 (later demolished). As of the 1903 map it is identified as a synagogue. This is a three-story brick building with Romanesque elements and Gothic pointed arches, including four pilasters on the front above the first story, a rounded entrance arch and arched windows on the third and first stories. The stepped pediment at the top of the building is adorned with a Star of David, reflecting the building’s former use as a synagogue.

The history of organized outdoor play for children in New York goes back over 100 years, reflecting the social and cultural issues throughout.

24 Avenue A, 148-152 2nd Street Building Date : 1915 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Claws Realty and Construction Company, Inc. Original Architect : Charles B. Meyers Description & Building Alterations Built in 1915 as a new law tenement by Charles B. Meyers, this six-story corner building replaced several early brownstones. Modestly ornamented, the building exhibits an eclectic style but demonstrates the changing trend toward a less ornate, more stylized, geometric ornamentation that would become popular during the Art Deco movement. While it is not clear what the original shop was, by 1935 there was a furniture store in the building (like most of its neighbors on Avenue A), called Diamond & Cooperberg Colonial Furniture.

205 East Houston Street, ca. 1975. Ludlow Street façade of Katz's Delicatessen, 205 East Houston Street. In 1888, the Iceland brothers established what is now known as Katz’s Delicatessen on the east side of Ludlow Street, opposite its present location. Upon the arrival of Willy Katz in 1903, the establishment's name was changed from Iceland Brothers to Iceland & Katz, and later to just Katz's when the Icelands sold their share. Katz’s moved to the west side of Ludlow Street during the mid-1930s, due to construction of the Houston-Essex Street Line segment of the IND Sixth Avenue Line subway.

Broome Street, northside, east from Willett Street. Public School No. 34 is the third building from the left, June 6, 1930.

Since its founding in 1973 by a group of Puerto Rican artists, poets and intellectuals, the Nuyorican Poets Café has become a cultural icon in New York City. “Nuyorican,” a word that blends “New York” and “Puerto Rican,” refers to the movement begun by Puerto Rican artists to battle social injustice and find empowerment through intellectual and cultural expression. The Café became a venue for displaying and digesting such creative expression, especially poetry and spoken word, but also theater, music, visual arts and film. Originally located in the living room of poet Miguel Algarin’s East Village apartment, the founders purchased this former tenement building in 1980. The Café, a highly respected nonprofit arts organization, continues to host an array of award-winning performances, educational programs and exhibits, and to provide support for fledgling artists and serves as an important cultural touchstone for the city.

17-21 Avenue A Building Date : 1838-39 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Ebenezer Baptist Church (35), Azor Hoyt (36) Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This lot consists of two separate buildings which were joined together in 1933 and were originally built 1838-39 according to the tax records. One, the historic lot 35 (19-21 Avenue A) is a four story, five bay brick loft building, painted white and originally it was built as a church and it was altered in the 1870’s to its present form (see permits). The middle bay’s windows have been filled in. It has two-story plate glass front (added in 1914). The historic lot 36 (17 Avenue A) is a four story, three-bay unpainted brick building that was built as a row house. Records show that it once had a galvanized iron cornice, but it has been removed. A 51-foot long sign spans the fronts of both buildings above the first story.

The Bialystoker Synagogue, 1930.

Flower and garment shops, Orchard Street, ca. 1975.

Our Lady of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church, 213 Stanton Street, ca. 1973. The Church of Our Lady of Sorrows is located in an area once known as Kleindeutschland, Little Germany. Established in 1867, it ministered to the large number of German Catholics who migrated to New York in the late 19th century. The church, designed by Henry Engelbert, was built with a combination of Victorian, Byzantine, and Romanesque architectural styles and completed in 1868.  By the early 1910s, much of the German population on the Lower East Side had moved uptown. In their place were multitudes of newly-arrived Italian immigrants, and then later, Hispanic. Despite these shifts in neighborhood demographic, the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows had adapted to its surroundings to serve the changing congregations. By 2000, masses were offered in Spanish and English; the church today is also known as Nuestra Señora de los Dolores.

The Lower East Side was not a wealthy neighborhood in the late 19th century, and it was common for Jewish congregations to pray in converted spaces rather than pay to build something to their specifications. Built as a church in 1860, this building became home to the Orthodox German-Jewish congregation Shaaray Hashomayim (“Gates of the Heavens”) in 1864. It was common for congregations like this to frequently move locations, finding nicer (or cheaper, depending on their needs) accommodations in other buildings. So Gates of the Heavens left this building in 1889 and it reverted to use as a church again. It became a synagogue once again in 1902 - this time as home to the unrelated congregation with a similar name, Shaaray Shomayim (also meaning Gates of Heaven). They remained in the building for over 100 years. Its design was described as “eclectic Byzantine” and it was the largest in the area, holding 1800 worshipers. Sound reverberated spectacularly in this space and it became known as the “Cantor’s Carnegie Hall”, hosting such famous Chazzans as Yossele Rosenblatt, Moshe Koussevitzky, Zavel Kwartin, Moishe Oysher, Jan Pearce and Richard Tucker. Red Buttons sang in the choir and Edward G. Robinson had his Bar Mitzvah there. Like most synagogues in the area, congregation numbers slowly dwindled through the 20th century until just a handful of congregants remained by the 2000s. The congregation persevered only through the efforts of Rabbi Yaakov Spiegel, who led the synagogue from 1981-2001; in June 2003, that swath of Rivington was named “Rabbi Yaakov Spiegel Way” in his honor. But by December 2005, the building had sustained too much damage to be safe and services were moved to a nearby home. In January 2006, the synagogue’s roof collapsed, and the building was demolished two months later.

