47 2nd Avenue Building Date : 1867 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Michael McGovern Original Architect : John O'Neil Description & Building Alterations No. 45 & 47 Second Avenue were constructed together as pre-law tenements on a single tax lot in 1867. This pair of two tenements feature the stone window lintels and sills, cornice supported by modillions and beltcourses. “The earliest tenements were constructed before there was any substantial regulation of this type of housing. The first law that governed the actual physical form of tenements was not passed until 1879 and is known as the ‘old law.’ Thus, the first wave of tenements erected in New York City… are ‘pre-law’ tenements.” – Andrew Dolkart, The South Village: A Proposal for Historic District Designation.

124 East 4th Street Building Date : 1899 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : August Ruff Original Architect : Kurtzer & Rohl Description & Building Alterations This six-story and basement tenement, built in 1899, was originally designed by Kurtzer & Rohl and owned by August Ruff. At a cost of $20,000, it was to be occupied by 24 families with stores in the basement. The facade features a bracketed cornice, elaborate entrance enframements with a curved door hood and carvings, window lintels, and beltcourses. The window lintels are pedimented on the second and fourth stories’ outermost bays.

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.

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.

110 First Avenue Building Date : 1841-1843 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : E. Davis Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This building was likely three-and-a-half stories tall with a peaked roof when it was constructed in 1841-43. It was later raised to five stories. A new storefront designed by architect Julius Kastner was installed in 1895. The second-story windows were bricked up at that time. The present facade has been modified since then. Most historic details, like the window lintels, sills, and the cornice have been stripped.

71 First Avenue Building Date : 1882 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : George Roll Original Architect : Julius Boekell Description & Building Alterations This five-story old law tenement was erected in 1882, designed by architect Julius Boekell, along with the buildings at Nos. 67, 69 First Avenue and 129 East 4th Street. The building features a bracketed cornice in Queen Anne-style. The window lintels and sills appear to have been stripped. The site was formerly occupied by a three-story flat-roofed building known as Nos. 67-71 First Avenue, home to Roland G. Mitchell & Co.’s paraffine candle manufacturing company. The building burned down in 1882, and “the disaster \[was] little regretted, as the manufactory has been a nuisance to the noses of the inhabitants of the Seventeenth Ward for a decade” (see New York Times article at sidebar).

77-81 First Avenue Building Date : 1957 Original Use : Commercial Original Owner : Merit Central Corp. Original Architect : Herbert Tannenbaum Description & Building Alterations This one-story retail store was built in 1957 by the Merit Central Corp. The storefront has been altered as various stores have occupied the building.

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 Lower East Side, traditionally an immigrant, working-class neighborhood with a rich Jewish history, has in recent years experienced rapid gentrification. Despite A LOT of changes, many of the neighborhood's diverse local landmarks have survived into the 21st century.

A group of Hasidic rabbis were among those who turned out to greet the President for the dedication of Sara Delano Roosevelt Park on the Lower East Side.

The movie theatre at 141 East Houston Street that closed in early 2018 after a run of 17 years of showing independent and foreign films, actually has a history that dates back to the 19th century. The original building was constructed sometime in the first half of the 19th century (likely the late 1830s) and was occupied for many decades by German Evangelical Mission Church (though it had been built for a Dutch Reformed Church). In the early 1900s, it was converted into the Houston Athletic Club, a prize fight club. In 1909 it became the Houston Hippodrome, which presented moving pictures and Yiddish vaudeville shows. Renovated in 1916-1917, the venue reopened as a motion picture house called the Sunshine Theatre. That venue survived until 1945. Purchased by a local hardware salesman, the theatre was used as a warehouse until 1994 when it was sold again. In 1998 the art house film company Landmark partnered with the building's leaseholder. (He had originally wanted to open a concert venue but the liquor license had been rejected.) The building underwent a massive three-year, $12 million renovation. The new theatre opened on December 21, 2001. While the theatre once again became a beloved neighborhood landmark and was doing well financially, they were beholden to the building's owners. Sold for $31.5 million in 2017, the 25-year lease (begun in 1994) was coming up for renewal and the theatre could not consider the market rate rent for the space. Sadly and much to the disappointment of neighbors and movie lovers, the theatre went dark once again. The building is to be demolished and replaced by a nine-story office building.

26 Second Avenue Building Date : 1850-59 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Frederick Johnson Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations Three buildings currently exist on this lot, with one in the front and two in the rear. The current building in the front part of the lot is a six-story tenement, with its sixth floor added between 1889 and 1906. The two rear buildings each have five stories. The first building on this lot was built between 1841 and 1843. By 1846, a stable was also present on the lot and remained until 1850, when it was replaced by a second house built between 1850 and 1852. Two five-story tenements existed after 1859 in the front and rear of the lot, likely altered from the two three-story houses on site before 1859. Two stores have occupied the first floor of the front building since at least 1906. The building’s facade retains the historic cornice and two pilasters framing the entrance doorway in addition to two pilasters, one on each side of the storefront. The storefront has been altered with pull-down security gates. The window lintels have also been removed. In 1947, the storefront was converted into a launderette. Since then, it has been converted back into two stores.

New York City has the largest network of community gardens in the United States. Community gardens borrow from earlier urban-gardening movements, such as Frannie Griscolm Parsons' educational "Farm-Gardens" of the early 20th-century and Depression-era "subsistence gardens" which provided for communities across the city. Beginning in the 1960s, New Yorkers increasingly favored progressive government programs and looked towards the city to sponsor many past-due revitalization efforts for neighborhoods. One such effort was community gardens, which beautified abandoned lots and, most importantly, allowed the community to have an active say in the design of their urban environment.

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.

Shops on Orchard Street, ca. 1975.

