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.

87-89 Second Avenue; 239-241 East 5th Street Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Isaac Sohlinger Original Architect : John C. Watson Description & Building Alterations This six-story new law tenement was built in 1910 and designed by architect John C. Watson for owner Isaac Sohinger.

116 Second Avenue; 48 East 7th Street Building Date : 1845-46, 1884-86 (alt) Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Samuel Perry (1845-46), H. Ludemann (1884-86) Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This five-story tenement shares Lot 7 with the building at 48 ½ East 7th Street. A low brick extension connects these two structures; the extension has a sign that reads “Via Della Pace.” Originally built to three-and-a-half stories in 1845-46, the tenement was raised to five stories in 1884-86. The present facades feature hooded brownstone window lintels, sills and banding, a projecting chimney on the north facade with decorative brownstone and brick details, metal stoops and historic wood doors. The historic molded cornice is visible above part of the storefronts. The roof cornice has been removed. The fluted cast-iron column is visible within the northwest storefront window.

St. Michael's as viewed from Jersey Alley, ca. 1975.

96 Second Avenue Building Date : 1845, 1916 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : George B. Weeks (1845), Bernard Barth (1916) Original Architect : Unknown (1845), Henry M. Entlich (1916) Description & Building Alterations This four-story row house was originally built in 1845, and major alterations occurred in 1879 and 1916. The present Arts & Crafts-style facade was installed in 1916 during alterations designed by Henry M. Entlich, along with the two-story storefront. It features patterned brickwork, header brick lintels and a stepped parapet with stone coping blocks. The second story show windows are divided by fluted columns, with a paneled and molded crown above. The original stoop was removed in 1879.

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.

"200-208 Bowery, west side, between Spring and Prince Streets, 134." The Federal style building at no. 206 (with the Barber sign) dates, along with its neighbor, to the 1810s. Once a pair amongst many Federal style buildings on the Bowery, most have been demolished and replaced or altered beyond recognition. No. 206 was constructed with a shop space on the first floor and residential space upstairs for the merchant's family. The ground floor retail space has seen a variety of businesses over its more than 200 years, including a shoe store, thread and needle shop, dentist, engraving business, and an umbrella store. At some point in the late 19th century, the upstairs space became one of many lodging houses on the Bowery, catering to " street salesmen and clerks, whose small wages will not admit of better quarters.” At some point in the 20th century no. 204 had its peaked roof and dormers converted into an additional floor. Today no. 206 remains as evidence of the early architectural of the neighborhood and houses a restaurant supply store.

Germania Hall (with the flags), ca. 1870. Germania Hall (or Assembly Rooms) was a brick building, constructed in the mid 1860s, that hosted gatherings of the local German immigrant population beginning in 1874. In the 1870s and 1880s political and social clubs held meetings here and a second floor theatre presented ethnic performances (including German, Yiddish, Italian, Polish and French). Later the visitors to the building became seedier, with gambling its main business. During the 20th century the former Assembly Hall building served as a low-cost lodging house and a mixed-use factory. It was demolished in 2006 for a new residential building.

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.

Former Germania Bank building, ca. 1975. In 1966, the Germania Bank Building was sold to Jay Maisel, a commercial photographer. Maisel maintained his residence and studio there until February, 2015, when the building sold for $55 million. During Maisel’s residence, the grand, mysterious building’s exterior became a magnet for graffiti artists and a well known Bowery landmark. After the 2015 sale, decades of graffiti, grime, and character were stripped from the facade as the building was prepared for commercial renovation.

69 Second Avenue; 89 East 4th Street Building Date : 1887 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : August Schaifer Original Architect : Julius Kastner Description & Building Alterations This six story brick, stone, and terra cotta old law tenement was constructed in circa 1887. The Queen Anne style building features projecting window sills in continuous stone bands; elaborate terra cotta spandrel panels; a center window at the third story recessed behind segmental arch with brick pilasters, scrolled keystone, and bracketed crown; bracketed window lintels; terra cotta panels in relief; and bracketed roof cornice.

Moishe's Bakery, date unknown. Opened in the mid 1970s in a storefront that had been a bakery for decades, Moishe's Bakery has been providing kosher delights for more than four decades. Established by Moishe Perl, whose father worked in the baking business after coming to America from a Nazi concentration camp, the shop was well placed in the neighborhood where a substantial Jewish, Ukrainian and Polish communities resided. Today the menu remains the same as when the shop opened, with hamantaschen, rugelach, mandelbrot, sugar kichels and chocolate babka offered to the ever-changing East Village neighbors and those who travel from all over the city for sweets.

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.

Bowery Mission ARCHITECT: William Jose DATE: 1876 The Bowery Mission is significant for its 103-year history as the home of the Bowery Mission, a religious-based organization that has fed, housed and cared for countless homeless men on the Lower East Side for more than 130 years. It is constructed with red brick and has four bays of windows with incised stone lintels and sills at the third through fifth stories. The ground floor has three arch-headed openings with keystone lintels, a bracketed cornice and stone banding.

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.

Vegetable vendor, ca. 1970.

St. Michael's Russian Catholic Byzantine Church, ca. 1970-1990. The "Gothic Gingerbread" style building was constructed in 1859 as the Chancery Office for nearby St. Patrick's Cathedral (now Old St. Patrick's). The building was designed by James Renwick, Jr. and William Rodrigue, the architects who quickly after would go on to create the new larger St. Patrick's uptown. The building became a small chapel called St. Michael's for some time. In 1936 it became St. Michael's Russian Catholic Byzantine Church. The small church has served the modest but devoted Russian Catholic community. It is the last Russian Catholic parish in New York City, and only one of four in the entire country.

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).

215 Bowery Charles Kinkel 1872 This limestone-faced building was built for the New Amsterdam Savings Bank in 1872, which failed by 1876. It then became Germania Bank, reflective of the large German population near this area at the end of the 19th century. This building was constructed on an irregularly narrow lot, and the heavy stonework and quoins enhance its narrow façade.

Often overshadowed by the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, the General Slocum steamboat disaster on June 15, 1904, was nonetheless the deadliest New York City disaster prior to September 11, 2001. The official number of deceased was 1021 people: mostly women and children. The legacy of this disaster not only includes the tremendous loss of life but the reshaping of an entire New York City neighborhood, Kleindeutschland. Already losing community members to Yorkville and the outer boroughs by the turn of the 20th century, the Slocum disaster accelerated the exodus of Germans from Little Germany and ushered in the more diverse immigrant communities that settled on the Lower East Side.

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.

58 East 4th Street Building Date : 1888 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : John D. Karst, Jr. Original Architect : Alexander I. Finkle Description & Building Alterations No. 58 East 4th Street is an Old Law Tenement, constructed in 1888. In its early years, a saloon operated out of the ground floor. This brick, terra cotta, and granite German Renaissance Revival building has retained most of its historic character, including elaborate spandrels, projecting brick piers with Corinthian-style capitals, granite columns on the second story, and a top broken pediment with an eagle figure.

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 Bowery, north from Rivington Street, showing a bread line extending to the Salvation Army Memorial Hotel No. 223 -225 Bowery, ca. 1932." The Salvation Army Memorial Hotel, the final destination for the men waiting on this bread line, moved into the 10-story building, known as Booth House in 1913. From this location they provided a variety of service to the changing lower Manhattan populations over the 101 years they occupied the building. For the first decade and half the Army location largely served the vagrant population that lived and passed through the Bowery, but as the Great Depression took hold, the Army realized they could no longer function only by handing out meal tickets. The needy population was growing exponentially to include out of work men from common laborers to white collar workers. Knowing that food was one of the most important needs, by 1931 the Army location at Bowery started collecting unserved food from local restaurants to serve in a makeshift dining hall in the basement. This photograph depicts the lines for that service.

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.

ca. 1890 Construction on the six tenements that would become known as the Mott Street Barracks began in the 1850s. Begun by stonemason Martin Walsh, a recent Irish immigrant, the tenements would become one of the most notorious in the city. Each floor had two small apartments. These apartments, in turn, were made up of three rooms, with only one window. Moreover, these windows were overshadowed in all the back apartments by the construction of a second set of structures, directly behind the street-facing tenements. (the photo depicts the narrow alley between the two.) The dark, cramped corridors and apartments of the Mott Street Barracks soon became home to a host of pests, rodents, and disease. The lodgings didn't have plumbing so the waste and outhouses were emptied in the cellar. Filth and refuse crowded the entrances and ground. The child mortality rate at Mott Street was so high that Riis claimed that one in three children died. Moreover, the barracks were no stranger to violent crime. Robberies were fairly common and a series of murders and gang fights secured Mott Street's notoriety beyond its filthy conditions. Following a series of increasingly irate complaints by the health department, Mott Street's owner repainted the tenements and added a new cornice, but the changes were skin deep. Otherwise, the buildings remained the same. In 1896, the Health Department seized the buildings, offering one dollar in compensation. Initially razing the back buildings, it soon became clear that there was no improving the barracks, and the entirety of the tenements was demolished.

