640 Broadway ca. 1949 While it’s certainly the most famous Empire State Building, the skyscraping structure on the corner of 34th Street and 5th Avenue was not actually the first “Empire State Building.” That title belonged to a somewhat more terrestrial, but still extant, building at the corner of Bleecker Street and Broadway. In the mid-late 19th century, a six-story brick and stone structure sat on a 25′ x 300′ footprint at 640 Broadway between Bleecker and Crosby Streets. The ground floor was home to the Empire State Bank, with manufacturers located in the lofts above. In November 1895, a fire later determined to be arson, burned the building to the ground. The fire ended the Empire State Bank, which applied to the Supreme Court for dissolution on February 18, 1896. The owner immediately moved to rebuild. He hired architects De Lemos and Cordes, who that same year designed the Siegel-Cooper Building (now part of the Ladies’ Mile Historic District), and would go on to design Macy’s Herald Square. Opening in 1897, the new building at 640 Broadway helped transform this neighborhood (designated the NoHo Historic District in 1999). At the time, the area was transitioning from 5-6 story loft buildings to taller buildings, such as the Bayard Condict Building located directly across the street from 640 Broadway at 65 Bleecker Street. In honor of his former tenant, owner B. Lichtenstein named 640 Broadway the Empire State Building. This was more than 30 years prior to the development of its more famous namesake. When the “original” Empire State Building opened it housed dozens of manufacturing companies employing hundreds of young women. Fires broke out in the building in 1904, 1909, 1919, and 1921, but miraculously no one was killed. Dramatic rescue stories were reported in the Sun and Times. With the advent of its taller and more famous cousin uptown, it became less and less common to refer to 640 Broadway as “The Empire State Building.” On top of that, during the 1940s and 50s, the neighborhood in which 640 Broadway was located went into a precipitous decline. Many of the once grand hotels in the area became flophouses and shooting galleries; some even collapsed. By the 1960s, the building had taken on an entirely different character. In 1965 the offices of the protest group May 2nd Movement were located in the building. This group provided legal counseling to those seeking to avoid the Vietnam War draft. In 1971 the building housed the offices of the Law Commune, who successfully defended the Black Panthers against 156 counts of bombing, arson, attempted murder, and other crimes. They also defended Abbie Hoffman following his September 5, 1973 arrest for selling $36,000 worth of cocaine with a street value of $500,000. When arrested, he gave his address as “640 Broadway in Greenwich Village”. Hoffman skipped bail and underwent plastic surgery. After six years in hiding, sometimes dressing as an Orthodox Jew, Hoffman surrendered and was sentenced to three years, of which he served one year.

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

Broadway, north across Grand Street, showing mainly the westerly side of this thoroughfare, ca. 1870. The grand building on the corner (at left) was the Lord & Taylor building, constructed in 1859. The cast iron building was described by the New York Times as “more like an Italian palace than a place for the sale of broadcloth.” Less than 10 years later, the store vacated their new building and moved uptown to the new fashion district, the Ladies Mile. According to most sources, the 1860 building remained standing until a fire destroyed it in 1967. For a few decades after the fire, the space was a parking lot with a popular flea market. Today the large lot, which goes all the way through to Mercer Street (hence its more well known address: 40 Mercer) is occupied by a dark, grid-like new building (2007) designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel.

Lamport Export Company ca. 1935 This impressive example of lower Broadway’s many cast-iron commercial buildings was designed in 1872 by the prestigious architect Jonathan B. Snook. The building is still leased to textile wholesalers, as it was in Abbott’s day. Although cast-iron architecture was less appreciated in the 1930s than it is today, Abbott was sensitive to the graceful rhythm of its modular structure. Using a wide-angle lens from a fire escape across Broadway, she managed to capture within a single exposure the entire three-lot-wide expanse of its delicately proportioned colonnade. The superimposition of the fire escape grid upon the columns demonstrates Abbott’s ability to transform city architecture into abstract composition.

504-506 Broome Street, 1939.

Catholics make up over twenty percent of the population of the United States. However, there was a time when the novelty of a Roman Catholic cathedral in the country made it a tourist destination and an artist's subject. St. Patrick's on Mott Street below Houston was one of such churches.

The NoHo Historic District was designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) on June 29, 1999, with the NoHo East Historic District designated in 2003 and expansions to the original district boundaries approved in 2008. This virtual walking tour features 25 buildings within the approximately 130-building original NoHo Historic District, in celebration of its 25th anniversary. The highlighted buildings represent the range of construction periods and array of building types, styles, and uses that occur throughout the district. We encourage you to explore this fascinating stretch of Manhattan virtually, or to use this tour as a jumping-off point as you take your own walk through the historic district! The three-part tour is organized by phases of development, based upon the same categories found within the LPC NoHo Designation Report. Part III includes buildings constructed from the 1890s to 1910s: The Booming Nineties a) 611-621 Broadway, The Cable Building b) 65-69 Bleecker Street, The Bayard-Condict Building c) 696-702 Broadway d) 34-36 Cooper Square, "Village Voice" Post-Consolidation Growth e) 756-770 Broadway, Wanamaker's Department Store Annex f) 684 Broadway (aka 2 Great Jones Street) g) 740-744 Broadway (aka 2 Astor Place) \-- To return to Part II of the tour, click here. To revert back to Part I of the tour, click here.

"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.