Numerous health facilities were established in New York City following the outbreak of HIV and AIDS cases in the 1980s. From 1993 to 1994, this building was converted to Rivington House, a VillageCare-operated nursing home for people living with AIDS. The architecture firms of Perkins & Will and Davis, Brody & Associates were responsible for the conversion. Rivington House opened in 1995 as the largest residential healthcare facility for AIDS patients in New York City and, perhaps, the nation. Equipped with 219 beds and an outpatient treatment center, it was originally considered an end-of-life nursing home for most of its patients; length of stay was 12 to 15 days and the death rate stood at nearly 50%. By 1997, new drug therapies were prolonging the lives of many people living with AIDS and, as a result, the death rate at Rivington House declined by 20% and the length of stay increased to 120 days.

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.

Second Avenue El over the western roadway of Allen Street, July 20, 1929.

51 First Avenue Building Date : 1869 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : J. Gessenes Original Architect : Louis Burger Description & Building Alterations This five-story pre-law tenement was built in 1869 and designed by Louis Burger of Bruno W. Berger & Son, who also designed the buildings at Nos. 53, 55 and 57 First Avenue, for owner J. Gessenes. The facade features projecting beltcourses, window lintels and sills, and a bracketed cornice.

Rivington Street, between Allen and Orchard Streets, January 17, 1928. Orchard Street’s informal pushcart market spilled onto neighboring blocks. The cart in the foreground, “Isidore’s Hot Frankfurters,” advertises “a nickel meal,” of three frankfurters, “served tastefully.”

17 First Avenue Building Date : 1841-43 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Cornelius Dubois Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This four-story brick building, with commercial space on the first level, was constructed together with lots 36 and 38 in 1841-43. In 1872, all three buildings were raised from three stories to four stories. This building was occupied by stores on the ground floor and by one family per each of the upper floors. In 1907, the building was altered by Otto Reissman. The Italianate facade features simple lintels and sills, in addition to a bracketed and modillioned cornice, which seems to be identical to both adjacent buildings’ facades. There is also a trace of the ground floor cornice.

New York City Marble Cemetery, ca. 1970-1990. The New York City Marble Cemetery (not to be confused with the NY Marble Cemetery around the corner) is a burial ground established in 1831. It was the second non-sectarian cemetery in the city (the first was its similarly named neighbor). All of the burials are contained within underground vaults made of marble. After a long series of yellow fever outbreaks, the city banned earthen burials in 1830 and the two Marble Cemeteries were founded with the plan that all burials would be these well-sealed marble vaults. Former President James Monroe died in New York on July 4, 1831 and was buried in the family vault of his son-in-law in the New York City Marble Cemetery. In 1858 his remains were disinterred and moved to Virginia, where they are now situated within a large Gothic Revival style cast iron cage, referred to locally as "The Birdcage".

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.

Building Date: 1899 Original Use: Residential/Commercial Original Owner: Abraham Silverson Original Architect: Schneider & Herter Description & Building Alterations This six-story gray brick old law tenement was constructed in 1899 by owner Abraham Silverson, designed by Schneider & Herter. The Renaissance Revival facade features terra cotta window enframements, lintels, curved piers, a door hood for entrance enframements, modillioned cornice, and terra cotta ornamental panels. The original storefront has been altered and infilled. Part of the historic cornice above the ground floor remains.

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.

324 East 5th Street; 113 East 4th Street Building Date : 1893 Original Use : Public School Original Owner : The City of New York Original Architect : C. B. J. Snyder Description & Building Alterations This through-block lot consists of a five-story building which fronts East 4th Street and was erected in 1893 by the City as an addition to the Fifth Street public school, designed by architect C. B. J. Snyder, the New York City Superintendent of School Buildings from 1891 to 1923. The preexisting building was constructed in 1871 and fronted East 5th Street. This building was later demolished and a parking lot is currently in its place. Located on the south side of the lot, it went through major internal alterations in 1948 and 1950. The 1948 alteration involved creating living quarters for women and children. The building currently serves as the Manhattan School for Career Development. Before the construction of the school building, the site was formerly occupied by tenements. The Dutch Colonial style, light-colored red brick building features a unique design by Snyder. It has a square plan and a pitched roof with Dutch gables. The windows are surrounded by terra-cotta trim and bands span the facade. The same material is utilized as coping on the gables. The main staircase is composed of white glazed brick with rounded corners, wrought-iron banisters, and a skylight. The fifth-floor classrooms also have skylights. The third floor holds a 120-seat auditorium and print and wood shops. The original doorjambs, doorframes, and window sashes were solid oak and the ceilings were pressed tin.

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.

This architectural drawing shows plans for a grand public bath house on Allen Street. The building, built in 1905, operated as a bath house until 1975, when once again the changing demographics of the neighborhood no longer necessitated a public bath house. But at the time, a new generation of Lower East Sider was arriving, and they repurposed this building for their own needs. Since 1975, the old bath houses are home to The Church of Grace to Fujianese, a Christian Chinese congregation. The church added a cross and the name of their congregation, in two languages, to the facade, but scalloped shells etched in the stone facade remain as reminders of the building’s original use.

My Archive Summer 2019 "I was living on East 3rd Street and Avenue B in the summer of 1987. I was meeting some friends at Broadway and 8th Street so I was zigzagging around the East Village streets to get there, heading north and west. I saw the hydrant gushing on East 4th Street and got a shot of the neighbors cooling off on that hot summer day.” —Meredith Marciano

45 East 3rd Street Building Date : 1841, 1881 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : John Valentine (1841), Charles J. F. Lohst (1881) Original Architect : Unknown (1841), A. Schappel (1881) Description & Building Alterations This three-story building was originally built as a Greek Revival-style row house in 1841. During alterations in 1881, the current Queen Anne-style cornice and new window lintels were installed. The existing facade features a wood door frame with side lights and transom, door hood, molded window lintels and a historic bracketed cornice with pediment.