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.

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

Fourteenth Ward Industrial School of the Children’s Aid Society (Astor Memorial Building) ARCHITECT: Vaux & Radford DATE: 1888-89 STYLE: Victorian Gothic The Fourteenth Ward Industrial School, often referred to as the Astor Memorial School is an example of Victorian Gothic architecture, it was designed by the architectural firm of Vaux & Radford. The building was donated by John Jacob Astor as a memorial to his wife, a longtime supporter of the activities of the Children’s Aid Society, and that it remains a worthy symbol of the work of the Children’s Aid Society.

Tredwell House, September 1, 1937. Constructed in 1832, the three-story brick town house was once part of a row of six similar homes. It was built by Joseph Brewster and was likely designed from the pages of a pattern book such as ones created by the architect Minard Lafever. The home is an excellent example of the transition of style from Federal to Greek Revival at this time in Manhattan. Brewster lived in the home until 1835, when it was purchased by Seabury Tredwell, a hardware importer, whose business was located near the South Street Seaport. The Tredwell family owned the home for nearly the next century. Gertrude Tredwell, the final of eight siblings, was born (1840) and died (1933) in the house. Following Gertrude's death, George Chapman, a family cousin, turned the home into a museum. The house was designated a NYC Landmark, one of the first 20 designations in 1965. Today the museum features a collection of more than 3000 items, most of which belonged to the Tredwell family, and include furniture, decorations, lighting, household, personal and sewing accessories, family photographs, books, ephemera, works of art, costumes, and textiles. The plasterwork in the house is considered by many to be the most important extant example of a pre-Civil War residential interior in the United States.

Walking through the neighborhood now often referred to as NoLita (north of Little Italy), one can’t help but be struck by a four-story building on Mott Street which seems much more impressive than its modest height would imply. The stepped roof and carved foliate detail above and below the windows give the impression of a grand private residence, or at least the headquarters of some noble institution. But as most New Yorkers know, this is an old immigrant quarter, and the carving above the entrance which says “Fourteenth Ward Industrial School” gives away the building’s much less ostentatious origins. This story is adapted from a Village Preservation blog, which can be viewed here.

347-349 Bowery | Block : 459 | Lot #1 Building Date : 2016 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : 347 Bowery, LLC Co. Urban Muse Mgmt. Original Architect : Selldorf Architects Description & Building Alterations In 2014, the former Salvation Army Building on this block was demolished to make way for this 13 story residential building for developer Urban Muse designed by Selldorf Architects. The building is pre-cast concrete with balconies on the southwest corner. The tallest part of the apartment building is set back from the street with a two-story section extending to the sidewalk. The Salvation Army Building at 347-349 Bowery was constructed in two sections. The northernmost section was built first, in 1922, and was designed by the architect William S. Gregory who incorporated the organization’s initials in terra cotta on the facade. The brick portion on the corner was built in 1950. The record shows Salvation Army as the architect of the 1950 addition without specifying names.

6th Street Synagogue ca. 1970 Now known as the Community Synagogue Max D. Raiskin Center, it was previously the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Mark. This highly‐intact Renaissance Revival‐style building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building has several periods of cultural significance: 1847, when it was constructed as the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Matthew for Dutch, German and English Lutherans; 1857, when it became home to the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Mark, established to serve the East Village’s burgeoning German‐American community; 1904, when nearly 1,000 of its congregants were lost in the General Slocum Ferry disaster, one of the most devastating tragedies in New York City history; and 1940, when the church was converted to a synagogue, reflecting the neighborhood’s transition to the world’s largest Jewish community. Significantly, the building has not only directly served Germans and Jews, but also played a pivotal role in the transformation of the neighborhood from Kleindeutschland to the Jewish Lower East Side. The General Slocum disaster was regarded as the worst in naval history until the Titanic, and the worst in New York City history until September 11th. As its victims were nearly all women and children, among the major social impacts of the disaster was the migration of the remaining residents to outlying neighborhoods, like the Upper East Side. With the fleeing of the German population, a Jewish Lower East Side emerged. The Community Synagogue was quite literally at the center of this transition. Architecturally, the design is a unique example of the use of the Renaissance Revival style on an ecclesiastical building; in 1847, the style was more commonly used for commercial and residential structures. The use of the style lent this modestly‐scaled church an air of nobility and stature that is still evident today, as the building is virtually unchanged since the time of its construction in the mid-19th century. The Community Synagogue Max D. Raiskin Center is the first and only building ever to occupy this East Village lot. It is the earliest of all the buildings on this architecturally diverse and intact historic block, of which GVSHP and our allies in 2012 secured historic district (landmark) status, securing our 2010 goal of landmark status for not just this building but approximately 325 surrounding buildings. The building’s distinctive architectural style, its direct connection to two of the East Village’s most influential immigrant groups – Germans and Jews – and its role in the General Slocum disaster all made this vital East Village structure an obvious candidate for protection.

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.

92 Second Avenue Building Date : 1903-04 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Saul Wallenstein Original Architect : Horenburger & Straub Description & Building Alterations This six-story, Renaissance Revival-style new law tenement building was erected in 1903-04 with stores in the cellar and on the first floor with apartments for 22 families. The facade features curved side bays, molded window enframements with bracketed window sills, and pedimented, scrolled, and splayed lintels. Other features include terra-cotta beltcourses and a bracketed roof cornice decorated with festoons.

109 First Avenue Building Date : 1852 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : James Sparrow Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This five-story brick tenement was originally built in 1852 as a house and was probably altered into a tenement before 1887. Its owner, James Sparrow, also owned the adjacent building at No. 111 First Avenue. Most historic details on the facade have been stripped, including the cornice, after multiple alterations through time.

Shops on Orchard Street, ca. 1975.

You would never guess that the building pictured at 190 Bowery is now a single-family residence. The former Germania Bank building was built in 1898-1899 by Robert Maynicke for its namesake, which served the middle class German residents who populated the area along and to the east of the Bowery, north of Division Street. The building functioned as a bank until the mid-1960s, when photographer Jay Maisel purchased it for $102,000. Maisel moved into the six-story, 72-room, 35,000-square foot building and continues to live there today with his wife and daughter, leading Wendy Goodman of New York magazine to declare 190 Bowery “maybe the greatest real-estate coup of all time.”

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.

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

Aftermath of a fire in a six-story East 4th Street tenement, March 8, 1918. Under the headline "Fire Chief Buried Under Stair Ablaze," the New York Times reported 10 serious injuries to residents and firefighters following a blaze started "when an oil stove was accidentally overturned by the sudden opening of a door."

The Bowery is Manhattan's oldest street, predating European settlement.  It was the widest road on the island for a time, which made it a natural thoroughfare for manufacturing, industry and other development. By 1813, it was so well established within the growing city that it was made official, and the name “Bowery” was forever marked in the record books.

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.

99 Second Avenue Building Date : 1853-54, altered 1871 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Charles J. Knight or William Trusslow (1853), Louis Kappas (1871) Original Architect : Unknown (1853), Julius Boekell (1871) Description & Building Alterations This building was constructed in 1854 for owner Charles J. Knight or William Trusslow. It was altered by having the attic story built out into a full story in 1871.

Bond Street Savings Bank ARCHITECT: Henry Engelbert DATE: 1873-74 STYLE: Cast-iron, French Second Empire The Bouwerie Lane Theater is a fine example of cast-iron construction. The elaborate detail of the facades is a notable expression of French Second Empire architecture. It is a an example of the skillful treatment of disproportionate elements. The wealth of ornament detail, with plastic, almost sculptured effect, makes this building an unusually fine example of this type of construction.

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".

104 Second Avenue, ca. 1974 This eight-story tenement was built in 1901, designed by architect Michael Bernstein, who also designed many other buildings in the East Village. The two tenements at No. 104 and No. 106 Second Avenue were built at the same time, but they are to be read as one large structure. The building features a tripartite vertical configuration and rounded corner at the intersection of Second Avenue and East 6th Street. The first and second stories are covered with rusticated limestone, with a round-arched entry enframed by molded archivolts and pilasters. The upper stories feature red brick and terra-cotta details, including window enframements with garland and foliate sculptural elements, broken pediments, and scroll keystones. The cornice has been removed and covered by metal panels. The storefronts have been reconfigured or infilled.

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.

313-315 Bowery | Block : 457 | Lot #5 Building Date : 1878/1934 alt. Original Use : Residential & Commercial Original Owner : Jacob Weeks (1878); Unknown (1934) Original Architect : J. Correja (1878); Scacchetti & Siegel (1934) Description & Building Alterations This building was originally constructed as two Old Law tenements in 1878. The 1934 architects Scacchetti & Siegel demolished the top two floors of each tenement and combined the buildings by removing the interior walls to create a four-story, four-bay lodging house with a yellow brick Art Deco facade that still exists today. The building was used as the infamous 20th Century flophouse known as the Palace Bar & Hotel, which lodged 500 indigent men. In 1969 Hilly Kristal, manager of the Village Vanguard jazz club, opened a club here called Hilly’s on the Bowery. In 1973, he changed the name to the famous rock club CBGB – “Country, Blue Grass, and Blues” – which remained until 2006. This site launched the careers of The Ramones, Talking Heads, Blondie, and many others. In 2013, the former location of CBGB was added to the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Bowery Historic District. The other half of the building, No. 313, housed Kristal, a record store, art gallery, second performance space, and store called CBGB Fashions. After closing, No. 315 became a John Varvatos boutique and No. 313 became Morrison Hotel, a music photography gallery.