203 Prince Street ca. 1978 The land on which 203 Prince Street stands (and the rest of the block) had formerly been part of Richmond Hill, the estate of former Vice-President Aaron Burr (who, by coincidence was arrested and charged with treason on February 19, 1807; he was later acquitted, but the charge and his killing of Alexander Hamilton so tarnished his reputation in America that he fled the country, eventually selling his property such as this). By 1833, leather inspector John P. Haff owned the property and several additional lots on the block. According to Daytonian in Manhattan, while Haff’s official profession was inspector of sole leather, he was also an authority on agricultural techniques and a speculative builder both in New York and New Jersey. In 1833 Haff began building three handsome Federal-style residences on Prince Street where well-to-do merchants had begun settling. Among these was No. 203, a Flemish bond brick home two stories tall with a dormered attic. The Haff family leased the property until ca. 1865, when it was sold. At this time, the neighborhood around No. 203 Prince had dramatically changed. No longer an enclave of the wealthy merchant class, the Eighth Ward had a growing population of poor immigrants. In 1877 the Episcopal Church of Saint Ambrose at Thompson and Prince Streets opened a mission house in 203 Prince Street, headed by the Rev. D. G. Gunn and managed by Mrs. Mary Laidlaw. Its purpose, according to The Churchman on October 13 of that year, was “to give assistance to the worthy poor, to visit the sick and needy, to relieve the distressed, to feed the hungry, and to give employment to those out of work.” Originally 2½ stories tall, the house had a full third floor added in 1888, when the original attic floor was removed. The architect carefully lined up the windows with those below and designed nearly-identical sills and lintels. Note the change in the brick pattern above the second-floor windows, from Flemish bond — alternating long and short sides of brick — to running bond — all bricks with long side exposed. Flemish bond brickwork is characteristic of federal architecture while running bond is more common to late 19th-century construction.

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.

55 Thompson Street, ca. 2006. The Tunnel Garage was built in 1922 during the early automobile age, ushering in the engineering marvel of its time, the Holland Tunnel. GVSHP sought landmark designation for the building, but the City refused, and it was demolished in 2006

"First milestone ('1 mile to City Hall'), Bowery and Prince Street, 1897." In 1769 the city’s Common Council installed 14 milestones radiating away from City Hall (then at Wall and Nassau Streets). Additional markers were erected in 1812 and 1822. It is unknown from which batch this milestone dates. (The photographic notes refer to it as the 'first.') This location at Prince Street was likely not its first home, as the milestones had to be moved after the new City Hall opened in 1811. Though a number of milestones can still be found on the streets (and a couple more can be seen in NYC museums), this milestone has been lost to history.

Police Department Headquarters, ca. 1905. Following the consolidation of the five boroughs, the city decided that it required a larger police headquarters. The small building on Mulberry Street, where Teddy Roosevelt had served as Police Commissioner, was now insufficient for a police force that quadrupled in size since the building opened in the 1860s. In 1905 the cornerstone was laid for a new, massive building on the wedge-shaped lot that had once housed the old Centre Market. The Beaux-Arts behemoth was designed by the firm of Hoppin & Koen and completed in 1909. The new five-story building was topped with a large copper dome. The facilities of the new headquarters included a basement shooting range and a rooftop observation deck. The design both inside and out aimed “to impress both the officer and the prisoner with the majesty of the law.” The police remained in this building until 1973 when they decamped to a brand new modern (Brutalist) building on Park Row. The building on Centre Street remained empty for some years with plans and proposals bandied about for a conversion to a hotel, cultural center, or museum. Finally in 1983 the City agreed to allow the building to be converted into luxury condos. The new complex, called the Police Building, opened to residents in 1988. Interestingly, while planning the condo conversion, it was discovered that the building exceeded the property lot lines on all sides—in some cases by several feet. Obviously the new owners were unable and unwilling to move the building's facades back to line up with the property lines on the official city planning map (both financially and because the Landmarks Commission would never allow it). The city eventually grandfathered the building's current shape into the municipal maps.

Bleecker Street Cinema, ca. 1977. Bleecker Street Cinema began its tenure at 144 Bleecker Street in 1962. Filmmaker and social activist Lionel Rogosin founded the space and opened the 200-seat theatre to present his 1959 film Come Back, Africa. A spot for art house, avant-garde, and foreign films the cinema closed in 1990. For less than a year the venue reopened and featured gay adult films, before a brief return to art films, and eventual closure in 1991. The theatre was an influential cultural venue for the independent film scene in New York. It was also a location for a number of more commercial movies including Desperately Seeking Susan and Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors. Today the building has been split again with no. 144 housing a pharmacy and no. 146 a stationary store.

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.

Grand Central Hotel ca. 1870 On August 3rd in 1973, what was once one of the largest and most elegant hotels in the country collapsed onto Broadway, killing four and injuring many. The eight-story, 400-room Grand Central Hotel opened in 1870 and was built in the Second Empire style by architect Henry Engelbert for carpet manufacturer Elias S. Higgins. Located at 667-77 Broadway (near Bond Street, south of West 3rd Street), it was one of the largest hotels in the United States when it was built and was lavishly furnished. In the late 19th century, the hotel with its restaurants and grand spaces became a hub of New York society. As the 20th century progressed, the hotel’s name was changed to the Broadway Central, and its luster faded. By the 1960s and after changes in ownership, the building came to be used as a welfare hotel. Complaints from residents and neighbors about crime, drug use, and prostitution in the building, as well as deteriorating and unhygienic conditions, spurred the State to investigate and penalize the owners. Re-branded as The University Hotel by the early 1970s, the hotel attempted to salvage its image. But by the summer of 1973 bigger problems than image would reveal themselves. Residents reported to the City that cracks had formed throughout the hotel and several structural walls had begun bowing outward. Years of neglect and un-reported interior renovation work had taken its toll on the hundred year old structure. Early on August 3rd, hotel patrons began hearing what they described as “’bongs,’ ‘tings,’ and ‘groans,’ and other noises,” and seeing falling plasterwork throughout the building. By the late afternoon most of the over 300 hotel guests had evacuated, when at about 5:10 P.M. a huge section of the building abruptly collapsed, spilling a huge pile of rubble down on to Broadway. As firemen sifted through the rubble – more than twenty feet high in some places — four bodies were found. The remaining sections of the hotel were demolished and removed. Also lost on the Mercer Street side of the building were six popular off-Broadway theaters that composed the Mercer Arts center. Mercer Arts Center is featured on the HBO show Vinyl. The live theaters on the Mercer Street side were run by Sy and Cynthia Kaback. It was Steina and Woody Vasulka who rented the kitchen of the Center for shows starting on June 15, 1971 before moving to Wooster and Broome streets and finally locating The Kitchen to 512 West 19th Street, where it still is today. Housing for NYU Law School students was eventually built on the site and remains today.