Streit’s Matzos factory at the corner of Suffolk and Rivington Streets. The Streit family produced matzo at this location from 1925 to June 2015.

Adolf Mandel Bank, Rivington Street. February 16, 1912. Local pick-pockets started a rumor that the bank’s safe was insecure, in order to spark a run on the bank, and then to rob concerned customers who had made withdrawals. Nearly a thousand people waited on Rivington Street to access their deposits.

Loew's Delancey Theater, 140-146 Delancey Street. In 1911, tenement buildings with Jewish storefronts were demolished to make way for the Loew’s Theater, which opened in 1912 and remained in operation until 1977.

East Side Free Kitchen, undated (ca. 1935). Despite having all the trappings of a charitable organization, the East Side Free Kitchen was the subject of a 1943 indictment by the state attorney Nathaniel L. Goldstein described as “the opening gun in a drive against fake charities.” The indictment alleged that the organization collected unsaleable or spoiled food which it then “cooked into a hodge-podge of soup and served with bread to about fifteen people daily.” While the scope of charitable activities was limited, the free kitchen nonetheless collected “thousands of dollars” of donations annually.

The southeast corner of Suffolk and Rivington Streets, 1910. Rivington Street is named after James Rivington. A "supposed" Loyalist who wrote a Loyalist newspaper, the New York Gazetteer, later The Royal Gazette, Rivington was covertly part of the Culper Spy Ring, which supplied George Washington with information.

Ratner’s was a famous Jewish kosher dairy restaurant, founded in 1905 by Jacob Harmatz and his brother-in-law Alex Ratner. The pair supposedly flipped a coin to decide whose name would be on the sign. Originally located on Pitt Street, Ratner’s moved to 138 Delancey Street in 1918. Until 1975, Ratner’s was a 24-hour establishment and therefore part of the late-night city scene popular with Jewish performers, actors, musicians, and gangsters. Ratner’s remained in the Harmatz family until its closure in 2002.

In the first half of the 20th century, Jewish boxers were some of the most famous and feared athletes in the country.

446 Avenue D; 422 East Houston Street Building Date : 1901 Original Use : Institutional Original Owner : New York City Original Architect : Charles B.J. Snyder Description & Building Alterations Public School 188, or The Island School, is a five-story brick structure. It was the only building on this block not demolished to make way for the Lillian Wald Houses. It was designed by Charles B.J. Snyder and built in 1901. Snyder had a remarkable career with the Board of Education spanning thirty-one years, in which he set a new standard for municipal architecture. He served as Superintendent of School Buildings from 1891-1923. A 1902 New York Times article deemed this building “the largest public school in all the United States, and probably the world.” The building features terra cotta and limestone trimmings and follows an H-plan design, increasing the amount of light and ventilation in circulation. Snyder was the first architect to fireproof school buildings. He made sure that 5,000 children inside would be able to reach the street within three to four minutes. This building originally featured rooftop playgrounds, four rooms for manual training, large libraries, and a spacious gymnasium. Many of the windows are original