The Triboro Barber School, 264 Bowery, ca. 1925.

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.

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.

83 Second Avenue Building Date : 1844-1845 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Anson Phelps Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This 5 story brick row house was constructed in circa 1844-45. The facade was rebuilt sometime after the mid 1980s. Earlier alterations included the removal of the stoop and the installations of storefronts in 1904.

66-68 East 4th Street Building Date : 1832-33/1871 alt. Original Use : Residential/Institutional Original Owner : Elisha Peck & Anson G. Phelps (1832-33) / New York Turn Verein (1871) Original Architect : Unknown (1832-33) / Kinkel & Klemt (1871) Description & Building Alterations This structure was once two separate Federal-era row houses built in 1831-32 and owned by Elisha Peck and Anson G. Phelps (evidenced by Flemish Bond, which stops short of the top floor). Originally part of a luxurious row of houses called “Albian Place,” in 1871 the buildings were combined, decoratively embellished, and raised from 3.5 to 4 stories to become Turn Hall, home of the New York Turn Verein, which comes from the German term for “gymnasium.” This is also when the building was extended through the block to 3rd Street. It features decorative window enframements and railings, elaborate brackets supporting the cornice and a central pediment with the inscription “1871.” The New York Turn Verein was a German-American socialist movement. The laying of the cornerstone in 1871 was met with great celebration with a vast audience that included the mayor of New York City. In addition to meeting spaces, the Turn Verein also utilized Turn Halle as a theater. Within its walls, A Frightful Dream and Koldunya (The Sorceress) by Abraham Goldfaden debuted in 1882. This marked the first entirely Yiddish theatrical production in American history. Koldunya (The Sorceress) featured Ukranian-born singer and actor Boris Thomashefsky, one of the Yiddish theater’s greatest stars. The Turn Verein moved out in 1898, and beginning in 1899 the property became known was known as Manhattan Lyceum Hall, an anarchist meeting hall. Speakers Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman spoke here. Beginning in November of 1905 until sometime in early 1906 (as seen in articles from the New York Times from the time) this building on East 3rd Street side housed the Orlenev Lyceum, opened by a troupe of actors from St. Petersburg headed by Pavel Orlenoff ad Alla Nazimova. heir repertory included Ibsen, Chekov and Gorsky performed in Russian. Emma Goldman is credited as being the interpreter and manager of the Lyceum and theater luminaries who came to see the troupe included Ethel and John Barrymore, Minnie Maddern Fiske, producer Henry Miller and Margaret Anglin. It was renamed Manhattan Plaza in 1938 when it was converted to a catering facility and dance hall, and then in 1954 it became a film studio known as the Biltmore Studios (later ABC Stage City). From 1969 until 2013, the Millennium Film Workshop – previously known as the Film Project – worked out of 66 East Fourth Street. It showcased the work of avant-garde filmmakers such as Stan Brakhage, Hollis Frampton, Michael Snow, Carolee Schneemann, Bruce Conner, Rudy Burckhardt, Robert Breer, and Kenneth Anger. In 1974, La MaMa opened its anex at this location, and in 2005, the City of New York sold this and seven other properties on Fourth Street between the Bowery and Second Avenue for $1 each to the Fourth Arts Block nonprofit organization, founded in 2001. The city had acquired the properties in the 1950s in anticipation of an urban renewal project that never occurred.

Germania Bank Building ARCHITECT: Robert Maynicke DATE: 1898-99 STYLE: Beaux-Arts The former Germania Bank building is a Beaux-Arts style structure prominently located on the northwest corner of the Bowery and Spring Street. Built-in 1898-99 to the designs of architect Robert Maynicke, it was the third home of the Germania Bank, which was established in 1869 by a group of local businessmen of German extraction. By 1840, more than 24,000 German immigrants and their descendants were living in New York City. Their numbers increased dramatically over the next two decades. The granite and brick building features rusticated stonework, a chamfered corner with an arched entry flanked by Tuscan columns, and multi-story pilasters. The ground floor features large arched openings with voussoirs surmounted a massive denticulated cornice. A similar cornice terminates the fifth story.

323-327 East 6th Street Building Date : 1847 Original Use : Religious Institution Original Owner : German St. Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran Church Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This one-story Greek Revival-style church was erected in 1847 by the German St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church. Ten years later the building became St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church. The church was originally constructed in response to the growing German population in the downtown area in the 19th century. Today, it is one of the earliest Renaissance Revival churches in New York. It features an entrance enframement with a denticulated pediment, a pressed-metal cornice, molded window lintels and sills, and engaged pilasters flanking the building. In June of 1904, the church organized a picnic for 1,300 people, mostly wives and children of German immigrant workingmen. The picnickers boarded the excursion steamer the General Slocum, and the boat departed from the East Third Street pier. As the boat moved up the river to the Long Island North Shore, a fire started in the lamp room below the main deck, setting the boat on fire and killing nearly everyone on it. The building was transferred to its current owner, the Community Synagogue Center, an Orthodox congregation formed by a group led by business leader Saul Birns, in 1940. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Place

14th Ward Industrial School, ca. 1977. The 14th Ward Industrial School was constructed in 1888 to honor the memory and philanthropic work of Mrs. Charlotte Astor by her husband, John Jacob Astor. Long supporters of the Children’s Aid Society, this new school was to teach the impoverished children of this Italian immigrant enclave skills they would need to make their way as urban dwellers and workers. J.J. Astor commissioned Calvert Vaux to design the school. While the red brick, terra cotta, and buttresses denote a Victorian Gothic structure, Vaux added a stepped Dutch gable to top his creation. Today the former school is cooperative apartments.

58 East 4th Street, Modillioned cornice with broken pediment featuring eagle figure, ca. 1975.

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.

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.

112-114 Second Avenue Building Date : 1892 Original Use : Religious Institution Original Owner : Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church Original Architect : Samuel B. Reed Description & Building Alterations This three-to-five-story Gothic Revival-style church was built in 1892 by architect Samuel B. Reed for the Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church. The present-day Middle Collegiate Church is constructed entirely from Indiana limestone. Its facade is three bays wide, featuring a gabled three-story central bay, a 130-foot hexagonal limestone spire on the five-story tower of the northern bay, and another hexagonal limestone spire on the four-story southern bay. Other features include a peaked entry vestibule with a pointed-arched main entrance, pointed-arched window openings, and elaborate stained-glass windows which are possibly made by Tiffany. The highest tower has a bell cast in Amsterdam that was installed in the church’s previous Nassau Street location, where it rang when the Declaration of Independence was signed. It was installed at its present location in 1949, and rings at every presidential inauguration and death. It is located in the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District, designated in 2012.

My Archive Spring 2019

Parade in front of 236 Elizabeth Street, ca. 1935.

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.

View of Elm Street (Lafayette), looking uptown toward Houston Street with the Puck Building at right, August 18, 1900.

Old Merchant’s House Interior ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: 1831-32 STYLE: Greek Revival The Old Merchant’s House is characteristic of the type of large brick residence popular with well-to-do New Yorkers during the decade from 1825 to 1835. While the exterior of the house reflects late Federal architecture, the interiors are elaborately finished in the newly-introduced Greek Revival style. The important rooms in the house are unaltered and now appear exactly as they did when originally completed.

113 First Avenue; 86-88 East 7th Street Building Date : 1852 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : James Sparrow Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This five-story brick tenement was originally built in 1852 as a house and probably altered into a tenement before 1887. The present facade features a simple molded cornice, molded lintels and rectangular sills. The original storefront was altered in 1887.

The Skidmore House This three and a half story house was built in 1844-45 by Samuel Tredwell Skidmore, a relative of Seabury Tredwell, who lived with his family only a few doors away at 29 East 4th Street, known today as the Merchant’s House Museum. The Skidmore house and the Merchant’s House Museum are the two last surviving remnants of the once numerous and elegant early 19th century residences on this block. At the time of the Skidmore House’s completion in 1845, it was located in the midst of a very fashionable residential neighborhood. Meanwhile the area to the north was largely undeveloped. Grace Church, at 10th Street and Broadway for example, was still under construction. According to the designation report of the LPC: No. 37, built in 1844-45, is unusually impressive… a deep house, occupying a larger than usual portion of the lot. A high stoop, over a stone basement which still retains traces of rustication, leads to a handsome doorway with full entablature supported by a pair of Ionic columns, a typically Greek Revival feature. The Inner doorway, behind paneled reveals, is flanked by blocked-up sidelights, set between square pilasters. A three-paned transom crowns the doorway. Traces of a delicate carved molding, which once surrounded the transom, are still visible. Vestiges of the cap moldings, which originally surmounted the window lintels, remain above the windows of the third story. Six-over-six window sash is still in place at the third story, and the low attic windows and simple wood roof cornice, with fascia below, are likewise features of the Greek Revival style. A dramatic transformation from derelict wreck to beautifully restored landmark has continued the fascinating tale of this unique structure. In 1974 New York Times art critic John Russel called it “one of the prettiest houses in the town”. But by the 90’s the owner’s estate had left the building rotting and exposed to the elements and in disrepair. Fortunately the Landmark Preservation Commission eventually commenced a lawsuit against the owners for their failure to maintain the building, and won. The owners were ordered by the State Supreme Court to repair and restore the exterior (read more here). The building has since then undergone a full restoration.