Donald Judd House and Museum, 101 Spring Street, ca. 2000. The five-story cast iron building at the corner of Spring and Mercer Streets was designed by architect Nicholas Whyte and completed in 1870. In 1968, Missouri-born artist Donald Judd purchased the building for $68,000, having outgrown his previous workspace. For Judd, it was the first building he ever owned. He configured the space into a residence, studio, and gallery. At 101 Spring Street, Judd developed his concept of "permanent installations" in response to what he viewed as the inadequacy of temporary gallery and museum exhibitions. In his 1989 essay, ‘101 Spring Street,’ Judd wrote: “I spent a great deal of time placing the art and a great deal designing the renovation in accordance. Everything from the first was intended to be thoroughly considered and to be permanent.” Judd passed away in January of 1994, leaving behind a foundation in his name which, over the last decade, sold off $23 million worth of art from its collection to fund the restoration of 101 Spring Street. Today, the works and interior design at 101 Spring Street remain as installed by Judd.

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.

Berenice Abbott's 1937 photograph of Centre Market Place Frank Lava's storefront, February 4, 1937. This Berenice Abbott photograph shows the gun-shaped sign of a gunsmith storefront which had been in business since 1850. A number of gun shops once lined Centre Market Place, and were the appropriate neighbors of the massive Police Headquarters housed across the street in the grand Beaux-Arts building at 240 Centre Street. Lava was the third generation owner of a gunsmith shop established in 1850; he continued to manage the shop into the 1960s.

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.

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.

New York Dispensary, ca. 1915. The New York Dispensary, a philanthropic institution providing medical care for poor New Yorkers, built a new facility on Spring Street in 1912, on the site of a former coal yard. The dispensary, founded in 1790, had been displaced from locations further downtown twice in the previous four years: first, by the 1908 construction of the Centre Street Loop of the BMT Nassau Street Line (today’s J/Z subway); then for the expansion of courthouse facilities at Worth Street.

“If you’ve never heard of Pfaff’s saloon, or its coterie of Bohemian artists, that’s not surprising. More than 150 years have elapsed since this scene’s heyday, and time moves in mysterious — sometimes heedless — ways. History is not a meritocracy... To be precise, Pfaff’s (pronounced fafs) was beneath where the shoe store is now. It was an underground saloon in every sense of the word. There’s still a hatchway in the Broadway sidewalk, just as there was in the nineteenth century. It provides entry into the store’s basement, a long, narrow space, lit by electric bulbs and piled high with boxes of shoes. During the 1850s, it was dim, gaslit, and packed with artists. Pfaff’s saloon was the site of an incredibly important cultural movement, the meeting place of America’s first Bohemians. Their leader, Henry Clapp Jr., was editor of the hugely influential Saturday Press. Clapp deserves credit as the person who brought Bohemianism to America, both the word and the way of life. He was joined by a struggling experimental poet, well into middle age, yet still living at home in Brooklyn with his mother, Walt Whitman.” For more on Pfaff's, check out this exclusive by Justin Martin in Gotham: A Blog for Scholars of New York City History.

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.”

Theater, performance spaces, and the arts have always been an important part of the Village, East Village, and NoHo’s cultural heritage and built environment.

Bayard-Condict Building The only New York building designed by Louis Sullivan, it represents an executed portion of a much larger building heh ad once planned for a trust and savings bank in the Midwest. The terra-cotta cornice, with its supporting angels, was an extremely interesting solution of the problem of how to handle the top of a building- a question which was of great concern to the architects of the 1880s and 1890s.

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.

Manhattan Sign Company, 101 Mercer Street, 1932. The oldest building in the Soho Cast Iron Historic District, the Federal style brick house at 101 Mercer Street (aka 107 Spring Street) was built between 1806-1808. Though the original brickwork has since been covered by stucco — and at one point by clapboards, as shown in this photo — some window and lintel details persist. By the 1860s, the lower floor had been converted to a saloon. Above, signage for the Manhattan Sign Company remains, while advertisements for a store and basement to to let indicate that the company had closed or relocated.

John Althouse warehouses, Greene Street, March 28, 1947. A six-story brick and cast iron warehouse completed in 1884 for John Althouse, on the site of the Althouse Iron Works, an 1850s-era foundry. During the Civil War, the Althouse property served as a barracks for the 40th New York Volunteers. The warehouse was designed by William Ewan Worthen, who built an adjacent storage property at No. 146 Greene Street for Althouse in 1877.