Church of the Most Holy Redeemer ca. 1935 In 1883 there was a fire at the school of the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer that led to the deaths of 16 children. The Roman Catholic Church of the Most Holy Redeemer at 173 East 3rd was built in 1851 -1852 by the Redemptorist Fathers. Today, the Church primarily serves a Spanish-speaking population, but like many other sites in the East Village, its history can be traced back to a time when the area was known as Kleindeustchland or Little Germany. With a tower that today reaches into the sky far beyond most of the structures of the East Village, it is hard to believe that Most Holy Redeemer’s original tower soared even higher, to more than 250 feet. Today the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer is a majestic limestone, high Romanesque style building although it was originally designed in the elaborate and highly ornamented baroque style and altered in 1913 by architect Paul Schultz. This remarkable Church was called out for its historic significance in a study of the East Village that was completed as part of the area’s rezoning. The school building, located directly behind the church on East 4th Street, is a four story brick building with a far humbler Romanesque façade. On the afternoon of February 20, 1883 a small fire broke out that led to the deaths of 16 schoolchildren and left 8 more injured. There were 900 children enrolled at the school and when smoke climbed into the second and third story classrooms a panic took hold. The children rushed into a staircase at the western end of the building to flee the fire. The rush of children into the narrow (3 feet wide) staircase became chaos which turned into tragedy when the railings (affixed to the walls only with nails) gave way and children fell from the stair to the floor below. As more children descended the stair pushing and crushing those ahead of them, more children fell off the stair into the pile of children reported to be four deep. An investigation of the fire and the cause of the children’s deaths led to a number of actions. The jury in a court case to determine if any parties – the school, the Bureau of Buildings or the Fire Department – had been negligent in any way found that no parties were negligent and recommended that fire drills should be practiced and that handrails be installed on both sides of the stairway. In his defense, Mr. Esterbrook, the Superintendent of the Bureau of Buildings claimed that it had, “neither men nor money enough to properly carry on (its) work” — a refrain we still often hear today. A month after the fire, the Bureau of Buildings did require changes to the school: the stairways were extended to all floors of the building and an escape ladder was added for access to the roof. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children took on an independent investigation of the fire safety of a number of schools in the city and found that 45 out of 66 were unsafe. They found schools with no fire escapes, locked or inward opening doors, shaky railings, and narrow stairs at schools citywide, including some in the surrounding neighborhood such as St. Brigid’s School (demolished) at 302 East 8th Street, the former St. Ann’s School at 113 East 11th Street, the Hebrew Free School at 624 5th Street (demolished) and St. Anthony’s School at 60 MacDougal Street in the GVSHP proposed South Village Historic District. While it took a great deal of time, the persistence of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, one of the earliest children’s advocates against child abuse and endangerment, led to changes in the fire safety measures at New York City schools.

Hamilton Fish Library, date unknown. Designed by Carrère & Hastings and opened in 1909, the library was named for American statesman, Hamilton Fish, who was governor of New York and Secretary of State under Ulysses S. Grant. The building included a large open air roof area used for library functions.The building was razed during the widening of Houston Street in the 1950s. A public housing project now stands at its original site. A new Hamilton Fish Park Branch opened at 415 East Houston Street in 1960.

Harry De Jur Playhouse, 466 Grand Street, ca. 1979. This three-story Georgian Revival red brick structure, constructed between 1912 and 1915, was built as a theatre space for the Henry Street Settlement. Designed by architects Harry C. Ingalls and F. Burrall Hoffman, Jr., it was named for Harry De Jur, who had attended the settlement's programs as a child and was on the board as an adult. Initially created to provide the dense immigrant community of the Lower East Side with a local playhouse, the experimental theatre (along with Providence Playhouse and Washington Square Players) became an important venue in the foundation of modern American dramatic theater.

Hamilton Fish Park, ca. 1982. Completed in 1900, this small park was named for Hamilton Fish, a Governor of New York, a United States Senator, and United States Secretary of State. The original park was formal in style with a Beaux-Arts Gymnasium, sculpted water fountains, symmetrical plant beds, and trees. After only three years, the park was renovated to include active recreation such as track and tennis. In 1936 the park was further altered by the addition of a WPA pool (one of 11 pools opened that summer). Today the park included the pool, a community center in the old gymnasium (with meeting rooms for neighborhood groups), basketball courts, handball courts, and children's playgrounds.

135 Essex Street, ca. 1978. Schmulka Bernstein’s, also known as Bernstein-on-Essex, was a kosher deli and Chinese restaurant that flourished in this spot for over three decades. Armed with the slogan, “where kashrut is king and quality reigns,” the eatery originally opened as a kosher delicatessen in 1957. Founded by Solomon Bernstein, the restaurant was a family-run operation that began introducing Cantonese-style dishes to the menu in 1959. Cooking with veal, beef, and chicken livers instead of pork, the Bernsteins infused the cuisine of two cultures in a way that had never been done before. As boasted on the restaurant’s menu, Schmulka Bernstein was the “originator” of kosher Chinese foods in New York City. The menu featured dishes like Lo Mein Bernstein, cooked with chicken livers, alongside Eastern European delicacies. Waiters also wore traditional tasseled Chinese caps instead of yarmulkes. In the early 1990s, the owners sold the family business. While it remained in operation for a number of years, like many other beloved Jewish delicatessens on the Lower East Side, Schmulka Bernstein’s eventually closed down. The original building has since been demolished and replaced with a luxury condominium development.

Nos. 90-94 Sheriff Street, unknown date. By the mid-1960s, the tenement buildings pictured had been razed for the development of the Masaryk Towers, six middle-income housing cooperatives built under the auspices of New York's Mitchell-Lama Housing Program. The towers — named for Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia — opened in 1967. In recent years, the Masaryk board of directors has come under fire for restricting access to a de-mapped stretch of Rivington Street running through the development.

Rivington Street, north side, at Columbia Street. The view shows the De Witt Memorial Church at No. 280 Rivington Street, between Columbia and Cannon Streets. These buildings were reported to be over congested with 1 building having 98 people in 62 rooms!