Gotham firehouse and engine, 1901. Built in 1898-1899, the W. B. Chambers and Ernest Flagg-designed firehouse is a classic Beaux-Arts structure. The facade of red brick and limestone is dominated by a monumental arch. Engine Co. 33 which has been housed here since its completion, was initially established in November of 1865 at 220 Mercer Street. The building was designed to include the fire chief's “night headquarters” and in June 1899 Chief Edward F. Crocker moved in. His office was said to have "usual paintings, statuary, and hunting accoutrements." On March 25, 1911, Engine Co. 33 was one of the first responders to the nearby Triangle Factory fire. Chief Crocker retired five weeks after the fire after 27 years with the FDNY, citing his wish "to prevent, instead of fight fires. In 2001, 10 of the 14 firemen from Engine 33 that responded to the WTC never returned home. A plaque on the facade honors them. This building also has the distinction of being double landmarked, first as an individual landmark in 1968 and again as part of the NoHo Historic District Extension in 2008.

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.

105 Second Avenue ca. 1980 Today, 105 Second Avenue is a bank. The city moves on and overtakes what used to be at a given spot pretty quickly, but maybe you know that 105 Second Avenue was the home of the legendary Fillmore East from 1968 until 1971. It’s a narrow building with a brick facade and a domed roof, which used to be adorned with a sign taller than the building that read FILLMORE EAST, and an awning with the names of bands and performers like The Doors, B.B. King, Tina Turner, The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, and The Allman Brothers, among others — the list is like an endless greatest hits of greatest hits. All were selected and curated nightly by the unparallelled Bill Graham, who owned the venue. Before it was the Fillmore East, the building was the Commodore Theater, one of many theaters on 2nd Avenue that produced Yiddish Theater, when the area was known as the Jewish Rialto. With earlier incarnations as a movie house, by the 1930s, live Yiddish drama and vaudeville appeared onstage and the theater was rented out for meetings and benefits to left-wing groups. As Yiddish theater declined, the building became a movie house before it was purchased by Bill Graham. The live music impresario renamed the building the Fillmore East, as a sister venue to his Fillmore in San Francisco, named for its original location at the intersection of Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard.

“Young men in front of 147 Forsyth St. Neighborhood Guild Library in hall bedroom over front door, parent of Rivington St. Branch.” The University Settlement Society of New York, was founded in 1886 as The Neighborhood Guild, a settlement house on Forsyth Street. The organization provided lodging, social services, and education to new immigrants arriving in New York. Today, University Settlement continues to operate on the Lower East Side at 184 Eldridge Street (the “Rivington St. branch” referenced in the photo caption).

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.

Something important to every community is safe in-person spaces to gather. In the early to mid-20th century, it was uncommon to find easily accessible spaces like these for people outside the status quo. Few spaces allowed for the creativity and experimentation that many individuals and groups alike wanted to express. Although there were many social movements throughout the years that allowed the outsiders of society to find each other and create culture, spaces that specifically catered to alt people began popping up more frequently in the 70s. Many of these spaces are gone today, however, there are still many that are up and running, along with many new places that foster community and creativity. When you’re alt, it can be easy to feel like no one around you supports or understands your ideals, fashion, and lifestyle. This is why alternative spaces are so important to maintain. Everyone deserves a place to unwind, make friends, and feel like themselves, and alt community spaces make the seemingly inaccessible easy to find.

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.

108 Second Avenue Building Date : 1908, 1916 (alt) Original Use : Commercial/Institutional Original Owner : Hebrew Free Loan Association Original Architect : Max Muller (1908), Raphael Prager (1916) Description & Building Alterations This four-story with mezzanine building was originally erected in 1908 by and for the Hebrew Free Loan Association (HFLA). The present limestone facade probably dates from the 1916 alteration when a new front wall was installed. It features a granite water table, double-height Doric pilasters at base, a narrow limestone cornice with frieze above the second story, bracketed and pedimented window lintels at the third and fourth stories, and a denticulated roof cornice. The historic frieze reading “Hebrew Free Loan Association” is now covered by signage reading “Self Reliance F.C.U.”

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.

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.

72 East 7th Street Building Date : 1897 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Jos. L. Buttenwieser Original Architect : George Frederick Pelham Description & Building Alterations The six-story tenement was built in 1896-97. Designed by architect George Frederick Pelham, it was constructed as part of a row of buildings at Nos. 70-74 East 7th Street for owner Joseph L. Buttenwieser. The three buildings share a very similar facade design; many buildings within the area designed by Pelham feature identical or almost identical facades. No. 72 features a brick facade with masonry window lintels, some pedimented, some in round-arched shape, and corbelled balconettes at the fifth story window openings. The entrance is enframed in an arched opening with a mask keystone, flanked by marble Corinthian columns.

Trenches for the high pressure water system along East Houston Street, between Mulberry and Mott Streets; undated photo. The Houston Street elevated station of the Third Avenue El is visible in the distance. At left, in the storefront of No. 50, is the tin shop of Niklas Hupfer. A few years earlier, in January 1894, an early-morning fire broke out in the basement of the five-story tenement building. The New York Times attributed the blaze to an errant cigar butt, and each of the building's 27 residents were fortunate to escape. Sgt. John Kellaher, on watch duty at Police Headquarters around the block, was credited with quick and decisive actions helping to avert loss of life. The buildings at left, on the north side of the street, were all demolished in late 1929, ahead of construction for the IND Sixth Avenue Line's Houston—Essex segment. IND construction led to the permanent widening of the Houston Street thoroughfare.

103 Second Avenue Building Date : 1868 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Nicholas Soebeler Original Architect : Julius Boekell Description & Building Alterations Constructed in 1868, this now five-story corner building was three separate buildings. In 1876, the roof was raised by two feet and in 1922 the buildings were combined and the corbeled brick cornice likely dated to this time.

Police Headquarters, ca. 1900. Between 1863 and 1909, this unassuming Mulberry Street building was the headquarters for the New York City Police Department. Completed in 1862, in one of the densest areas of the city and only a few blocks from the notorious Five Points area, the building had a rich and sordid history. The New York Times noted in 1909, upon the removal of the police department to its new building on Centre Street, “No other building in the city, probably, is richer in memories than 300 Mulberry Street.” After being abandoned by the NYPD the building was used for magistrate and traffic court purposes through the mid century and razed sometime in the late 1950s or early 1960s. The building was a backdrop for any number of 19th century historic events and political players. During the draft riots in 1863, superintendent of police, John A. Kennedy, was beaten and left near death at headquarters. In 1895 a reformer, Teddy Roosevelt, was named Police Superintendent, a brief stop on his route to the White House.

82 Second Avenue Building Date : 1841 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Elisha Peck Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations Originally built as a 3 1/2 story Greek Revival-style row house with basement and store, this now four-story with attic building was part of a row of houses at 78 to 84 Second Avenue owned by Elisha Peck. It features a planar brick facade and a molded cornice with short attic-story windows. The two-story storefront extension was installed in 1918, with the cornice and side piers on the extension’s facade. The original stoop has been removed and the window lintels have been stripped.

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.

125 First Avenue Building Date : 1855 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Joseph Wood Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This five-story tenement building was originally erected in 1855, together with the buildings at 127 and 129 First Avenue. The present facade features bracketed cornice, molded window lintels and simple rectangular sills. The storefronts have been reconfigured multiple times during alterations in 1885, 1913, and 1942.

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.

Middle Collegiate Church ca. 1926 This three-to-five-story Gothic Revival-style church was built in 1891-92, by the Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church. The Middle Collegiate Church is constructed entirely from Indiana limestone. Its facade is three bays wide, featuring a gabled three-story central bay, a 130-foot hexagonal limestone spire on the five-story tower of the northern bay, and another hexagonal limestone spire on the four-story southern bay. Other features include a peaked entry vestibule with pointed-arched main entrance, pointed-arched window openings, elaborate stained-glass windows which are possibly made by Tiffany, and a rusticated limestone surface.