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

85 Sullivan Street ca. 1937 83 and 85 Sullivan Street are two of the district’s individually landmarked properties, both of which obtained landmark designation in 1973. The buildings were originally built in 1819, rebuilt in 1825, and modified 50 years later. As we previoulsy noted: “83 & 85 Sullivan Street were built as part of the very first stage of urban settlement of this part of town, even before the particularly virulent yellow fever and cholera epidemics of 1822 famously sent New Yorkers permanently packing from their downtown homes to the more salubrious, rural climes of Greenwich Village to the north of the City.” As the 1973 designation reports describe, the area on which these properties are located was originally part of the Bayard Farm. The first Nicholas Bayard was Peter Stuyvesant’s brother-in-law. A later Nicholas Bayard conveyed the property to Daniel Ludlow and Brockholst Livinsgton in 1789. They, in turn, sold it to Aaron Burr in 1791, who acquired a portion of the Bayard Farm contiguous to his estate “Richmond Hill”, which stood west of Sixth Avenue. Burr subdivided his property, and when he sold these lots to Anthony Bowrosan in 1802, they were on what Burr called Locust Street. Bowrosan, who operated a tavern and garden at Richmond Hill, sold the lots in 1807 to carpenters. The 83 Sullivan lot was sold to carpenter David Mulford, who first built the rear house on this lot in 1810, with 83 Sullivan being erected as a 2.5 story federal style home in 1819. 85 Sullivan was sold to carpenter Drake Crane, who first built the rear house on this lot in 1810, with 85 Sullivan being erected as a 2.5 story federal style home in 1819. Both original homes were destroyed in a fire, and rebuilt in 1825. Both homes were renovated to add a full third story, 83 Sullivan in 1880 and 85 Sullivan in 1874. The properties have remained basically the same since then. They both still have their original Federal style doorways and leaded transoms, noted by the designation reports as “unusually fine”, “Elegant and understated, they typify the architecture of good breeding”, and are among the earliest surviving Federal Style doorways in the city. The low stoops with wrought-iron railings, Flemish brickwork, and multi-paned wooden sash windows are also original.

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.

E.V. Haughwout Building, ca. 1975. The Haughwout Building, a five story building at the corner of Broadway and Broome Street, is an outstanding example of New York’s mid-19th century cast iron architecture. Completed in 1857, the building was designed as a showroom for cut glass, china, and silverware by its owner Eder V. Haughwout. First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln commissioned a set of White House china from Haughwout, and is said to have shopped at this store. Architect John P. Gaynor made innovative use of a structural metal frame to support the weight of the Daniel D. Bardger’s Italianate cast iron facades— a technique that would become essential to skyscraper construction. Gaynor’s design also included the world’s first passenger elevator. By the 1890s, Haughwout’s showroom had closed and the building was converted for loft use. Imperiled by Robert Moses proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway, the building was designated a New York City Landmark in 1965.

502-504 Broadway (at left), ca. 1982. This five-story building was constructed in 1860 with a cast iron storefront at ground level. It was a "sperm candle" building, named for the shape of the windows which were reminiscent of the candles made from sperm whale oil. The various businesses that have occupied the building include furrier C.G. Gunther & Company, H. Richter's Sons Neckwear, china retailer John Vogt & Company., Canal Jeans, and most recently Bloomingdale's.

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.

One of the most important ways we can try to better understand a historical period is to examine primary documents and sources – first-hand records – from that time. Newspaper articles, government reports and letters are all important primary sources, but photographs are among the most fun to examine. They provide visual evidence of a time period or event that can expand your historical understanding – and help you really picture what life was like back then. Every week, we’ll share with you a photograph of real people or a real scene from New York in the early 1900s. Your job? Put on your Young Historian glasses and examine it. What do you see? What do you think it shows you about the people in the picture, the place where they are, and the time period? What are the clues in the picture that tell you something? You’ll be amazed by what you can discover when you look closely!

Above the display windows of Crate & Barrel, and the crowded Broadway and Houston Street sidewalks is a facade of uniquely decorative flourishes that hint at a time of transition for New York’s infrastructure. This building is a massive structure and was included within the boundaries of the NoHo Historic District. Two sculptures of classically-garbed women stand astride a massive circular window, sitting atop a pediment that reads ‘The Cable Building.’ The ‘cable’ in the building’s name refers not the kind of cable that transmits telegraph, telephone, or television, but the kind that pulls cable cars. Built from 1892 to 1894 by the Broadway & Seventh Avenue Railroad Company (later the Metropolitan Traction Company), the building was a unique example of a multi-use structure. It housed in its lower floors the machinery needed to propel much of the Broadway cable car system, with a large office building above. Four 32-foot wheels kept the network of cables in motion for as many as sixty cable cars traveling up and down Broadway from the Battery to Midtown (the cars moved by clamping on to the moving cable embedded in the street). The building was built with a steel and iron frame, with terra cotta and stone facing by the noted firm of McKim, Mead, and White. The New York Times noted “Although the large windows clearly denote a commercial space, the delicate terra cotta, light orange brick and elaborate copper cornice are characteristic of more monumental design. The sculptor J. Massey Rhind designed two colossal female figures flanking the doorway — commissioned sculpture is also unusual on commercial buildings. The Real Estate Record and Guide called the new Cable Building ”the highest achievement of the art” and remarked that, with its example, ‘no excuse remains for building cheaply or meanly on any New York City property.’” As the prediction of the demise of ‘cheaply’ or ‘meanly’ made buildings didn’t quite pan out, neither did the Metropolitan Traction Company’s hopes for business success. Less than a decade after the building and its massive steam-powered cable moving machinery were constructed, electric technology made it obsolete. In May of 1901, the final cable car trundled down Broadway and the line was electrified. A few years later in 1904, the subway system would begin opening and connecting the city. The building would stand to see the significant widening of Houston Street in the 1930s and housed many small-scale manufacturers and offices, including businesses like National Pants, Hercules Shoe Lace and the Doll Parts Manufacturing Association. By the mid-1980s after changes in ownership, the building was largely converted back to office use, and in 1989, the Angelika Film Center opened on the southwest side of the building, occupying much of the space that previously housed the cable car machinery.