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.

56 East 1st Street Building Date : 2005 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Eric Anderson Original Architect : Craig Tooman Description & Building Alterations A six-story brick new law tenement dating to 1907 once existed on this lot. Featuring brick and stone ornamentation and a galvanized iron cornice, the building was originally occupied by 17 families and a store. The tenement was demolished in 1957 by the W.P.A. Labor Demolition Project. The existing four-story residential building serves as a two-family home. It was erected in 2005 in a modern style. The current facade consists of concrete and iron panels, in addition to tall bay windows on each floor.

The Centre Street Loop got its start in 1908 with the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company's first Manhattan subway track: the terminal at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge. The Loop was the first of two BMT Brooklyn Loops designed to connect various Brooklyn Subway lines without requiring new and inefficient terminals in lower Manhattan. Under its original design, the Loop would connect the tracks of Broadway Elevated coming over the Williamsburg (now the BMT Jamaica Line) with Brooklyn Bridge trains originating in Brooklyn. The loop was never completed as planned and was instead incorporated into the BMT Nassau Street Line. These photos document the construction of the tracks that today carry the J and Z trains, and capture glimpses of Manhattan's Civic Center before the completion of the Municipal Building and other prominent structures around Foley Square and City Hall Park.

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.

My Archive Spring 2019

72 Second Avenue; 91 East 4th Street Building Date : 1928-29 Original Use : Commercial Original Owner : Sirwin Realty Corp. Original Architect : Landsman & Smith Description & Building Alterations This terra cotta commercial building was erected in 1928-29 for the Industrial National Bank of New York by architects Landsman & Smith. It replaced a six-story brick tenement. The building is Romanesque Revival with Classical Revival elements. The current facade features a limestone base with Corinthian pilasters separating double-height round-arched openings on the ground floor, a bronze entrance enframement, ornate terra-cotta spandrels and colonettes on the upper stories, a balustrade parapet, and historic metal ground floor windows. The style is nearly Moorish Deco. It is part of the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District, designated in 2012.

This synagogue at 58-60 Rivington Street was designed by architect Emery Roth and was dedicated in August 1904. It was built in the Moorish Revival style for Roumanian Congregation Adath Jeshurun of Jassy Synagogue and financed by the Universal Building and Construction Company, which included some members of the nearby Eldridge Street Synagogue. Unfortunately, just two years after opening the congregation fell on hard times and they were forced to vacate the building. In 1908, the new Polish Orthodox congregation Erste Warshauer (First Warsaw) moved in. This congregation attracted some big names for their services, including George and Ira Gershwin, Senator Jacob Javits, Samuel Goldwyn and George Burns. Like so many other Lower East Side synagogues, it was abandoned in 1974. But that wasn’t the end of its life. Photographer Hale Gurland purchased the building in 1979, built a penthouse on the roof and turned the building into apartments for artists. The facade of the building has remained true to its historic life as a place of worship, except for one artistic detail - Gurland installed a stylized camera shutter where the historic rose window once was.

Norman Mailer in front of 90 Delancey Street, 1969. Writer and actor Norman Mailer ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic Party primary for Mayor of New York City in 1969. At the suggestion of Gloria Steinem and others, and with journalist Jimmy Breslin as an ally, running for City Council President, he campaigned largely on a platform of New York City secession. He advocated for the creation of a 51st state. His ideas for the city also included a monorail, a ban on private cars in Manhattan, and the self determination of individual neighborhoods to enact their own governance. Here he is on the Lower East Side speaking to the press. Mailer came in fourth in the primary with just 41,000 votes or just about 5 percent. Mayor John V. Lindsay was re-elected that November.

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.

66 Second Avenue Building Date : 1926-27 Original Use : Theater Original Owner : The Oltarsh Building Company, Inc. Original Architect : David M. Oltarsh & H. Craig Severance The Classical Revival building was opened in 1927 as the Public Theatre, showing Yiddish-language productions. It was once known as Antillas Theatre, screening primarily Spanish-language movies. Phyllis Theatre occupied the building in the 1950s and 60s, featuring Off Broadway shows as well as Yiddish-language productions. Later in the 1970s and 80s it was used to hold rock and punk concerts. It was also called the Anderson Theater. There is a 1993-97 two-story addition set back from the original facade. The facade also features terra cotta beltcourses, rosettes, and a cartouche.

7 Second Avenue | Block : 456 | Lot #29 Building Date : 1890 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : J. Stimmel Original Architect : F. Heineke Description & Building Alterations This Old Law tenement was built at the same time as its identical neighbor at 9 Second Avenue in 1890. No. 9 Second Avenue was demolished as part of the construction of 11 Second Avenue.

80 Delancey Street, 1937. The street vendor here is sitting on the Allen Street median, directly across the street from the west facade of 80 Delancey Street. The plain flat brick facade remains the same, while the architecturally detailed south facade (not visible here) survives as well. The vendor is selling "Indian Nuts," which was the culturally inappropriate name for pinon, or pine nuts. These street nuts were not sold, shelled and roasted for $30 a pound such as they are today in Whole Foods, but in the shell in a wax or paper bag for 1 cent. A movie theatre staple as well as a street nut, they were once somewhat nostalgically described as, "those tiny nuts we bit open to get at a kernel that wasn't worth the work."

26-34 East Second Street, ca. 1970s. Nos. 26, 28 and 30 (at left) are Greek Revival rowhouses constructed in the mid 1830s by builder Ephraim H. Wentworth. Built of brick and brownstone the originally two-an-a-half homes (two were later altered with a full third floor) were occupied in the early years by a well off merchant class. Despite the construction of a full third story and the additions of neo-Grec elements (no. 28) and Second Empire elements (no.30), this row remains a unique 19th century view of what this neighborhood once looked like.