Since 1898, Engine Co. 33 has occupied this building, designed by famed New York City architects Ernest Flagg and W.B. Chambers. The stunning French Beaux-Arts styled facade immediately grabs the attention of passersby, which still features the classic red doors, central windows, and grand archways characteristic of firehouses. The building’s landmark designation report, written in 1968, says: “This utilitarian building has a flamboyance that is particularly appropriate to the function of the hazardous profession engaged in by its occupants.”

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.

Jones Diner, ca. 1980. Perhaps the epitome of a New York greasy spoon, the Jones Diner was a neighborhood landmark for more than 60 years. Opened in 1938, it was the popular breakfast and lunch spot for the workers that toiled in the nearby buildings filled with garment shops, small factories, and machine shops. Until the diner closed in 2002 it still served a $3 breakfast meal (juice included)! After a six-year lawsuit was settled in early 2002, the diner's owners agreed to close in September of that year and the landlords agreed to waive $217,000 in rent. The building and the land became a flash point for community advocacy and historic preservation. The community (and community board) wanted the diner included in the design for a new restaurant building to be constructed for the Chelsea staple Cafeteria. Cafeteria stated they were not able to include the single story structure in their plans. A NoHo Historic District had been designated in 1999, but it would stop at Lafayette, despite the the original proposal which had the the district extending east to the Bowery. The Jones Diner would be demolished but Cafeteria did not build its restaurant. The lot would remain largely empty and under construction scaffolding with a thin concrete building rising around 2010 but remaining unfinished. The planned hotel was never completed and in 2016 a new design and construction for an 11-story condo building was undertaken.

"Bowery, west side, north from and including Prince, to and including East Houston Streets, 1934." The Federal style building seen here, with its brick facade, peaked roof, and dormers, likely dates to the early decades of the 19th century when Bowery was lined with these Federals. Though the large second story windows and dormers are no longer extant, and the Bowery facing facade is drastically altered, the bones of this original building remain, and can be seen more clearly on the Prince Street facade.

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.

105 Second Avenue, ca. 1985. In 1968, the rock promoter Bill Graham bought a run-down movie theater built in the 1920s as a Yiddish theater, and renamed it the Fillmore East, after his Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco. In its short-lived existence, Jimi Hendrix, The Allman Brothers, Grateful Dead, Miles Davis, Joe Cocker, Crosby Stills, Nash & Young, Derek & the Dominos, King Crimson, Jefferson Airplane, Led Zeppelin, and Frank Zappa all played the venue, and dozens of live albums were recorded there. After a few other incarnations, the theater was gutted and it became apartments. The lobby is now an Apple Bank.

33-37 Bleecker Street, ca. 1980.

88-90 Second Avenue Building Date : 1903-04 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Julius Weinstein Original Architect : Bernstein & Bernstein Description & Building Alterations This six-story new law tenement and store building was constructed in 1903-04, designed by architect Bernstein & Bernstein for owner Julius Weinstein. The building facade features pedimented, curved, and splayed window lintels, balconettes with urns, elaborate spandrels, and a bracketed cornice with swags underneath. The entrance facing Second Avenue is enclosed in an arched portico, with attached Corinthian columns, a foliated keystone, scrolled brackets, and frieze panels. The building has an ornate wrought-iron fire escape.

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.

"The Bowery, east side, north from and across East 1st Street. To the left appears the Empire State and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Bldg's. across the Third Avenue elevated lines which runs on the Bowery and continues northward on Third Avenue from Cooper Square, 1938." The storefront and corner signage advertise a 10 cent shave and a 15 cent haircut.

The La MaMa Theater was originally designed by August H. Blankenstein to be a musicians’ club house for the Aschenbroedel Verein, or the “Cinderella Society.” Theodore Thomas, a German-born violinist, and conductor of the New York Philharmonic, was a prominent member of the society, located at this building until 1892. Carl Bergmann, also a conductor for the New York Philharmonic, New York Symphony Orchestra conductor Walter Damrosch, and violinist Carl Fischer, were all members as well. The building underwent numerous alterations, including the removal of partitions, the addition of stairways, windows, and an elevator, and the eventual conversion in 1949 to a meatpacking plant. The present facade was added to the building in 1892 by tenement architects Kurtzer & Rohl. It was designated a New York City Landmark in March of 2009. In 1969, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, a boutique and theater started by Ellen Stewart (1919-2011), who came to New York in 1950, moved to this building. The theater, which has long history of featuring and supporting LGBTQ artists, was founded in 1961 under the name Café La MaMa. The space was renovated to create ninety-nine seat theaters on the first and second floors, rehearsal space on the third floor, and Ellen Stewart’s apartment on the fourth floor. In 1974, the company received a National Endowment for the Arts grant, which allowed it to build a 295-seat theater in the former Turn Hall (Nos. 66-68). It has put on over three thousand shows and won over sixty Obie Awards. Ellen Stewart received a MacArthur Fellowship Award in 1985. Playwrights Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, Harvey Fierstein, and Terrence McNally; directors Tom O’Horgan, Joseph Chaikin, Robert Wilson, and Richard Foreman; and actors Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Richard Dreyfuss, Bill Irwin, and Danny DeVito have all worked with La MaMa. Stewart and La Mama are considered to have an extraordinarily deep and lasting impact upon American theater, especially experimental and Off-Broadway theater. This image is from Village Preservation's East Village Building Blocks map. You can explore the map and learn more about buildings in the East Village by clicking here.

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.

86 Second Avenue Building Date : 1874 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : John McCullough Original Architect : Johnathan A. Remer Description & Building Alterations This five-story Italianate tenement building was constructed in 1874 at the cross of Second Avenue and East 5th Street. The ground floor has held a cafe/restaurant since the building’s construction. The Wiener Cafe House occupied the ground level in the late 19th century (see sidebar). Its facade features a modillioned cornice, rusticated brownstone quoins at the building corners, molded galvanized-iron window lintels and bracketed sills. The storefront underwent a major alteration in 1928. A new residential entrance has been cut through the East 5th Street facade and the historic entrance with entablature on the same facade was converted into the storefront.

Parade in front of 236 Elizabeth Street, ca. 1935. The flag bearers are holding the American flag and the flag of the Kingdom of Italy (originally the Sardinian flag), which was used from 1861 until 1946.

6-20 East 3rd Street Building Date : 1912 Original Use : YMCA Original Owner : YMCA Original Architect : Jackson & Rosencrans Description & Building Alterations This building started as the home to the Bowery Branch YMCA and is currently used as the Department of Welfare Municipal Shelter, continuously serving the neighborhood for more than 130 years. YMCA sold the property to the City of New York in 1947. The building was constructed in 1912 and was six stories high and appears to have received a seventh floor before the 1980s.

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.

331-333 Bowery Building Date: 1875 Original Use: Commercial Original Owner: John Wolfe Original Architect: John B. Snook Description & Building Alterations The new building permit of 1875 seen in the Real Estate Record and Builders Guide called for the construction of two buildings for stores, one five stories, and one three stories. However, the tax record from 1876 shows that two five-story buildings were constructed and they were perhaps combined through an alteration at a later time. According to a 1903 map, in that year this building had a bowling alley in the basement, a saloon, and hall on the first floor, and a cigar factory on floors 2-5. Refer to the 1903 map (link at the sidebar) for the older variant spelling “Segar”. About a decade later, the building was used as a store and loft. In the 1980s, the building housed the Kenton Hotel.

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.

203 Bowery, between Spring and Rivington Streets, 1932.

Community Synagogue Center, ca. 1970-1990. The Renaissance Revival style church on Sixth Street was originally built in 1847 by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Matthew. A few members of the St. Matthew's congregation organized a new church called Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Mark, which rented space in this building for a number of years. In 1858 St. Mark's had secured the funds to purchased the church for themselves. In 1904, while on a summer time outing more than 1000 members of the congregation were killed when the General Slocum steamboat caught fire. On its way to a picnic area on Long Island, the boat caught fire as it passed 90th Street and was about to enter the choppy water of the Hell Gate near Astoria. The fire quickly grew, fueled by straw, oily rags, and lamp oil. The captain was not notified until more than 10 minutes after the fire was discovered. And while he had the opportunity to run the ship aground, he chose to continue upriver which fanned the already out of control flames. The safety equipment on board, including fire hoses, safety vests and boats, were mostly useless. Many passengers attempted to jump overboard, but drowned in the choppy water, as they did not known how to swim or were hampered by heavy clothing. Though the church would remain functioning for the next few decades, the congregation was devastated. Those who survived left the area downtown known as Kleindeutschland (“Little Germany”) and moved uptown to Yorkville. In 1946 St, Mark's officially merged with and moved uptown to the Zion Church on the Upper East Side. In 1940 the church building became an Orthodox synagogue called the Community Synagogue Center. In the early 1980s the synagogue took on the activities of the East Side Hebrew Institute, and the building has since been called Community Synagogue Max D. Raiskin Center.