The Village Gate, 158 Bleecker Street, on the ground floor and basement of the Atrium building, ca. 1975. Designed by Ernest Flagg, Mills House No. 1 (today called the Atrium Building) was completed in 1897. The building was the brainchild of Darius Ogden Mills. His idea was to develop clean, "healthful" hotels which would allow struggling men to get a leg up. Between 1897 and 1904 he built three single-room-occupancy hotels as alternatives to slum housing. The Mills House No. 1 was the largest. While the rooms were tiny by any standards, only five by seven feet, each one looked out onto either the street or one of two 50 by 50-foot courtyards. According to the New York Times, "each room had an iron bedstead, a hair mattress and pillow, a feather pillow, a chair and a clothes rack; there was no room for anything else. The walls stopped about a foot short of the ceilings, apparently to assure good ventilation." A stay here cost 20 cents a night. In the 1970's the building was reconfigured into regular apartments, although the airy courtyards, glass skylights, and most of Flagg's exterior survive. Between 1958 and 1996, the Village Gate, a nightclub, occupied the first floor and basement of the building at the corner of Thompson and Bleecker Streets.

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

56-58 Bleecker Street; ca. 1975.

65 Prince Street, ca. 1897. The twin Federal-style houses built at 63 and 65 Prince Street were constructed by Samuel L. Gouverneur in 1825 and 1826. Gouverneur, by marriage to Maria Hester Monroe was the son-in-law and nephew of former President James Monroe. Despite James Monroe’s impressive military and political career—two terms as President, Minister to France and to England, Envoy to Spain, Secretary of State, and author of the Monroe Doctrine— he was overwhelmed with financial difficulties following his departure from office. Monroe came to live in the corner house in 1830, where he died on the Fourth of July just one year later. Following Monroe's death in 1831, the house changed owners many times. Eventually, John H. Contoit purchased the home for $32,500 in 1873, at a time when the neighborhood had succumbed to commerce. As wealthy families moved northwards, many mansions and homes in Lower Manhattan, including this one, were taken over by business. Contoit, who was the proprietor of the pleasure garden known both as the New York Garden and Contoit’s Garden, converted the house into a small factory and the home of G. Rosenberg's Vienna and Hungarian Café and Restaurant. The advertisement for the play, The Last Stroke, on the side wall depicts the decline of this house in which a former present ended his days. In 1905, the New York Times admitted: “The old Colonial house, 63 Prince Street, where Monroe died, is falling to decay." Despite restoration and preservation efforts, the house was sold on November 12, 1919, to an unknown speculator.

Opened in 1992 and closed in 2001, the Guggenheim Soho was designed by Arata Isozaki. The museum's attendance never quite matched the 250,000 expected annual visitors and its costs eventually caused its closure.

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

Old St. Patrick's Cathedral, door detail, ca. 1975.

New York Infirmary for Women and Children In 1857 the first female physician in America, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, established a the first hospital for women, staffed by women, and run by women called The New York Infirmary for Women and Children. It was located in the house at 58 Bleecker Street, which was originally numbered 64 Bleecker Street. Built in 1822-1823, the house was erected for James Roosevelt, great grandfather of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who lived there until his passing only ten years before Blackwell began renting there. Blackwell's hospital opened its doors on May 12, 1857, the 37th birthday of Florence Nightingale, whom Blackwell had befriended earlier in her career. The hospital was open seven days a week and provided medical care for needy women and children free of charge. The staff at first consisted of Elizabeth, director; her sister Emily Blackwell, surgeon; and Dr. Marie Zakrewska. The hospital provided practical medical instruction for women studying for their medical degree, which was unavailable elsewhere. The hospital was operated solely by a staff of women, and its opening was attended and praised by the noted abolitionist preacher Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. However, many others were not enthusiastic about this enterprise, and according to Blackwell she was told that no one would rent her a space for this purpose, that the police would shut the hospital down, that they would not be able to control the patients, and that no one would financially support such an institution. However, the hospital was able to operate and over time views on women in medicine evolved. The hospital was responsible for innovations in hygiene-critical in preventing disease and in educating the public on those benefits, such as bathing ailing patients and encouraging them to keep clean. Blackwell also launched a "Sanitary Visitor" program to visit the needy in their homes in the slums and improve hygiene. The program later expanded into the hospital’s "Out Practice Department," a precursor of the Visiting Nurse Service. The first Sanitary Visitor, Rebecca Cole, was also the second African American woman to become a doctor in America. By 1865 the trustees applied for a charter to become a medical college, the Women’s Medical College of the New York Infirmary located at 128 Second Avenue (see map entry). The hospital still exists today as New York Downtown Hospital which merged with New York Presbyterian in 2013. Prior to opening the hospital, Blackwell's had opened a series of dispensaries in several locations around the East Village to serve poor women and children in the surrounding community. The first location was opened in 1853 at 207 East 7th Street (demolished). Blackwell moved the dispensary to 36 Avenue A/136 East 3rd Street (present day 150 East 3rd Street, also demolished). In 1854, the New York Dispensary for Poor Women and Children was incorporated and the institution moved to a small house on the corner of East 15th Street and Second Avenue. In 2018 GVSHP installed a plaque at this location honoring Elizabeth Blackwell and the New York Infirmary for Women and Children (see link below).