94 Avenue A Building Date : 1854 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : William B. Astor Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This tenement building was likely built in 1854 and contains residential space on the upper floors and commercial space on the ground floor. The four-story corner building has a primary facade on Avenue A as well as a secondary facade on East 6th Street. The secondary facade on East 6th Street is only the building’s full height on part of the lot, while a one story extension abuts the neighboring building. The facade is a simple red brick with six windows on each floor of the Avenue side. The lintels are simple, rectangular and flush with the front of the building. The brick parapet has been built where the cornice has been removed and is stylistically typical of an alteration from the 1920s or 1930s.

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.

Russ & Daughters, ca. 1980. Russ & Daughters is an ''appetizing'' store established on the Lower East Side in 1914. Appetizing stores are a New York phenomenon, a store that sold fish and dairy products, as opposed to a delicatessen, which sold pickled, cured, and smoked meats. These delineations in products observed the strict Jewish dietary laws. Opened as "Russ's Cut Rate Appetizers'' on Orchard Street , the shop was the first brick and mortar business for Polish immigrant Joel Russ. Russ had previously carried mushrooms on this shoulders to sell and later operated a pushcart. The shop expanded his offerings to include salt cured herring and salmon. In 1920, Russ moved his shop around the corner to 179 East Houston where it has remained for nearly 100 years. In 1933, Russ renamed the shop 'Russ & Daughters' (he and his wife had only three girls). The shop has been continuously run by four generations of Russ family members. Today the shop has an additional outpost on the LES and a cafe in the uptown Jewish Museum.

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.

The original Church of the Nativity was designed in 1832 by several architects including the renowned Alexander Jackson Davis who also designed Federal Hall in Lower Manhattan, among other famous structures. Built for the Second Avenue Presbyterian Church, in 1842 it was sold to the newly formed Nativity of Our Lord parish and became the Church of the Nativity. The imposing Greek Revival building was demolished in 1970 following a fire. The second church building was designed by the firm of Genovese and Maddelene, and is imposing in its own way. The Modernist or specifically Brutalist church is constructed of brick and cinder blocks, with blocky massing and simplified religious details. It has been described by some as "starkly institutional." The church closed in July of 2015 and was deconsecrated two years later. Today it stands, graffiti covered. In early May of this year, a town hall meeting was convened to discuss potential future opportunities for former religious properties in the neighborhood.

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.

Rivington Branch, date unknown. Designed by McKim, Mead & White and completed in 1905, the Rivington Branch still stands but is no longer occupied by the library. One of three Carnegie libraries completed by this firm in dense immigrant lower Manhattan neighborhoods, it was the first to have an open air space on the roof. The success of this feature led to the implementation in later branches. The original collection of 6500 books for the library was transferred from the adjacent University Settlement. Today the red brick and limestone building is occupied by a predominately Spanish language Evangelical religious organization.

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.

93-105 East 4th Street | Block : 446 | Lot #48 Building Date : 1929 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : 99 East 4th Street, Inc. Original Architect : Gronenberg & Leuchtag Description & Building Alterations This six-story apartment building with store space was erected in 1929. It replaced a five-story brick tenement, owned by Loew’s Theatre Inc. It was to be occupied by a store on the ground floor and dwellings above. This building features patterned and projecting brickwork, quoins enframing the windows, arched window lintels, carvings and a perforated parapet on the facade. It was originally owned by the 99 East 4th Street, Inc., which also owned a building of similar style but smaller in size at No. 74 Second Avenue on this block. Upon conversion into condominiums, it was assigned the new lot number 7502.

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.

125-127 East 4th Street Building Date : 1903 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Hillman & Golding Original Architect : Sass & Smallheiser Description & Building Alterations This six-story building was constructed in 1903 for stores on the first floor and dwellings on the upper floors for 28 families. Architects Sass & Smallheiser designed the building for Hillman & Golding. Its facade features projecting side bays, elaborate window enframements, ornamental beltcourses, a bracketed cornice with pediments above the side bays, and entrance enframements with a door hood. Upon conversion into condominiums, the new lot number is 7501.

P.S. 20, Rivington Street, 1920. P.S. 20 opened in 1899 when the Lower East Side was a neighborhood of poor immigrant families living in crowded, dark and decaying tenements. In contrast, the public schools designed by C.B.J. Snyder offered a rigorous education in classrooms that maximized natural light, fresh air and ventilation. The fifth story of P.S. 20 contained a library, reading room, separate gyms for girls and boys and manual training rooms for carpentry, drafting and modeling. The rooftop playground offered a large space for a variety of open-air activities, far above the congested and dirty streets below. The red-brick school later became the Rivington House, a nursing home which provided hospice care to AIDS patients. The building was sold to a private developer in 2015, after deed restrictions were lifted, leading to public outcry and scrutiny of de Blasio administration practices.

57 First Avenue | Block : 445 | Lot #33 Building Date : 1869 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Henry Eisner Original Architect : Bruno W. Burger & Son Description & Building Alterations This five-story pre-law tenement was constructed in 1869, designed by architect Bruno W. Burger & Son for owner Henry Eisner. A new sixth floor and bulkhead floor were added in 2006 by Issac & Stern Architects. The historical cornice, window lintels and sills have been removed.

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.

91 First Avenue Building Date : 1865-1866 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Heirs of Stephen Whitney Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This five-story with basement tenement was built in 1865-66 by the heirs of Stephen Whitney, who purchased many properties on this block in 1825. The facade features a bracketed cornice with frieze, arched window lintels, bracketed sills and a cornice above the first story. The entrance is on the first floor.

“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.