74 East 4th Street, ca. 1977. This building was constructed in 1873 as the headquarters for the German-American professional orchestral musicians' social and benevolent association, Aschenbroedel Verein. Designed by German-born architect August H. Blankenstein, the facade of the four-story building was altered in 1892. The new facade combined the German Renaissance Revival and neo-Grec styles with German folk motifs. The musicians' society moved to Yorkville in 1892, and the building briefly became the home of Gesangverein Schillerbund, a long established German singing society. Later the structure housed assembly and dance halls, the Newsboys' Athletic Club, a laundry, and a meatpacking plant. In 1969, La Mama Experimental Theatre Club moved into the building and continues to produce theatre in a number of spaces in the building.

62 East 4th Street ca. 1982 62 East 4th Street was built in 1889, when owner Victor Eckstein hired the architect Max Schroff to design what many refer to today as the “oddest” building with an Andy Warhol past in the East Village. Its stairwell is encased in a metal grille exposed on the center of the facade. The window enframements feature different forms and decoration on each story, with an ornamented loggia on the fourth floor. The cornice is a replication. Originally, the building had a restaurant on the ground floor and meeting rooms on the second and third floors as the Metropolitan Assembly Room, which was formerly located at 64 East 4th St. Eckstein himself made his home on the fourth and fifth floors.

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.

76 Second Avenue Building Date : 1928 Original Use : Commercial Original Owner : Ambach, Inc. Original Architect : Paul Fein Description & Building Alterations This three-story building was erected in 1928 as a cabaret and was converted into a church in 1962. The building was labeled as 3 1/2 stories on a 1916 Bromley map, and in the 1940s tax photo the building is a half-story taller than it is today. This 1/2 floor was demolished sometime between the 1940s and 1980s, when the facade was resurfaced. It is likely that at the same time, the storefront and the window openings on each floor were reconfigured.

31 Great Jones Street ca 1887 Built in 1871 and designed by architect W.E. Waring, this firehouse… wasn’t exactly a firehouse. In 1835 the Association of Fire Insurance Companies formed a group called the New York Fire Patrol. This group wasn’t responsible for extinguishing fires, but rather for salvaging valuables and minimizing the damage to the building itself once the fire had been fought. The Patrol existed before the creation of the unified fire department and continued to operate after its formation, so its functions have changed over the years. This became their Fire Patrol House No. 2. Funnily enough, the property next door at 33 Great Jones was purchased by Willcox & Gibbs Sewing Machine Company and their designer, Charles Wright, created an exact replica of the firehouse building next door. Fire Patrol No. 2 left No. 31 in 1907 for a new location (see 84 West 3rd Street, below), and now an upscale restaurant by the name of Vic’s occupies the ground floor.

73 Second Avenue Building Date: 1886 Original Use: Residential/Commercial Original Owner: Benner & Zeller Original Architect: Adam Munch Description & Building Alterations This five-story brick, stone, and terra cotta old law tenement was constructed in circa 1866. The Queen Anne style building features cast-iron columns at the first story, historic wood and glass transom window at the entryway, paneled piers, molded window lintels, decorative brick, and terra cotta spandrels, and wrought-iron fire escape. In 1924-25, the stoop was removed and the first story was lowered to sidewalk level to allow for the installation of two storefronts.

Village Preservation would like to satisfy your cravings for hauntings. Preserving the Village not only means maintaining the old buildings and historic landscapes but sometimes also the domiciles of the dearly departed. We have put together a list of some of the most haunted historical places in the Village that will hopefully facilitate both engagement with the neighborhood’s history and encounters with the otherworldly. History buffs beware, you’re in for a scare…

71 Second Avenue Building Date : 1886 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Benner & Zeller Original Architect : Adam Munch Description & Building Alterations This five story brick, stone, and terra cotta old law tenement was constructed in circa 1886. The Queen Anne style building features cast-iron columns, historic wood and glass transom window at the entryway, paneled piers, molded window lintels, decorative brick and terra cotta spandrels, and wrought-iron fire escape.

84 Second Avenue, date unknown. A survivor of a time when many storefronts had the two-story glass fronted facade seen here, 84 Second Avenue has a long and somewhat mysterious history. In the late 19th century the building was Irene Stenard's Temporary Home for Women, a boarding house for working poor women. The address became well known in 1887 when Nellie Brown (the pseudonym of investigative reporter Nellie Bly) checked into this facility before feigning insanity for the purpose of being committed to the institution on Blackwell's Island. The resulting report was published as the scandalous 'Ten Days in a Madhouse.' At some point, likely in the early 20th century, the glass storefront and wooden ornamentation at the roofline were added when it became a commercial space. For many years in the mid-century, the storefront was occupied by a shop that sold tuxedos and formal wear. In 1974 it was the venue of a brutal murder; 40-year-old seamstress Helen Sopolsky was found bludgeoned to death on the second floor. Following the event, the space was abandoned just as it was, supposedly with the fingerprinting dust still marking the furniture. The Sopolsky family is said to still own the building. Though someone it said to have lived on the top floor, the lower floors are a conspicuously empty space. As the neighborhood has revived and boomed in the last few decades, the permanently unlit and dusty 'DRESS FOR HIRE' neon sign has remained unchanged.

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

111 Second Avenue This six-story building was erected in 1928 and designed by Ralph H. Segal for Saul Birns. When it was constructed, the building contained ninety-four suites of one to four rooms. Originally meant to be a bank, store, and office building, the building was occupied by by the beloved deli restaurant Ratners for many years. It was a nighttime hangout for rock-n-roll legends like Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and The Grateful Dead. The structure is now occupied by New York University.

"Bowery, east side, north from and including East 2nd Street, 1934." The Arcade Hotel, seen here at 317 Bowery was operating as a lodging house as early as 189, though likely earlier. It would function as a low end hotel through the early decades of the 20th century, when the Bowery was home to a large transient population drawn to the area by the prospect of affordable lodging. Today the building continues to act as overnight lodging as the home of the Bowery Residents’ Committee. In the far distance of this 1934 photograph, the hazy outline of the 1930 Empire State Building is visible. Despite the vertical growth of the area north of the Bowery in the ensuing decades, the view of the Empire State Building is still possible from this location.

Puck Building ARCHITECT: Albert Wagner; Herman Wagner DATE: 1885-99 STYLE: Romanesque Revival The Puck Building, originally the home of Puck magazine, is one of the great surviving buildings from New York’s old publishing and printing district. The red-brick round-arched structure occupies the entire block bounded by East Houston, Lafayette, Mulberry and Jersey Streets, and has been one of the most prominent architectural presences in the area since its construction one hundred years ago. The style is an adaptation of the Romanesque Revival, which had reached great popularity in the 1880s.

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.

Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: 1825-26 STYLE: Federal This late Federal style institutional building was a popular type in the post-Revolutionary period. This three-story brick structure, with attic and low basement, retains a great deal of its original character. Formal in design, severely stark in appearance, the plain exterior is enhanced by a centrally located arched doorway, of great architectural beauty. This is one of the few complete late Federal period doorways in the City.

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.

Old Merchant’s House ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: 1831-32 STYLE: Federal The building has existed for 130 years in its original state, inside and out. The house is a unique document of its period; it shows with unrivaled authenticity how a prosperous merchant of the 1830’s lived. In addition, the building is a fine example of New York architecture of the late Federal period. It has been given national landmark status through its designation by the National Park Service of the U.S Department of the Interior.

16-20 East 7th Street Building Date : 1973 Original Use : Institutional Original Owner : St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church Original Architect : Appolinare Osadca Description & Building Alterations The St. George Ukranian Catholic Church at 30 East 7th Street was constructed in 1978. The congregation, which is in communion with the Church of Rome, dates to services at St. Brigid’s Roman Catholic Church in Tompkins Square in 1890. In 1911, the congregation moved to the Seventh Street Methodist Church, a Greek Revival church built in 1836 on the present site. The congregation then added a squat tower with five onion domes to the the top of the front gable. The current Byzantine, Romanesque-style building was designed by the Ukraninan-born architect Apollinaire Osadca. The north entrance bears colored, gold-background mosaics.

57 East 4th Street Building Date : 1897-1899 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Jacob Sommer Original Architect : Sass & Smallheiser Description & Building Alterations This six story brick and stone Renaissance Revival old law tenement was constructed in 1899-1900. It features round-arch fenestration at the first story, fluted cast-iron columns, scrolled keystones, splayed lintels, continuous sills in projecting bands, segmental relieving arch above the fifth story center bays, cartouches above the fifth story end bays, Corinthian pilasters flanking fifth story windows, and a bracketed cornice.