No. 142 Greene Street, ca. 1978. This cast iron-fronted commercial building was designed by German-born architect Henry Fernbach and completed in 1871. A century later, as Soho became the focus of the city's contemporary art scene, the building became home to a series of blue chip galleries, including Leo Castelli, Pace, and Sperone Westwater.

Mercer Hotel, ca. 1975. Commissioned by John Jacob Astor III for his office and business, the Romanesque Revival structure was completed in 1888 to the plans of architects William Schickel and Isaac E. Ditmars. Owing to its wealthy patron, the Astor Building was considerably more ornate than its industrial neighbors. This building is perhaps best known for its more recent history; in 1997 hotelier André Balazs opened the Mercer Hotel, a luxury boutique hotel of 75 rooms.

Construction on the BRT Centre Street Loop, with timbering supporting buildings along Kenmare Street, June 5, 1908. The wooden foot bridge at center is at Mulberry Street. Completed buildings in the background are on the eastern corners of Mott Street. The Centre Street Loop, approved in 1907 but never completed as planned, was designed to connect service from the Williamsburg and Brooklyn bridges, via Chambers Street. Today, some tracks are used by the BMT Nassau Street Line (J/Z trains).

E.V. Haughwout Building ARCHITECT: John P. Gaynor DATE: 1856-57 STYLE: Anglo-Italianate This attractive five-story building, located on a corner site, has two cast tiron fronts designed in the Anglo-Italianate manner with arched windows set between columns. The windows are reminiscent of three of Sansovino’s great library on the Piazetta in Venice. The Haughwout Building was originally designed for the display of cut-glass, silverware, clocks and chandeliers, in a store which was the foremost of its kind in the mid-19th century. This was the first store in New York to have a passenger elevator designed expressly for the use of customers.

The NoHo Historic District was designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) on June 29, 1999, with the NoHo East Historic District designated in 2003 and expansions to the original district boundaries approved in 2008. This virtual walking tour features 25 buildings within the approximately 130-building original NoHo Historic District, in celebration of its 25th anniversary. The highlighted buildings represent the range of construction periods and array of building types, styles, and uses that occur throughout the district. We encourage you to explore this fascinating stretch of Manhattan virtually, or to use this tour as a jumping-off point as you take your own walk through the historic district! The three-part tour is organized by phases of development, based upon the same categories found within the LPC NoHo Designation Report. Part II includes buildings constructed in the 1870s and 1880s: Cast-Iron-Fronted Buildings in NoHo (Cont'd.) a) 7-9 Bond Street b) 622-624 and 626 Broadway (aka 156-158 Crosby Street) Post-Civil War Expansion c) 10-20 Astor Place (aka 444 Lafayette Street) d) 668-674 Broadway, the Brooks Brothers Store Commercial Development in the 1880s e) 393-399 Lafayette Street (aka 21-23 East 4th Street), De Vinne Press Building f) 628-630 Broadway (aka 160-164 Crosby Street), The New York Mercantile Exchange g) 644-646 Broadway (aka 71-73 Bleecker Street) h) 9 Great Jones Street i) 687-691 Broadway (aka 250-254 Mercer Street) \-- To return to Part I of the tour, click here. To progress to Part III of the tour, click here.

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.

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.

Entrance to Niblo’s Garden, 1887. Proprietor William Niblo acquired the Columbia Garden “pleasure garden” — an open-air entertainment venue — during the 1820s, renaming the premises Niblo’s Garden and introducing a theater and concert venue in 1834. The Garden covered much of the block bounded by Broadway and Houston, Crosby, and Prince Streets. In 1835, Niblo’s Theater hosted P.T. Barnum’s first exhibition and would soon introduce vaudeville programming to its entertainment lineup. In 1846, the original theater was destroyed in a fire. In another first, Niblo’s hosted what is considered the first-ever musical theater production: in 1866, “The Black Crook,” a lengthy musical comedy set in Germany, debuted to widespread condemnation. Naturally, the outcry in the press led audiences to flock to Niblo’s. The theater burned again in 1872 and was rebuilt, with funding from department store entrepreneur A.T. Stewart. Niblo’s held its final performance in 1895 and was soon demolished.

The twelve-story Little Singer Building was designed by Ernest Flagg for the Singer sewing machine company in 1903.­­ It is located in Soho at 561-563 Broadway between Spring and Prince Streets. The intricate iron tracery on the exterior makes this one very distinctive and you’d be hard-pressed to miss it if you walked past; it’s a style unique to the time period.

659 Broadway, ca. 1980. No. 657-659 was built in the late 1860s, to designs by architect Griffith Thomas. Like other buildings along this stretch of Broadway — many of which are also attributed to Thomas — No. 657-659's large block-through lofts were used by manufacturing companies, before conversion to residential in the latter 20th century. While a fire in February 1979 caused extensive damage to Nos. 643-655 to the south, this building was relatively unscathed.

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.

33-37 Bleecker Street, ca. 1980.

135 Grand Street, 1911. Designed by Neville & Bagge in 1893-1894, the seven-story Renaissance Revival structure was constructed as a loft building to house manufacturing and small warehouses. Some of its tenants have been a shirtwaist factory, leather goods, a bank, automotive and machining parts. The empty lot at left was not empty for long after this 1911 photograph was taken. A seven-story neo-Classical building, constructed of terra cotta, rose by the end of 1911.