Church of St. Mary, 440 Grand Street, ca. 1978. Established in 1826 to serve Irish immigrants living in the Lower East Side, the Church of St. Mary is the third oldest Catholic parish in New York City. The building, erected in 1832-33, was later expanded in 1871 by the renowned ecclesiastical architect Patrick Charles Keely. Before the sanctuary was completed, the parish held services in a former Presbyterian church on Sheriff Street. The original section of the building is the second oldest Roman Catholic structure to exist in the city, after St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, which was built in 1815.

My Archive Spring 2019 "My friend Ellen Retter is standing in front of Streit's grocery store on Rivington Street. I took this photo of her on December 19, 2013. Ellen was my dearest friend. I had been visiting her at her apartment on Grand Street, and we stopped to shop at Streit's before she walked me to the #21 bus stop on Houston Street. Ellen passed away suddenly on October 31, 2018. This is the only photo that I have of her, and I cherish it." —Phyllis Klein

194 East 2nd Street The pre-law tenements on lots 40-42 (or 194-198 2nd Street) were demolished between 1933 and 1940. The demolition of two of these buildings was completed by the Work Progress Administration (WPA), which was funded by the government following the Great Depression to give job opportunities to the unemployed.

Anshe Chesed and Rodeph Sholom are respectively the oldest and second oldest surviving synagogue buildings in the city, and some of the oldest in the country. Both were constructed for German Jewish congregations in German architectural styles: Gothic Revival and Rundbogenstil (“round-arch style”), and feature red brick, central staircases and symmetrical façades with recessed central sections and square towers. Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue is the only Greek Synagogue in New York and the only synagogue of Romaniote Jews in the Western Hemisphere. The Eldridge Street Synagogue was America’s first major house of worship built by Eastern European Orthodox Jews. The yellow brick building features Moorish and Romanesque details and rich ornament. At its peak in the early 20th century, the synagogue hosted as many as 1,000 worshippers at services, but was forced to close in the mid-20th century when the area’s Jewish population began to dwindle. In 1986, the Eldridge Street Project funded a large-scale restoration of the building, which was repurposed as a museum. The Former Congregation Anshe Chesed, Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and the Former Eldridge Street Synagogue are all designated New York City Individual Landmarks.

“Congregation Beth Hamedrash Hagadol.” The Gothic Revival Norfolk Street Baptist Church, built 1850, was purchased in 1885 by the Orthodox Jewish Congregation Beth Hamedrash Hagodol. After over 120 years of continuous use, the synagogue closed in 2007, due to a dwindling congregation and deterioration of the structure. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999, but today remains abandoned.

100-110 Delancey Street, ca. 1978.

135 Ridge Street, at the southwest corner of Stanton Street. J. Leskowitz, a clothier and tailor, had his shop on the ground floor, while surgeon and dentist Dr. S. Jaeger had his practice on the second floor.

A Gothic Revival synagogue at 172 Norfolk Street. Built in 1849 for Congregation Ansche Chesed, it was sold to Congregation Shaari Rachmim in 1873, to The First Hungarian Congregation Ohab Zedek in 1886, and to congregation Sheveth Achim Anshe Slonim in 1921, before its abandonment in 1974 and subsequent vandalization. In 1986, Jewish Spanish sculptor and painter Angel Orensanz purchased the property, restoring it and converting it to an art gallery and performance space. It was designated a New York City landmark in 1987.

13 Avenue A Building Date : 1838-39 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Benjamin Winthrop Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This is a three-story, three-bay-wide brick building with an iron and glass storefront and cast iron trim that has been painted blue, including lintels and sills on the third floor windows. The second story windows appear to have been replaced fairly recently, they are irregularly sized and have plain white frames. The roof is enclosed with a wood fence.

Shops on Orchard Street. During the 20th Century, Orchard Street became one of the Lower East Side’s primary shopping streets, particularly for discount clothing promoted by “callers,” merchants advertising their shops’ wares from the sidewalks.

304 Houston Street, 1935.

New York City’s oldest extant building originally built as a synagogue is this Gothic Revival structure designed by architect Alexander Saeltzer. The synagogue was built in 1849 by Reformed Jewish Congregation Ansche Chesed (People of Kindness) which was made up primarily of German Jews, as well as Dutch Jews and Polish Jews. (This group generally emigrated to New York City a few decades earlier than the wave of Eastern European Jews who later populated the Lower East Side so densely.) It was the largest synagogue in the United States at the time and could hold up to 1,500 worshipers. Services were conducted primarily in German. Services were accompanied by musical instruments, including an organ that was added in 1869 at the same time as family pews were introduced, with men and women sitting together - evidence that the congregation was modernizing and Americanizing. In 1873, the congregation merged with another and the building was sold to Orthodox Congregation Shaari Rachmim. Shari Rachmim removed the organ and remained in the building until 1886. Then, First Hungarian Congregation Ohab Zedek occupied the building until 1921 and Congregation Anshe Slonim worshipped there from 1921 to 1974. Like so many others, the 1970s brought abandonment and decay to the historic building until it was rescued by artist Angel Orensanz in 1986. It was designated a historic landmark in 1987 and is now used as a well-known and beloved event space.