112-114 Second Avenue,Samuel B. Reed, 1891-92 110 Second Avenue, 1837-38 323-327 East 6th Street 1847 Middle Collegiate Church stands out both for its graceful 130-foot spire and for the uniform color and rich texture of its Indiana limestone, Gothic Revival façades. The red brick and brownstone, Greek Revival rowhouse next door was originally one of four built for wealthy merchant Ralph Mead. In 1874, it was purchased by the Women’s Prison Association, established in 1845 by Isaac Tatem Hopper and his daughter Abigail Hopper Gibbons, Quaker abolitionists and prison reform advocates. Still in operation, it is considered the world’s oldest halfway house for girls and women released from prison. Walk east on East 6th Street to the former St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (converted to the Sixth Street Community Synagogue in 1940). One of the largest German churches in Kleindeutschland, a plaque commemorates the many congregants lost in the General Slocum steamboat disaster of 1904, the deadliest event in New York’s history before the attacks of September 11, 2001. Middle Collegiate Church is located in the East Village/Lower East Side Historic Ditrict. Women’s Prison Association / Isaac T. Hopper House is located in the East Village/Lower East Side Historic Ditrict, is a New York City Individual Landmark and listed on the National register of Historic Places. Former St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church is listed on the National register of Historic Places.

The La MaMa Theater was originally designed by August H. Blankenstein to be a musicians’ club house for the Aschenbroedel Verein, or the “Cinderella Society.” Theodore Thomas, a German-born violinist, and conductor of the New York Philharmonic, was a prominent member of the society, located at this building until 1892. Carl Bergmann, also a conductor for the New York Philharmonic, New York Symphony Orchestra conductor Walter Damrosch, and violinist Carl Fischer, were all members as well. The building underwent numerous alterations, including the removal of partitions, the addition of stairways, windows, and an elevator, and the eventual conversion in 1949 to a meatpacking plant. The present facade was added to the building in 1892 by tenement architects Kurtzer & Rohl. It was designated a New York City Landmark in March of 2009. This image is from Village Preservation's Historic Image Archive, view more historic photos like this here.

200 East 5th Street Building Date : 1983 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Cooper Square Hospital Development Fund Original Architect : Shuman, Lichtenstein, Climan & Efron Description & Building Alterations This building was constructed in 1983 and was designed by architects Schuman, Lichtenstein, Climan & Efron. It was the former site of the Five Spot club, a divey neighborhood bar founded in the 1930s that attracted writers and artists living nearby: Williem de Kooning, Alfred Leslie, Larry Rivers, Franz Kline, Howard Kanovitz, Grace Hartigan, David Smith, Frank O’Hara, Allen Ginsberg, and Kenneth Koch, among others. It became one of the world’s premiere jazz clubs in the 1950s, at which point it featured John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman, and Billie Holiday. The club needed more space and moved to 2 St. Mark’s Place in 1962.

Peace Pentagon ca. 1934 The building at 339 Lafayette Street (officially numbered 339-345) is nicknamed the Peace Pentagon for its association with many left-wing and radical activist and political organizations. It was purchased in 1968 by the War Resisters League, the oldest secular pacifist organization in the United States. They were founded in 1923 by a group of men and women opposing World War I. In 1978, the A.J. Muste Institute bought the building. For decades they provided office space for politically congenial activist organizations, including the Granny Peace Brigade, the National Committee to Reopen the Rosenberg Case, the Socialist Party USA, Women's Pentagon Action, and Art for Social Change. In October 2015, the building was sold to a real estate holding company.

On June 5th, 1870 Jacob Riis arrived in New York with 40$ and a revolver. Riis was one of the millions of immigrants arriving on the shores of the United States at the end of the 19th century. Seeking a better life, the immigrants were packed into the tenements and slums of New York. In the 1880s, the Lower East Side was the most densely populated place in the world. Riis's documentation of the inhabitants of these neighborhoods would make him famous and drive a reformist movement.

381 Lafayette Street, date unknown. The original address of 381 Lafayette Street was 6 Lafayette Place (prior to the street being renamed in the early 20th century). The four-story, red brick building was the residence of wealthy merchant Alexander Mactier in 1939. Later the home, which once had a tall stoop, was owned by a well-known and respected surgeon, Dr. Alexander H. Stevens. As the neighborhood developed into a commercial area, the residents left and the buildings were converted into places of business. In the 1860s a Madame Ferrero sold fancy French and Italian hats to New York's wealthy ladies, and later the building was a doctor's office as well. In 1888 it was sold to The Mission of the Immaculate Virgin for the Protection of Homeless and Destitute Children. That organization erected a large neighboring residential hall at nos. 2 and 4 Lafayette Place, while no. 6 became the convent and chapel for the nuns who operated the mission home. The building underwent a renovation in 1890, adding two stories, a rear extension, and a new Northern Renaissance Revival style facade. By 1930 the large mission residence was being demolished after a decade of vacancy when most of the charity's functions were moved to Staten Island. The convent building, by now numbered 381 Lafayette Street, remained owned and used by the mission until 1965. The painted sign on the side of the building relates to its work with homeless children. The building was sold and resold in the 1960s, finally to the artist Robert Rauschenberg. No. 381 became his studio and home until his death in 2008. Today the building (which underwent a facade restoration in 2008) remains the home of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.

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.

Excavation on the newly-extended Lafayette Street, at Jones Alley, April 1, 1901. Ink annotation marks Bond Street, crossing in the foreground.

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.

Subway Tavern, ca. 1905. The Subway Tavern was not any regular bar. Situated in a dense neighborhood, near a station of the new subway system, the tavern was created to be a moral one!? Conceived by Bishop Henry Codman Potter of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, it was meant to be a bar where "proper and gentlemanly" drinking wold occur. Staff here was empowered to monitor and guide patrons towards responsible drinking habits. Located in a former saloon (with unrestricted drinking one assumes), the Subway Tavern had a front room open to both sexes and a back room that was for men only. Patrons could have one, maybe two drinks before being cut off. Though noted in local and national news for its peculiarity, the experiment was largely a failure. The Episcopalian Church was not thrilled with their name associated with bar only a few blocks from the immorality of the Bowery. And within a year the bar was empty. (Presumably those who might have had two drinks here before moving on to a less virtuous establishment gave up the pretense and just started drinking elsewhere.) The Subway Tavern closed in 1905 and the location reopened soon after as an ‘out and out saloon,' likely making both the religious men (except for Bishop Potter) and the neighborhood imbibers much happier.

126 Second Avenue Building Date : 1837-39 Original Use : Theater Original Owner : Gerard Stuyvesant Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations A three-story with basement and attic house was originally built on site in 1837-39 and its street number through part of the 19th cenutyr was No. 124. It was raised to four stories between 1895 and 1899. The building was altered into two stories in either 1914 or 1916. The present Georgian Palladian facade features denticulated cornice with brick parapet above and curvilinear pediment at center, triple-arched windows on the second floor, enframed by moldings with scroll keystones, and divided by columns standing on pedestals. Other characters include decorative frieze, beltcourses, projecting brick piers flanking the facade, and figural carving above the corners of the first story. The building was altered into a first floor restaurant and upper floor apartments in 1892, and served as a meeting space for the New-York Chess Club, the Liberty Cycle Club, and the Austro-Hungarian Republic League. The building held the Moving Picture Theatre by 1913, before and after being converted into two stories. It became the Orpheum from 1929 until 1958, after which it housed an off-Broadway theater. Eileen Brennan, Anne Bancroft, Eli Wallach, Marian Seldes, Robert Livingston, Gary William Friedman, Will Holt, Eric Bogosian, Danny Apolinar, Hal Hester, Donald Driver, Kevin Wade, Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, all won awards at the Orpheum. The building continues to serve as a theater today.

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.

Orpheum Theater, 126 Second Avenue, ca. 1979. In 1868, Elizabeth Blackwell established at 126 Second Avenue the Women's Medical College of the New York Infirmary, at the time, the only institution that would train women to be doctors in New York City. The year after the College's establishment, Blackwell left for England, leaving the College under her younger sister Emily's directorship. It remained open until 1899. After the college closed, the site became the alleged destination of a concert-garden and, in 1904, a theatre. 126 Second Avenue remains one of the oldest continuously operating places of entertainment in Manhattan. Originally called the Players Theatre, it was part of what was then a vibrant Yiddish theatre scene on Second Avenue, also known as the "Jewish Rialto." During the heyday of Yiddish productions, theaters along Second Avenue hosted as many as 20 to 30 shows a night. In 1958, the theatre became the official home for Off-Broadway productions. It has been the home of the production, Stomp, with over 5,000 performances since its opening night in 1994.

Germania Bank, ca. 1905. Robert Maynicke’s Renaissance Revival building, completed in 1899, was the third location of the Germania Bank, which was founded by a group of German-American businessmen in 1869.

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.

77 Second Avenue Building Date : 1903 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Abraham Silverson Original Architect : George Frederick Pelham Description & Building Alterations This 6 story Renaissance Revival brick and limestone New-Law tenement was constructed in circa 1903 and originally housed 21 families over ground-floor shops. It features an ornamental wrought-iron fire escape and tapered columns at the main entryway. Other significant architectural details include coursed brickwork, molded window surrounds topped by scrolled keystones, splayed lintels and triangular or semi-circular gables, and a bracketed roof cornice with freize panels. An entryway lintel has been removed.

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.

\[Little girl playing with water from fire hydrant.]