"George Maciunas did not invent artists loft living. He did, however, invent loft cooperatives and in doing so became the person responsible for the creation of SoHo. When Maciunas discovered 80 Wooster Street in 1967, the building was past its prime as a commercial venue. The Miller Cardboard Company was eager to sell and Maciunas, the Lithuanian born artist-visionary, founder of the Fluxus art movement, was eager to buy… After returning to New York in 1963, Maciunas published a one page manifesto titled 'FLUXHOUSE, PLAN FOR AN ARTIST CONDOMINIUM IN NEW YORK CITY.' In it he set forth the economic problems facing artists and proposed a solution. He envisioned purchasing underutilized loft buildings by a not-for-profit corporation and renovating them to provide living-work spaces for artists. He saw communal resources for the artists and expected that in return the artists would provide services to the greater community. It took another four years before he started to implement his plan… Maciunas went on to develop sixteen buildings but maintained a special relationship with 80 Wooster Street. Fluxhouse Coop II is generally acknowledged as the first successful artists’ coop in SoHo, if not the world." For more on the making of the co-op, check out this article by Roslyn Bernstein and Shael Shapiro on Maciunas in Gotham: A Blog for Scholars of New York City History.

491 Broadway (tallest building, at center), ca. 1905. The slender, twelve-story, limestone-fronted loft building at 491 Broadway was designed by the Buchman & Deisler firm for real estate developer Jeremiah C. Lyons, and completed in 1897. The Wurts Bros. photograph above, ca. 1905, captures an outstanding array of painted advertisements on the exposed sides of Broadway and Broome Street buildings, promoting products from “kid gloves” to “linen-mesh underwear.”

Robbins & Appleton Building, ca. 1980. The original 1871 Robbins & Appleton building at 1 Bond Street was destroyed in a massive fire in 1877. The six-story watch company headquarters and factory was a complete loss, but the company rehired the building's architect, Stephen D. Hatch, to rebuild the cast-iron fronted, mansard-roofed structure. The watch company moved out of the building in 1892 enacting a peculiar leaving ritual. Because they worked with gold in the manufacturing of the watches, after vacating the space, they hired a salvage firm to remove and burn all of the wood interior features. After processing the ash through a chemical wash the result was more than $65,000 in gold. The building's tenants for most of the 20th century were garment manufacturers. In the mid 1970s artists began moving into the large loft-style spaces and the building was converted to co-ops in 1989.

West side of Broadway from Bleecker Street to Bond Street. (No. 647 is the second building from the left), date unknown. The building at no. 647 was originally the Coleman House Hotel. In the late 1850s and early 1860s, the vault of the basement housed a Rathskeller-like beer and wine cellar restaurant called Pfaff’s; it was a favorite haunt of the bohemian literary set, including Henry Clapp, Jr (editor of the Saturday Press and "King of Bohemia") and Walt Whitman. It was known as a place where men could meet other men, and it was open to women at a time when the sexes did not meet in such public company. The saloon closed in this location in 1864 though it would move to various other buildings though much of the rest of the 19th century. This building's later tenants included a hat shop and an envelope factory. Today the original building still stands with a shoe store in the first floor retail space and a newly opened cellar bar that takes inspiration from its 19th century predecessor.

468-472 West Broadway, ca. 1976. W.B. Marvin, the owner of the Marvin Safe Company, hired architect Oscar S. Teale in 1855 to erect this six-story brick and iron factory after his firm's previous headquarters caught fire. At the time of construction, Marvin's company was a key player in the industry with products that ranged in size from small office models to large vaults. When the building opened in 1856, Marvin leased the ground floor to the C. & C. Electric Motors Company. More than 250 employees, all male, worked in the factory at the height of its use. The building, now also residential, maintains a commercial bottom floor that is leased to Hugo Fine Arts Galerie.

New York City Police Headquarters ARCHITECT: Hoppin & Koen DATE: 1905-09 STYLE: Edwardian Baroque Among its important qualities, the Former Police Headquarters Building is one of New York City’s most important examples of the Edwardian Baroque style of architecture and of Beaux-Arts principles of design. It incorporated a new, official image for the nation’s largest and most sophisticated police force.

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.

St. Nicholas Hotel, Broadway, October 6, 1873. In January 1853, D.H. Haight's St. Nicholas hotel opened on Broadway, at Broome Street. Contemporaneous records credit the enormous white-marble structure to architect John B. Snook, with cast iron storefront attributed to Griffith Thomas. According to the New York Times, the St. Nicholas was New York's first building to cost over $1 million in construction; the hotel was soon extended north to Spring Street. The St. Nicholas was also the first hotel to offer “water closets” with hot and cold water in every room. The cost of a room ranged from a high of $5 a night to a low of $1– a time when the average monthly pay for a soldier was $11. During the Civil War, the hotel became the New York City headquarters of the Department of War. The St. Nicholas was also the site of an infamous episode of late-Civil War history: On November 25, 1864, a group of Confederate sympathizers enacted a plan to set New York City ablaze through a scheme of coordinated arson. The conspirators were to set small fires simultaneously, at prominent hotels across the city. The plot was unsuccessful; most fires were extinguished before they could spread. By the late 19th century, St. Nicholas had grown unpopular as tourists opted to stay further uptown, closer to fashionable districts. In 1884, it closed its doors for the last time and was razed — mostly. Beginning in the mid-1870s, as sections of the remaining building turned to other uses, two small parts were salvaged; they now live on as the modest facades of Nos. 521 and 523 Broadway.