521 East 6th Street, ca. 1970s. In the 1970s, East 6th Street between Avenues A and B was transformed into Little Italy for the Godfather Part II. At the time of production, the movie actually presented a fascinating record of what 1920s-era New York City looked like. The Oscar-winning sequel used East 6th Street to depict Vito Corleone’s Italian neighborhood of 1917, where he first started his family and his life of crime.

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.

78 East 1st Street | Block : 429 | Lot #64 Building Date : 1874 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : J. Lamour Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This building was constructed in 1874. It is a five story brick dwelling with two store fronts that are occupied by restaurants. The original lintels are missing and the cornice is painted black

67 First Avenue; 131-133 East 4th Street Building Date : 1882 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : George Roll Original Architect : Julius Boekell Description & Building Alterations This five-story old law tenement was erected in 1882, designed by architect Julius Boekell and owned by George Roll, along with the buildings next to it at Nos. 69, 71 First Avenue and 129 East 4th Street. The building was to be occupied by three stores and 16 families. The building features a bracketed cornice in Queen Anne-style. The window lintels and sills appear to have been stripped, in addition to the quoining on the corner of First Avenue and East 4th Street.

By the early 20th century, as the Lower East Side grew, Second Avenue became a bustling thoroughfare, its rowhouse architecture either demolished or converted in favor of buildings hosting a mix of uses. Examples of its building types include: numbers 107 and 72, fanciful, terra-cotta-clad commercial buildings constructed in the late 1920s; number 57, a nine-story New Law tenement that straddled the line between tenement and apartment building; number 43, the avenue’s first office building; and number 32, originally a City courthouse that was converted into the Anthology Film Archives in 1979. In the early 20th century, Second Avenue became known as the “Yiddish Rialto.” In addition to the Jaffe Theater (site # 1), other significant sites include number 66, the Yiddish Public Theater that later served briefly as CBGB’s Second Avenue Theater, and 66 East 4th Street, the New York Turn Verein (German athletic and social club), where America’s first Yiddish-language theater performance is said to have taken place in 1882. Second Avenue between East 7th Street and East 2nd Street is located within the East Village/ Lower East Side Historic District boundaries.

329 East 5th Street Building Date: 1864 Original Use: Residential Original Owner: Francis Weimer Original Architect: Unknown Description & Building Alterations This five-story with basement and store tenement was built in 1864 together with No. 327 East 5th Street, and they share the same facade design with the buildings at No. 331-333 East 5th Street. This building at No. 329 features a molded cornice with dentils, arched window lintels, and bracketed sills. In 1935, the storefronts and entrance were rebuilt, and as a result, the stoop was removed. The current fire escape was also added at that time.

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.

East Houston Street, west from First Avenue; June 23, 1929. The nearest building at left, on the south side of East Houston, is No. 161. Its neighbor to the east, No. 163-165, had recently been razed as part of the project to widen Allen Street in order to accommodate increased vehicular traffic. The widening project claimed dozens of tenement buildings, mostly on the east side of Allen Street. In the foreground is a pillar of the Second Avenue El trestle. At right, signs tout "AUCTION PRICES" for a "building coming down sale." The building, No. 1-3 First Avenue, was razed for another set of civic projects: the widening of Houston, and the Construction of the Houston—Essex segment of the new IND Sixth Avenue subway.

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.

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.

22 First Avenue Building Date : 1837-1839 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Dolly Morrell Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This is a four story building which was built as a row house originally. A black sign with white letters reads “Ortiz Funeral Home,” which has been located in the building since at least 1955. The building has been in use as a funeral home since at least 1945.

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.

61 First Avenue; 130 East 4th Street Building Date : 1869 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Herman Bruns Original Architect : William E. Waring Description & Building Alterations This pre-law tenement was originally built in 1869 together with the buildings on Lots 30 and 32 by architect William E. Waring for owner Herman Bruns. The building went through alterations designed by Kurtzer & Rohl, together with the neighboring buildings on Lots 30 and 32, in 1895 and 1905. In 1963 a new store front was installed and new stairs to the basement were added. The current facade features a bracketed cornice, projecting quoins at the corners, arched window lintels and sills.

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

69 First Avenue Building Date : 1882 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : George Roll Original Architect : Julius Boekell Description & Building Alterations This five-story old law tenement was erected in 1882, designed by architect Julius Boekell, along with the building next to it at Nos. 67, 71 First Avenue and 129 East 4th Street. The building features a bracketed cornice in Queen Anne-style. The window lintels and sills appear to have been stripped and the ground floor has been altered. The site was formerly occupied by a three-story flat-roofed building known as Nos. 67-71 First Avenue, home to Roland G. Mitchell & Co.’s paraffine candle manufacturing company. The building burned down in 1882, and “the disaster \[was] little regretted, as the manufactory has been a nuisance to the noses of the inhabitants of the Seventeenth Ward for a decade” (see New York Times article at sidebar).

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.

By the early 20th century, as the Lower East Side grew, Second Avenue became a bustling thoroughfare, its rowhouse architecture either demolished or converted in favor of buildings hosting a mix of uses. Examples of its building types include: numbers 107 and 72, fanciful, terra-cotta-clad commercial buildings constructed in the late 1920s; number 57, a nine-story New Law tenement that straddled the line between tenement and apartment building; number 43, the avenue’s first office building; and number 32, originally a City courthouse that was converted into the Anthology Film Archives in 1979. In the early 20th century, Second Avenue became known as the “Yiddish Rialto.” In addition to the Jaffe Theater (site # 1), other significant sites include number 66, the Yiddish Public Theater that later served briefly as CBGB’s Second Avenue Theater, and 66 East 4th Street, the New York Turn Verein (German athletic and social club), where America’s first Yiddish-language theater performance is said to have taken place in 1882. Second Avenue between East 7th Street and East 2nd Street is located within the East Village/ Lower East Side Historic District boundaries.