335-343 Bowery Building Date : 2006 Original Use : Commercial Original Owner : Three on Third Realty, LLC Original Architect : Matt Markowitz Description & Building Alterations This site was formerly occupied by the spectacular Dry Dock Savings Bank building (see New York Real Estate Brochure at sidebar), designed by Leopold Eidlitz in 1875. The building was demolished in 1954 and replaced with a garage/gas station, part of which survives on the corner (now housing a restaurant, the date “1954” is written in the building’s parapet). The current Bowery Hotel, designed by Matt Markowitz Architect, PC, was built in 2006

123 Second Avenue Building Date : 1834, altered 1913 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Thomas E. Leary/Albert & Dora Sokolski Original Architect : Unknown/George Frederick Pelham Description & Building Alterations This building and its neighbors at 119 and 121 Second Avenue were destroyed in a devastating fire that occurred on Thursday, March 26, 2015. The fire was the result of an explosion that went off in the basement of 121 Second Avenue, killing two people and displacing all residents and businesses. Because these three buildings are located within the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District, new construction would have to meet the approval of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. At this time, we are unsure of when this will happen. The building that stood here was constructed in 1834 by developer Thomas E. Leary. In 1913, architect George Frederick Pelham applied to raise the building two stories bringing it to its current size.

"No. 361 Bowery, at the S.E. corner of East 4th Street, is a frame house, 1932." In 1837, the Federal style wood-frame building at 361 Bowery was occupied by a druggist and a printer, both with the last name Crumbie (perhaps brothers or father and son). By 1841 the building was home to a grocer owned by Abraham Polhemus. Little else is known of the building. Today it no longer stands and has been replaced by a single story building that houses an Irish pub.

6-12 Lafayette Place (currently at 383 Lafayette Street). According to an 1884 article in the Times, no. 8 Lafayette (the home set back on the right) was a boarding house run by Maria Higgins. The pair of wood-frame structures survived until at least 1911 but were gone by 1916, replaced by the current 383 Lafayette 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.

Cobblestone removal on Mott Street, between Prince and Houston Streets at an unknown date.

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.

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

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.

Firemen aboard a FDNY Rescue Co. 1 vehicle outside the company's first home station on Great Jones Street, ca. 1915. FDNY Rescue Companies are called upon to use specialized equipment and training in rare or especially dangerous circumstances, including rescues of FDNY personnel. Rescue No. 1 was established in March 1915, and first operated out of the Engine 33 firehouse at 42 Great Jones Street.

104-106 Second Avenue Building Date : 1901 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Cohen & Glauber Original Architect : Michael Bernstein Description & Building Alterations This eight-story tenement was built in 1901, designed by architect Michael Bernstein, who also designed many other buildings in the East Village. The two tenements at No. 104 and No. 106 Second Avenue were built at the same time, but they are to be read as one large structure. The building features a tripartite vertical configuration and rounded corner at the intersection of Second Avenue and East 6th Street. The first and second stories are covered with rusticated limestone, with a round-arched entry enframed by molded archivolts and pilasters. The upper stories feature red brick and terra-cotta details, including window enframements with garland and foliate sculptural elements, broken pediments, and scroll keystones. The cornice has been removed and covered by metal panels. The storefronts have been reconfigured or infilled. A Bromley map that dates to 1916 titles the building “Victoria” (see sidebar).

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."

359-361 Bowery Building Date : 1831 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : David Baker Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations No. 359 Bowery is a four-story building with a one-story extension that houses a restaurant. The building was originally constructed in 1831 by David Baker, presumably as a 2.5-story house, and was raised to four stories in the mid- to late-19th century. The cornice and stoop of this building have been removed. Where the one-story restaurant now exists (on the corner of Bowery & East 4th Streets) formerly stood another 2.5-story house from 1831, also originally owned by Baker, that retained its original peaked roof and massing until all but its first story was demolished in the 1940s. That building housed the Old Landmark Restaurant & Bar for nearly a century.

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.

Love Saves the Day Store, ca. 1980. The corner tenement building seen here was home to "Love Saves the Day," a vintage clothing and tchotchke store from 1966 until 2008. A scene in the film "Desperately Seeking Susan" with Madonna was filmed in the store. The business closed in 2008 as a result of both the death of the owner (who husband continued to run it briefly) and the rising of East Village rents. Its colorful storefront was dismantled the space soon became a Ramen restaurant. In March of 2015 a gas explosion, caused by an illegal tap into the gas main of the building next door, caused two deaths, 19 injuries, and a fire that completely destroyed no. 119 as well as 121 and 123 Second Avenue. As of summer 2019 a large new residential building is being constructed.

80 Second Avenue Building Date : 1841, 1881 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Elisha Peck (1841), George Roll (1881) Original Architect : Unknown (1841), Julius Boekell (1881) Description & Building Alterations Originally built as a three-story Greek Revival-style row house, this building was part of a row of houses at 78 to 84 Second Avenue owned by Elisha Peck. It was raised to full four stories in 1881. During further alterations in 1920, the stoop was removed and a two-story storefront extension was installed. The existing facade features planar brick, a bracketed roof cornice, a cornice at the second story, and side piers on the 1920 storefront extension. The details of the window lintels have been removed. The neo-Grec cornice may date to the 1881 extension.

115 1st Avenue Building Date : 1876 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : J.H. Korner Original Architect : Fredrick Graul & Co. Description & Building Alterations This four-story tenement building was originally erected in 1876 and designed by Frederick Graul & Co.. Most historic details on the facade are not visible today. The historic window lintels and bracketed cornice have been stripped. The windows at the two bays next to the fire escape have been partially infilled by red brick, and the entire first-floor storefront has been reconfigured.

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.

61 Second Avenue Building Date : 1842 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Oliver Corwin Original Architect : Unknown; William Graul (1881 alt.) Description & Building Alterations This five-story, three-bay light brick building was built in 1842 as a Greek Revival-style rowhouse. The current fifth floor was added in 1881 as a part of alterations designed by William Graul. In 1921 the stoop was removed and its entrance moved to basement. The basement and parlor floor have been largely rebuilt.

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."

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.

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.

The Merchant’s House Museum is a historic house museum dedicated to the early 19th century domestic life of a wealthy merchant family and their servants in New York City. It is one of the finest surviving examples of the architecture of this period in the city and it is unique among house museums because the museum’s collection of over 3,000 items belonged to the Tredwell family, who lived there for almost 100 years. Most of it has never left the house! Click here for an interview with Museum docent Jackie Dinas in Gotham: A Blog for Scholars of New York City History.

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.

Trench for the high pressure water system on Bowery, beneath the southbound tracks of the Third Avenue El; ca. 1905. "Men's Furnishing Goods" retailer King Brothers is visible at right, at No. 308 Bowery. Closer to the photographer at right is the infamous Kahn's Museum, a gallery of anatomical models first opened on Broadway in 1874. At left, the uptown platform of the Third Avenue El station at Houston Street is visible.

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.

105 First Avenue Building Date : 1841-43 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : William Snediker Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations The building was originally erected in 1841-43, and probably turned into a four-story with basement tenement later on. In 1882, it was occupied by three families. It went through multiple alterations in the 1930s and 1980s. The present facade features a bracketed roof cornice with ornamental frieze, elaborate window lintels and projecting bracketed sills. It is unclear when the two-story storefront addition was added, though the store cornice remained until at least 1916.

CBGB, ca. 1985. Opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal to showcase Country, BlueGrass & Blues, CBGB’s quickly became the in-place for new music. The East Village dive was a must play for the early punk and new wave bands. The Ramones, the Misfits, Television, Blondie, the B-52’s, Joan Jett, Talking Heads, and Patti Smith all got their starts there.

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

236 Elizabeth Street, ca. 1935. The altar here is set up in front of what looks to be a bakery. It was perhaps erected to celebrate the feast of St. Joseph. March 19th each year is celebrated by Italian communities all over the world. The rituals include a parade and a communal meal, usually paid for and served by the wealthier citizens to the those less fortunate (at least in the old country). The food is laid out on a table or altar with religious items and photos or objects belonging to loved ones. The meals include traditional dishes such as pasta (with breadcrumbs symbolizing sawdust to recall St. Joseph's work as a carpenter), pastries, and bread baked in the shape of rings, to symbolize Jesus' crown of thorns. Note the piles of ring shaped bread in the shop's window.

"Extra Place, north from East 1st Street, showing at the extremity of this blind alley, buildings that face on the south side of East 2nd Street, under demolition, 1938." One of the doors seen on the left of this photograph would go on to become the back door to the famed punk club CBGB's. In 1976 the Ramones shot the cover for their album, Rocket to Russia, on Extra Place, likely against the brick wall seen in this photograph.

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.

Sidewalk altar, ca. 1935.

3 East 3rd Street Building Date : 2018-19 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : 3 East 3rd Street LLC Original Architect : Barrett Architecture LLC Description & Building Alterations This seven story building was built 2018-19 replacing what was originally two early 19th century row houses. According to tax assessment records, the original building on this site was constructed in 1830 as two separate two-and-a-half-story row houses. They were extended to full three stories and combined into one building no earlier than the 1930s.