“East Houston St., Moving Picture Theatres.” The Academy Theater, with signs advertising “high class Broadway features.” In this photo, the theater appears abandoned; the sign to the left of its facade addresses anyone seeking “information regarding these 3 buildings,” presumably the theater and its neighbors. According to an apocryphal story, in 1921, an Academy porter confused a beam of light from a skylight opened to cool the auditorium for a flame and, allegedly, shouted “fire” in the crowded theater.

Bundled to keep warm, this woman stands with a pile of Forward and other newspapers to sell on the Lower East Side. Selling newspapers was not just a job for the “newsies,” street-smart, impoverished child laborers who hawked them on the streets. It was a rough-and- tumble game, with vendors zealously guarding their territory. East Broadway was hub for Yiddish papers, though they were widely sold throughout the City.

Congregation Chasam Sopher is an Orthodox synagogue located at 10 Clinton Street on the Lower East Side. Formed in 1892 by the joining of two congregations of immigrants from Poland, it occupies a Romanesque Revival building constructed in 1853. It is among the oldest surving synagogue buildings in the United States, the second-oldest synagogue building in New York City, and the oldest still in use in the state.

East side of Norfolk Street, viewed from Essex Street, late 1960s. Beth Hamedrash Hagodol, at center left, was still holding services, though its attendance had begun to diminish. The synagogue was the only building on this block of Norfolk Street not razed for Seward Park Urban Renewal.

Stores on Rivington Street, 1978. Next door to the Porky Meat Mart, Catholic religious icons are visible inside 129 Rivington, while the storefront window captures a reflection of Schapiro’s Kosher Wines, across the street. The businesses along Rivington Street reflect the diversity of communities who made the Lower East Side their home: By the 1970s, the neighborhood was home to a growing population of Latin American immigrants, in addition to second and third generation Jewish Americans.

Loew's Avenue B Theater Though many theatre magnates from the turn of the century are forgotten, one name from this era still associated with movie theaters today is Loew’s. Started by Marcus Loew, Loew’s Consolidated Enterprises, later Loew’s Inc., became one of the most prestigious theater chains. By 1913 Marcus Loew owned seventeen theaters in the New York City area and several others throughout the northeast. He built what he believed to be his most decadent theater on the corner of Avenue B and East 5th Street – the site of the tenement building in which he grew up. Designed in 1912 by Thomas W. Lamb, Loew’s Avenue B’s facade was clad in white terra cotta and featured over-sized arches and large windows. It was a gleaming contrast to the brick tenements that surrounded it and an impressive design that was meant to evoke an exotic palace. For the residents of the neighborhood, the building and the entertainment it provided must have been a welcome bit of frivolity. Lamb, who was a prolific theater architect, designed nine other theaters in 1912 alone. Over the course of his career he would design around fifty theaters in New York City and several hundred around the world. His theaters, like Loew’s Avenue B, were known for their bold designs in light colored terra cotta with bright punches and high-relief work. Some of his more famous works include the Regent Theater at W. 116th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard, the Boston Opera House, Capital Theater at 1645 W. Broadway (demolished) and his themed theaters, like the United Palace at W. 175th and Broadway, which still stands today. Loew’s Avenue B, which had one screen and seating for approximately 1,750 people, slowly became outdated. As early as the mid-1920s it began to suffer and when it closed in 1958 it was showing movies that had already been out for some time. The building was demolished around 1968 and replaced with a nursing home.

Carpathian Russian Orthodox Catholic Church of the Holy Trinity, April 26, 1935. Constructed in 1892, this church first served the Slovak and Hungarian immigrant community. From 1918 1o 1975 it was a Russian Eastern Orthodox Church, and from 1975 until recently was the home of a little-known Catholic sect that practices the Mozarabic rite (possibly the only congregation of its kind in the United States).

Essex Street Marke, December 8, 1941. The Essex Street Market began in 1940 as part of an effort by Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia to find a new place for street merchants to do business. At that time, pushcarts and vendors crowded city streets, particularly in the Lower East Side, making it hard for police and fire vehicles to easily pass. Flustered by congestion and unregulated activity, Mayor LaGuardia saw it fit to better organize the streets. He outlawed the practice, calling pushcart peddlers "a blemish on the face of the city," and financed the opening of the Essex Street Market. In a wider-effort to minimize overcrowding and improve public health and hygiene, he also developed various other indoor retail stores throughout Manhattan. The Essex Street Market closed in its original location on May 5, 2019. It will move into a new and larger home at the Essex Crossing development later in 2019.

Upon reaching New York, many Jewish immigrants settled on the Lower East Side, establishing new congregations and social aid societies specific to local communities of the old country. Small synagogues were so common that a stretch of East Broadway was known as “shtiebel row,” after the Yiddish term for a small space for prayer (in contrast to larger synagogues). Over time, Manhattan’s Jewish population shifted to other parts of the city, causing Lower East Side congregations to dwindle. Many synagogues were sold, shuttered, or abandoned, and some have since been demolished. Still, the neighborhood bears many traces of its once-vibrant Jewish life.