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.

38 East 1st Street Building Date : 1886 Original Use : Institutional Original Owner : City of New York Board of Education Original Architect : David I. Stagg Description & Building Alterations Primary School No. 79 was constructed on this lot prior to 1886. After construction, the fourth story attic was raised so that the building would accommodate five stories. By 1944, the building was converted into manufacturing and storage space. By 1997, most of the building was converted to residential use, though the ground floor was occupied by a restaurant. The former Public School 79 at 38 East 1st Street is called out in the East Village/Lower East Side Rezoning Environmental Impact Study (EIS) and described as “designed by David I. Stagg, the Superintendent of Public School Buildings. The four-story brick building with Italianate and Gothic elements is notable for its terra-cotta and stone ornamentation. It is also a rare example of High Victorian Gothic school design in Manhattan. It has been converted into apartments and has several modern roof additions.” The modern roof additions include a recently added glass pyramid set back from the roof line. The building was converted to co-op apartments in 1994.

Entrance to the New York Marble Cemetery, ca. 1977. Founded in 1830 by wealthy merchants, the New York Marble Cemetery (not to be confused with the New York City Marble Cemetery around the corner) was the city's first non-sectarian burial place. Occupying a little green oasis in the midst of the tenements of the East Village, it is final resting place of more than 2000 New Yorkers. An outbreak of yellow fever in the 1820s and the fear associated with earthen burials, made the stone underground vaults, each the size of a small room, a welcome burial option for wealthy citizens. The cemetery has no freestanding headstones, and as such, looks more like a garden. Descendants of 19th century plot owners can still be buried here.

By the early 20th century, as the Lower East Side grew, Second Avenue became a bustling thoroughfare, its rowhouse architecture either demolished or converted in favor of buildings hosting a mix of uses. Examples of its building types include: numbers 107 and 72, fanciful, terra-cotta-clad commercial buildings constructed in the late 1920s; number 57, a nine-story New Law tenement that straddled the line between tenement and apartment building; number 43, the avenue’s first office building; and number 32, originally a City courthouse that was converted into the Anthology Film Archives in 1979. In the early 20th century, Second Avenue became known as the “Yiddish Rialto.” In addition to the Jaffe Theater (site # 1), other significant sites include number 66, the Yiddish Public Theater that later served briefly as CBGB’s Second Avenue Theater, and 66 East 4th Street, the New York Turn Verein (German athletic and social club), where America’s first Yiddish-language theater performance is said to have taken place in 1882. Second Avenue between East 7th Street and East 2nd Street is located within the East Village/ Lower East Side Historic District boundaries.

By the late-19th and early-20th century, Jewish immigrants to the United States were making big waves in the entertainment industries. Lower Second Avenue in Manhattan was the Broadway of Yiddish theater. Plays, musicals, operettas, avant-garde experimental pieces–all in Yiddish–found a home in a wide range of literary art theaters, political workers theaters, musical companies and more. Some Jewish theater stars crossed over to English-speaking Broadway and Hollywood, including Paul Muni, Edward G. Robinson and Molly Picon. Jewish artists were making in-roads in other arenas, too, especially in the burgeoning animation industry. As always, The Forward was quick to identify new trends and publish articles celebrating and explaining them to their immigrant audience. Many of the performers that appeared in the newspaper were familiar and even mispokhe (family) to Forward readers who followed them as they crossed over into mainstream English language entertainment.

155 Rivington Street ca. 1915

Lincoln Swados in front of 99 East 4th Street, ca.1980.

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.

70 East 1st Street Building Date : 1878 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Louis Minzesheimer Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This five-story brick tenement building, along with the building on lot 39, appears to have been built in a neo-Grec, Italianate Revival style. A building existed on the combined lots 39 & 40 prior to 1837, and another building was added to the lot in 1863, when the site was owned by George Neander. The buildings were likely a tenement and a store. Tax records indicate that since 1878 there has been only one building on the lot. Originally three stories, it was raised to five stories in 1879. The building features arched window lintels, but the sills have been removed. A ground floor cornice may have also been removed, though the denticulated, modillioned projecting roof cornice remains. There are also fluted pilasters flanking the entrance.

60-62 Second Avenue Building Date : 1897 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Philip Siegel Original Architect : Michael Bernstein Description & Building Alterations This old law tenement building was constructed in 1897 by owner Philip Siegel and designed by architect Michael Bernstein. The tenement was to be occupied by 28 families and two stores. The Renaissance Revival building features elaborate entrance enframement with granite columns, a modillioned door hood, and decorated terra-cotta window enframements. It appears that the top cornice and the stoop have been removed, and the entrance was moved to the basement level in 1958. The cornice can be seen in the 1980s tax photo in the sidebar.

Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery, 137 East Houston Street, ca. 1972. A fixture of the Jewish Lower East Side, Yonah Schimmel has been serving knishes here on Houston Street since 1890. Originally a pushcart business, Schimmel, a Romanian immigrant, opened a brick and mortar shop on the north side of Houston in the 1890s as his business flourished. In 1910 the knish shop moved into its current location at no. 137. After more than 120 years, the business is still family-owned and run. Today the shop is owned by Alex Wolfman, Yonah's great nephew. Much like a Nathan's Famous hot dog, someone once said that, "No New York politician in the last 50 years has been elected to office without having at least one photograph showing him on the Lower East Side with a knish in his face."

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.