The building shown is the Loew's Delancey Theater, a motion-picture house. September 25, 1936 showings include “My American Wife,” a comedy starring Francis Lederer and Ann Sothern, and “Yours for the Asking,” with George Raft and Dolores Costello.

Hamilton Fish Pool, 1936. Designed in 1898 by Carrère & Hastings (of later NYPL building fame) the Hamilton Fish Park Gymnasium opened in 1900. The building, a grand Beaux Arts structure, was constructed as the first phase of the park's construction, and had only a small fountain and grassy area with benches surrounding it. In 1903 more recreational venues were constructed including tennis courts and a running track. In June of 1936 the WPA pool opened adjacent to the elaborate gymnasium. In 1952 the U.S. Olympic Team used the pool for practice sessions before the Helsinki Olympics. Hamilton Fish Park (named for a 19th century New York politician) underwent a $14 million restoration in the early 1990s, including upkeep on the pool. The gymnasium was granted landmark status in 1982 and is today used as a community center.

Run on Adolf Mandel's Bank, February 16, 1912.

5 Avenue A Building Date : 1835-1836 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Charles Farington Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This is a four-story, four bay brick tenement building with a restaurant/bar occupying the first floor originally built 1835-36. The south side features a contemporary mural, primarily blue, one story in height, that promotes the current tenant (Nice Guy Eddie’s). The storefront on the eastern (Avenue A) side consists of brown brick and glass. The lintels are cast iron and the cornice is a Neo-Grec styled metal cornice likely dating from an 1877 alteration.

Virginia day Nursery ca. 1906 Founded in 1879, the Virginia Day Nursery cared for the children of working single mothers from the immigrant communities of the Lower East Side. This photograph was taken at the nursery's East 5th Street location, built in 1901. The Virginia Day Nursery remains active today at its East 10th Street location, with 67 children of lower-income working or student parents, and a therapeutic program for children with special needs.

176 East 3rd Street, 1937.

Founded by Sam Schapiro in 1899, Schapiro’s Kosher Wines operated on Rivington Street until 2000. From 1899 to 1967 the grapes were pressed on-location in the block-long network of cellars below the street.

Norfolk Street Baptist Church ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: 1850 STYLE: Gothic Revival Striking in profile, this smooth-faced stone Synagogue is an interesting example of modified Gothic Revival architecture. Raised on a platform of steps above the street, the recessed center section of the symmetrical facade is flanked by square towers pierced by coupled pointed arched windows that light the side vestibules. The dominant feature of this structure is the main, double entrance door with over-door panel joining it to the tall tripartite arched window, surmounted by a pedimented roof, affixed with the Star of David.

155 Rivington Street ca. 1915

Readers of the Forward looked to the paper for important news. Here, a large group gathers at the corner of Essex and Delancey Streets to read the Forward’s reporting that the Second World War had ended.

Israel Orphan Asylum Though now an 11-story apartment building built in 1997, occupies this lot, the lot is so large because, according to historic maps, a Methodist church once stood on the site. This church can be dated back to 1853. As of 1914, the church had been demolished and turned into the Israel Orphan Asylum owned by the Austrian Hebrew Free Burial and Orphan Asylum Association, which was a three-story brick tenement building. A historic New York Times article from 1918 says that this was the largest Jewish orphanage on the East Side. A man named Gustave Hartman, a judge and Jewish community leader, founded this orphanage. Originally it was for male children ages one to six, but later opened to girls and children up to age fourteen. Many of these children were wartime orphans. Hartman financed the orphanage on his own and through fundraising. He died in 1936. 12,000 people attended his funeral and 85 police officers were needed to control the crowds. His wife continued to run the orphanage after his death. The small triangular plot of land located at 2nd Street and Avenue C was named the Gustave Hartman Triangle and still keeps that name today. Jewish orphanages were a prominent fixture in New York during this time.

This remarkably intact Gothic Revival church’s form, design, details, and history reflect the kaleidoscope of immigrants and ethnic groups which called the Lower East Side home and shaped New York over the last century and a quarter — making it not just architecturally significant but an embodiment of New York City’s and the East Village’s immigrant history. This structure was originally built in 1891-92 and designed by Edward Wenz for the Church of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, serving the surrounding Slovak and Hungarian immigrant community. The church was the first national Slovak parish for the Slovak and Hungarian Catholics of New York and Brooklyn. Later the building was bought by the Russian Greek Orthodox National Association and became the Carpathian Russian Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas. It served the emerging Russian immigrant community in the early and mid-twentieth century, as evidenced by the royal seal of the Russian Czars located on the church’s front gates. After 1975, the church housed San Isidoro y San Leandro Western Orthodox Catholic Church of Hispanic Mozarabic Rite, a highly unusual Western Orthodox Catholic Church – seemingly one of the very few in America, and one of the few or perhaps only to practice the Mozarabic Rite. Two-headed eagle, symbolic of the Russian Empire, at the iron fence in front of the church Edward Wenz was a successful architect well known for his design of many speculative builders’ work, particularly residential structures in upper Manhattan. Born in Germany in 1855, he migrated to the United States and settled in New York City in 1880. It is not clear where Edward Wenz received his architectural education, but it is recorded that he started to practice architectural design as early as 1887. One of his most notable works, the Park View Flats on Central Park West between 103rd and 104th Streets (1893, demolished) was a combination of nine handsome apartment houses that occupied the entire block front facing Central Park. The Real Estate Record and Builders’ Guide of 1893 described it as among the year’s most notable structures along Central Park West. The early years of the Church of St. Elizabeth of Hungary were marked by instability and a constantly changing series of pastors and priests. From 1892 to 1895, in merely three years, three different pastors were appointed to replace the previous one. Conflicts between the Slovaks, who originally founded the church, and an increasing number of Hungarians that later became the majority of the congregation, intensified in 1895, resulting in the withdrawal of the Slovaks. In spite of this instability in its early decades, St. Elizabeth’s eventually became a leading Hungarian church in the city. In 1905, under the direction of the church pastor Francis C. Denes, who replaced the previous Slovak priest, a Hungarian Catholic Club was established, for which the Hungarian Consul-General served as the chairman. Denes’ apartment, which was on the top floor of the church building, hosted the first meeting of the club. As Central Europeans began to move uptown to neighborhoods like Yorkville, the Church of St. Elizabeth also relocated to East 83rd Street. As more Eastern Europeans moved into the neighborhood in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the church was sold to the Russian Greek Orthodox National Association, Inc. in 1918 for $18,500. Eastern Orthodoxy is a form of Christianity that diverged from Roman Catholicism in late antiquity and centered in Eastern Europe and in the Eastern Mediterranean. Separate national churches would evolve and these Eastern Orthodox churches would have a major presence in America with the immigration of the Eastern Europeans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The see of the Russian Orthodox Church in America was moved from Alaska to San Francisco by 1880, but with the wave of immigration to New York from Eastern Europe at the end of the nineteenth century, the see was moved to New York City in 1905. The Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church sold the property in 1975 and it became the home to San Isidoro y San Leandro Western Orthodox Catholic Church of the Hispanic Mozarabic Rite. Western Rite Orthodoxy, Western Orthodoxy, and Orthodox Western Rite are terms used to describe congregations and groups which are in communion with Eastern Orthodox Churches or Oriental Orthodox Churches, but which use traditional Western liturgies rather than adopting Eastern liturgies such as the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.

As the center of New York’s Jewish immigrant communities, the Lower East Side was home to numerous Jewish-owned businesses, none more prominent than its many Kosher eateries, delicatessens, and grocers. Check out the handful of famous establishments that still serve food the old-fashioned way.

Apartment building at 193-197 Stanton Street. Storefronts include a “pocket billiards” parlor, plumbing supply shop, and “J Leskowitz, Mfr. of Mohair, Alpaca & Tropical Suits.”

Loew's Avenue B Theater, ca. 1960. Loew's Avenue B Theatre was designed by famed theatre architect Thomas Lamb. Opened in 1912, the facade was clad in bright white terra cotta, eye catching among the dark brick of the nearby tenements. A single screen movie house that sat 1,750 patrons, the business began experiencing low attendance as early as the mid 1920s. The theatre closed in 1958 and the building was demolished in 1968, replaced with a nursing home.

Congregation Morgan Abraham, ca. 1985. Built circa 1845 and originally constructed for the First Methodist Protestant Church, the Greek Revival building was occupied by a second church before it became a synagogue by the start of the 20th century. The first Jewish community to use the house of worship was the First Congregation Galiz Duckler Mogen Abaraham in 1905. They were a congregation of immigrants from Galicia, a historic region near modern day Poland and Ukraine. The synagogue later was called simply Congregation Morgan Abraham. Still standing and functioning as a house of worship in the early 1970s, it was the only synagogue in the city without indoor plumbing. The front wall of the building collapsed in 1989 and the building was soon after demolished.

A rendering of C.B.J. Snyder’s Public School 160 at the corner of Suffolk and Rivington Streets.

Houston Street — that's HOW-stun, for the first-time visitors — has seen many changes since it was mapped as the southern boundary of Manhattan's famous street grid under the Commissioners' Plan of 1811. In fact, the 1811 plan was the first time the street, named for William Houstoun, was spelled "Houston." The misspelling stuck. Houstoun was the Georgia-born son of Sir Patrick Houstoun, a Scottish aristocrat and member of the state's colonial Government. The younger Houstoun represented Georgia at the Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention of 1787, where he met Mary Bayard, of the prominent Manhattan family, whom he married in 1788. The original segment of Houstoun's namesake street was part of the Bayard family's property. Over the ensuing decades, Houston was merged with neighboring thoroughfares (North Street on the east side; Hammersley Street on the west) until it spanned the breadth of the entire island. This walk covers the tumultuous early decades of the 20th century, when subway construction and increased automobile traffic molded Houston into its current form. Let's take a look!