This image is part of Jillian Jonas's collection on Village Preservation's Historic Image Archive, to explore more images like this click here. In 1979, this venue became the Pyramid Club, established by Bobby Bradley, Alan Mace, and Victor Sapienza. And it is the sole surviving music club from the avant-garde era of the 1980s, and it defines the East Village scene during that decade. Performers Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, Jean-Michel Basquiat, RuPaul, and Ann Magnuson emerged from this club and from Club 57 at 57 St. Mark’s Place. Since its opening, the Pyramid Club has also been credited with defining the East Village drag and gay scenes of the 1980s and is known for its politically conscious drag performance art and as a hangout for the counterculture of the neighborhood. The Pyramid Club hosted drag performers such as Lypsinka, Lady Bunny, and RuPaul. It was here that the annual Wigstock festival began in 1984 when a group of the club’s drag queens performed a spontaneous drag show at Tompkins Square Park. In addition to performance art, cabaret, and dancing, many up-and-coming bands, such as Nirvana and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, also performed here. Andy Warhol and Debby Harry did a feature on this club for MTV. Madonna appeared at her first AIDS benefit here, and Nirvana and the Red Hot Chili Peppers played their first New York City concerts here. New York Magazine referred to it as “A temple of iniquity for punk rockers, Goth betties, and queers of every feather.”

National Theatre ca. 1959 Founded as a Yiddish theater in 1912, the National Theatre was one of famed theater architect Thomas Lamb's prolific career. Seating almost 2,000 people, the National Theatre prospered for a number of years until the depression and general decline forced its closure. Like many theaters in New York, it was converted into two different cinemas in 1951. However, this didn't last long and, in 1959, the National Theater was fully demolished.

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.”

Mother and child on East 4th Street, late 1960s.

121 East 3rd Street; 150-160 East 4th Street Building Date : 1903 Original Use : Institutional Original Owner : The City of New York Original Architect : Charles B.J. Snyder Description & Building Alterations New York City Public School 63 (P.S. 63) was designed by Charles B.J. Snyder. The fireproof building features an H-plan, a typical layout designed by Snyder. Snyder worked for the Board of Education for thirty-one years, serving as Superintendent of School Buildings from 1891 until 1923. This four-story symmetrical brick building features windows grouped in sets of four, quoins that echo the window surrounds, and a classical balustrade at the top. The south facade features columns in ascending orders on the central bay: Doric the first floor, Ionic on the second, and Corinthian on the third. There is a gym on the fifth floor, a music room on the third, and an auditorium in the basement. Beginning in 1903, Snyder designed auditoriums directly connected to the street so that they could be used by the community without opening the whole school. This block (Lots 14-43) was once part of William B. Astor’s holdings and was leased out to various people between 1850 and 1878.

“Delancey St. - Williamsburg Bridge. \[Delancey Street Looking East from Near Ludlow St.]” Dated 1905, this photo shows the Delancey Street approach to the Williamsburg Bridge under construction. The carriageway, streetcar tracks, and the Brooklyn Rapid Transit subway tracks (also under construction) are visible at the foot of the bridge, though the span itself is barely visible through the East River haze.

University Settlement House, 184 Eldridge Street, ca. 1900. Stanton Coit and Charles Bunstein Stover established the University Settlement in 1886, in a tenement on Forsyth Street. Originally known as the Neighborhood Guild, since its founding, the institution has provided social services and education for the waves of immigrants who settled on the Lower East Side. President Franklin D. Roosevelt — who, as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, spoke at the 1898 dedication of the Settlement's present Eldridge Street building — once described the University Settlement as "a landmark in the social history of the nation."

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.

East 1st Street, 1937. The photographer, Berenice Abbott, noted that these building are "Old Law Tenements." These were building constructed after the passage of the Tenement House Act of 1879, but before 1901, when the "New Law" legislation passed. The most important feature of the 1879 law was the requirement that any habitable room have cross ventilation. The builders of these structures complied by having many of the windows opening to air shafts between the buildings. These windows were called "tuberculous windows" as the aim was to combat (or at least reduce the frequency of) the spread of disease in these densely crowded buildings. Unfortunately this style of tenement was generally unsuccessful. Residents tossed garbage, dirty water, and waste into the shafts and the shafts caused fire to spread between buildings faster. The 1901 law mandated an exterior-facing windows in each room of new residences as well as bathroom facilities in each unit. The Old Law Tenements had symmetrical floor plans and tended towards architecturally fanciful facades with ornamentation, including human and animal gargoyles.

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.

The Forward’s offices were at 175 East Broadway, just opposite Seward Park, in the heart of the Jewish Lower East Side. Naturally, local news was big news.