Bialystoker Synagogue, ca, 1977. The fieldstone Methodist Episcopal Church was built in 1826, using Manhattan schist from a quarry on nearby Pitt Street. Founded by a group of Jews who came from town of Białystok in present-day Poland, the congregation purchased the building at 7 Willett Street in 1907.

Delancey Approach to the Williamsburg Bridge ca. 1919 Linking Manhattan and Brooklyn, the Williamsburg Bridge opened in 1903. The first person to cross it was Wally Owen in his fifty-six horsepower Speedster. Owen's round trip was clocked at six minutes and fifty seconds; several policemen wandering about on the bridge barely escaped injury. The bridge was dubbed the Jews' Highway by the press because it opened rural Williamsburg to Jewish immigrants seeking to escape the crowded Lower East Side.

Building at the intersection of East Houston Street, First Street, Avenue A, and Essex Street; April 3, 1935. The four-story tenement building appears in Manhattan insurance maps as early as 1859, and occupied a slender flatiron plot at the intersection of Houston and First Streets, roughly where the present-day median begins on the east side of the intersection. The building, usually numbered 2-4 Avenue A, survived the 1930s-era widening of Essex and Houston Streets to make room for the construction of the new IND Houston-Essex Line subway, which today carries the F train. It even has a brief filmic cameo in The Naked City, a beloved 1948 film noir set in and around the Lower East Side. The building was razed in 1955, when Houston Street was again widened in order to accommodate two-way traffic.

Welcome to 155 Rivington Street. Before you climb the stairs, step back and take a look at its elegant facade. Think of all the people that have passed through this space over its 117-year history. From horse and buggies, through prohibition, and the great depression, this building has seen a lot.

141 Attorney Street (at the far right) is the only building in this photo that current still stands. The school in the center (P.S. 174) was demolished and Attorney Street was severed by a cul-de-sac.

231 East 4th Street | Block : 400 | Lot #42 Building Date : c. 1850 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Unknown Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This pre-law Italianate tenement was built, according to maps, c. 1850 as two connected buildings with apartments over stores. Additionally, there was a brewery in the back of the lot that was removed by the 1880s. The lot was once part of William B. Astor’s holdings and was leased out to various people between 1850-1875. In the mid-1930s the buildings were remodeled, and the projecting lintels and sills were shaved down and the ground-floor shops partially replaced with apartments. At some point, the facade was painted.

Essex Street, west side, from Rivington to Houston Streets, March 13, 1932. In the center of the frame (mid block between Rivington and Stanton Streets) is no. 147. It is a simple five-story tenement building. In 1917 comic book creator Jack Kirby was born in an apartment in this building.

Hamilton Fish Pool, under construction, April 26, 1935.

174 Delancey Street, viewed from the Williamsburg Bridge. Detail of upper stories.

Hamilton Fish Park Gymnasium, June 29, 1938.

After the 1929 stock market crash and ensuing Great Depression, selling apples became a popular way to help now-unemployed New Yorkers eke out a living.

Public School 160, ca. 1920. Designed by C.B.J. Snyder in 1898, 107 Suffolk Street was home to P.S. 160 until its closure in 1976. The Dutch Neo-Gothic building was completed in 1898. Today the building houses the Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center whose mission is to nurture and develop Puerto Rican and Latino arts in the Lower East Side.

173 East 3rd Street Building Date : 1852/1913 alt. Original Use : Institutional Original Owner : Catholic Diocese of New York Original Architect : Mr. (Johannas) Walsh, alterations by Paul Schultz Description & Building Alterations This lot is a conglomeration of several old lots that contain the Roman Catholic Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, the rectory, a former Catholic school for girls, a playground and former convent. The church was founded by Redemptorist Fathers and the complex was built in 1852 for the large German immigrant population. When the church was built, its steeple was much taller, only slightly shorter than St. Patrick’s Cathedral even though it predated that building. Archbishop John Hughes and Bishop John Neumann, the only male American citizen canonized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church, were present at the dedication. The architect, according to From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan’s Houses of Worship by David Dunlap was Mr. Walsh. This could have been Johannas Walsh, who was the only architect with the last name ‘Walsh’ in the NYC Directory from 1851-52. Although somewhat eclectic, the overall design of the church is in a mix of the Baroque Romanesque and Byzantine Revival styles. It originally had a 250-foot tower. The building’s ornate facade often led to it being mistaken for a cathedral rather than a parish church. The original 1852 church facade was heavily remodeled in 1913 by Paul Schultz. This work eliminated ornamentation, reduced the Baroque curves, and shortened the steeple. At this same time, a rectory and school were also altered. Due to the size and complexity of alterations done on this complex, it is difficult to give a comprehensive overview.