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

First Houses, 1936. On December 3, 1935, First Houses were dedicated and opened, the first housing project undertaken by the then-recently established New York City Housing Authority and the first publicly-funded low-income housing project in the nation. The groundbreaking development was made a New York City landmark on November 12, 1974. On that cold morning in the midst of the Depresssion, throngs of New Yorkers showed up to witness the momentous occasion of the development’s opening and dedication. The proceedings were broadcast on national radio starting with the reading of a telegram from President Franklin Roosevelt: “Congratulations on the opening of First Houses by the New York City Housing Authority. I am sorry that I cannot be with you to see in person this answer to the great national need for better American homes and housing conditions.” Speakers at the ceremony included Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, Governor Lehman, and Mayor LaGuardia. An “Abolish the Slums” luncheon followed, sponsored by the National Public Housing Conference. Located in the East Village on Avenue A between Second and Third Streets and along Third Street between Avenue A and 1st Avenue, First Houses was also the first municipally sponsored and operated project which endeavored to deal with the acute and long-standing problems on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the area of the greatest concentration of slums in the City at this time. The First Houses project was a bold innovation in planning which began as an experiment in partial demolition of existing tenements on the site. It was originally planned to raze every third house, in order to open up the block to air and light, and then remodel the remaining houses, a practice which had been successful in England. In order to comply with the terms of the Federal financing, First Houses also had to be a slum renovation project. Demolition of the existing tenements began on March 1, 1935; however it was quickly ascertained that the mid-19th century buildings were not structurally sound as stand-alones. Consequently, five of the buildings were entirely rebuilt and three were almost entirely new throughout and reinforced with structural steel. Brick was reused from this and other sites, saving in construction costs and providing income for the Authority for several years. Most of the tenements on the site were acquired by the NYC Housing Authority from Vincent Astor, grandson of John Jacob Astor, at a price of $189,281.31 which was less than half of the assessed value. Astor advocated slum clearance, a problem too vast in his opinion to be handled by private enterprise. He urged other property owners to cooperate with Federal and municipal authorities in their slum clearance program. Labor and materials for the First Houses project were furnished under the “work-relief” program of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). The architect for the project was Frederick L. Ackerman who had the task of making sure that housing guidelines set forth by Federal agencies, notably the Federal Emergency Housing Administration, were applied to the project. These guidelines were created with new housing in mind, and the degree to which Ackerman was able to apply them to the alteration of existing tenements on the site showed ingenuity and imagination. First Houses was originally planned to house 120 to 122 families, and all apartments had steam heat, hot water and were equipped with the modern amenities typically found in middle class housing. Within two months of opening a rental office for the project, the Housing Authority received between 3,000 and 4,000 applications. Prospective tenants were carefully selected by a team of social workers, with preference given to the inhabitants of the worst slums and relatively small families. All but one of the families chosen were residents of the Lower East Side.

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.

130 Orchard Street, D.A. Men's & Boys Clothing, ca. 1978.

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.

First Park Bocce Courts, date unknown. Bocce is a game developed in modern times in Italy during the 19th century. Italian immigrants to New York City brought their love of the game (played on a court of crushed stone, not grass, as the British lawn bowling was played) to their new home. Mayor La Guardia, the son of Italian immigrants, established the first bocce courts in New York City parks in 1934. As the city continued to build playgrounds in the Depression and post-Depression era, bocce courts were often included in the designs.

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.

20-24 Second Avenue; 30-32 East 1st Street Building Date : 2016 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : 24 Second Avenue Owner, LLC Original Architect : RSVP Architecture Studio Description & Building Alterations In 2016, plans were filed for a new 10-story mixed use building designed by RSVP Architecture Studio. The new building replaced a gas station that was constructed in 1959. The gas station replaced a six-story bath house erected in 1895 and a five-story tenement built in 1869 (on former Lot 62).

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.

23-27 Second Avenue Building Date : 1855 (altered in 1913) Original Use : Residential Original Owner : William W. White Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This building was originally constructed in 1855 as three of six 4-story tenement buildings that ran from No. 29 Second Avenue to the corner of East 1st Street (No. 29 is the only one of the row that has maintained its original height and massing). In 1913, the three 4-story buildings were combined and converted to a store, moving picture theater & lofts; this is presumably the year in which the building acquired its current facade. In 1930, the first floor was being used as a museum, and in 1937 it was converted to a store with meeting rooms above. The top floor became residential in 1961, according to a Certificate of Occupancy.

Orchard Street garment shops, ca. 1975.

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

By the early 20th century, as the Lower East Side grew, Second Avenue became a bustling thoroughfare, its rowhouse architecture either demolished or converted in favor of buildings hosting a mix of uses. Examples of its building types include: numbers 107 and 72, fanciful, terra-cotta-clad commercial buildings constructed in the late 1920s; number 57, a nine-story New Law tenement that straddled the line between tenement and apartment building; number 43, the avenue’s first office building; and number 32, originally a City courthouse that was converted into the Anthology Film Archives in 1979. In the early 20th century, Second Avenue became known as the “Yiddish Rialto.” In addition to the Jaffe Theater (site # 1), other significant sites include number 66, the Yiddish Public Theater that later served briefly as CBGB’s Second Avenue Theater, and 66 East 4th Street, the New York Turn Verein (German athletic and social club), where America’s first Yiddish-language theater performance is said to have taken place in 1882. Second Avenue between East 7th Street and East 2nd Street is located within the East Village/ Lower East Side Historic District boundaries.

87 East 2nd Street Building Date : 1871 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Ferdinand Emerling Original Architect : William Jose Description & Building Alterations Originally, a two-story pre-old law tenement was constructed on this site in 1871 by architect William Jose, who was known for his tenement designs. By 1897, the double-lot building was raised to five stories. Occupied by stores in 1940, the first floor was later converted into residential space. Some elements from the former storefront are still visible on this part of the facade, such as the flat cornice and pilasters. The Romanesque Revival facade features brick and terra-cotta. The first story consists of a storefront that is painted black, which creates the first register. The second register consists of the second and the third stories. Separated by a thin brick beltcourse, they both possess arched lintels above the windows. The last register is comprises the fourth and fifth stories. The windows extend both stories and are framed by arched openings. The fifth story is topped by a decorative frieze. The building also features foliated spandrels and friezes, and animal-head keystones. The modillioned cornice has been removed since the 1980s.

59-63 East 3rd Street Building Date : 1898 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : William Wirth (No. 61-63), William Meyers (No. 59) Original Architect : Kurtzer & Rohl (No. 61-63), Schneider and Herter (No. 59) Description & Building Alterations Two six-story tenement buildings exist on this lot. The buildings were erected together in 1898 by owner William Wirth and designed by architects Kurtzer & Rohl. No. 61-63 was to be occupied by 27 families and No. 59 was to be occupied by 22 families. The building at No. 61-63 East 3rd Street is six-bays wide, featuring decorative window enframements and arched and pedimented window lintels. The building at No. 59 East 3rd Street is four-bays wide, with beltcourses and arched and molded window lintels. The original cornices on both buildings appear to have been replaced.

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.