1 Bond Street ca. 1975 Located at 1-5 Bond Street near Broadway, the Robbins & Appleton Building is a prime example of the remarkable cast iron architecture that one can find throughout NoHo and up and down Broadway. The building is both an individual New York City landmark and included within the city’s NoHo Historic District. At street level, this building looks like many other cast-iron commercial buildings in the area, but a glance upwards reveals a striking mansard roof. Perched at the very top of the building below the central pediment is a gold clock that reflects some of the building’s history. It was in 1871 that merchants and manufacturers Henry A. Robbins and Daniel Fuller Appleton hired architect Stephen Decatur Hatch to design a new building to house their American Waltham Watch Company, which was a noted manufacturer of watches and watch cases. Located on Bond Street, this new commercial building reflected the transformation of the street from a fashionable residential enclave during the early part of the nineteenth century to a commercial and manufacturing center by the mid-to-late 1800s. Hatch’s 1871 building had a short life, as on the night of March 6, 1877 a massive fire destroyed the structure. Robbins and Appleton again sought out Hatch to create a replacement, a grand Second Empire style factory building which was constructed between 1879 and 1880. As the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission notes, “the present building, erected two years after the fire, is a stylistic variation on the \[commercial] palace theme. Although designed by the same architect in the same style with the same façade material for the same clients as the 1871 building and retaining such features as the mansard roof, the function of the new building was different. The new building was to serve as a factory with the exception of some floor space which was leased to D. Appleton & Co., the notable book publishing firm. Lush and intricate architectural embellishment was unnecessary on a utilitarian structure such as a factory. With the exception of the ground floor, roof, and shallow end pavilions which give the building its Second Empire character—unusual for this date and probably retained at the insistence of the client—the façade consists of a single window bay unit reproduced twelve times across each of the upper four floors in disciplined regularity. The bay unit is a deeply recessed one-over-one double-hung window flanked by smooth columns with simple necking and stylized capitals carrying a shouldered arch. The strength and beauty of the building lie in the strong horizontals of the cornices above each floor and the three-dimensional quality created by the deeply recessed windows.” The American Waltham Watch company left the space by the turn of the twentieth century, replaced by a variety of small-scale manufacturing and commercial firms. Converted to residential use in the late 1980s, the building stands as a majestic anchor to the architecturally eclectic Bond Street.

180-184 Lafayette Street, ca. 1970-1985. These three classic SoHo buildings were constructed at various times, by different architects in different styles, and slightly different purposes, though they all epitomize the historic built environment of this neighborhood. No. 184 (at right) is the oldest. Designed in 1871-1872 by William Jose in an Italianate style, this five story tenement was built for and continues to be used for residential purposes on the upper floors. The two buildings at left are Queen Anne style loft buildings. No. 180 (left) was designed by Buchman & Deisler in 1891-1893, while no. 182 (center) was built in 1890-1891 by Thom & Wilson. These buildings signaled a shift in the area from SoHo's early history as an entertainment center, to its 20th century life as a manufacturing and industrial hub.

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.

186 Spring Street ca. 1933 In the era immediately following the Stonewall riots, 186 Spring Street (which was recently demolished) was home to a number of important figures of the Gay Rights movement, serving for a time as a "gay commune" of sorts. Bruce Voeller, who lived in the building, co-led the first delegation of gay rights leaders to ever meet with the White House, helped end the federal government's ban on employing gay people, helped get homosexuality removed from the American Psychiatric Association’s list of mental illnesses, got the very first piece of federal gay rights legislation introduced, and won the first Supreme Court case establishing rights for gay parents. Another resident, Jim Owles, was the first openly gay person to run for public office in New York. Owles, along with Voeller and Arnie Kantrowitz, founded several of the country's first and largest LGBT organizations.

While New York is now one of the safest cities in the country, it still has had its share of notorious murders, here are but a few!

Intersection of Sullivan and Broome Streets, and the newly-extended Sixth Avenue, 1932. The three-story house closest to the corner (at center) is No. 57 Sullivan Street, wood-frame rowhouse built in 1817 for mason David G. Bogert. The house was originally two-and-a-half stories, in the Federal style, with dormer windows above a simple cornice. In 1858, current owners added a third story and extended the facade’s Flemish bond brickwork to a new wooden cornice. In 1932, the demolition of an adjacent building exposed the house’s wooden frame (as captured in Charles Von Urban’s photo. The house was restored after 1995 and designated a New York City Landmark in 2009 — some 39 years after its original proposal.

Bayard Condict Building ARCHITECT: Louis Sullivan; Lyndon P. Smith DATE: 1897-99 STYLE: Terra-cotta The Bayard-Condict Building is the only building in New York City designed by Louis H. Sullivan, one of America’s greatest and most influential architects. It is the first truly modern skyscraper in New York. It expresses its structural components in the manner of the Chicago School. The vertical design is a poetic expression of Sullivan’s theory of the skyscraper as a “proud and soaring thing.” It is distinguished by Sullivan’s exuberant ornament of an organic foliate nature which complements the structural innovations of the building. The terra-cotta curtain wall was unique at that time in New York.

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.

512-514 Broome, October 7, 1935. The two Federal style building at nos. 512 and 514 seen here likely date to the early decades of the 19th century. In the early 20th century no. 512 (at right) was the New York office of a Ohio-based mosaic company. Two brick buildings still stand in this location. The building at left is now three stories and the one at right one is a single story. It is unknown whether these current structures are built from the bones of the earlier buildings. The empty lot at far left is currently still unbuilt and serves as the garden area for a Thompson Street restaurant.

Gerstenzang Brothers was an artificial flower factory run by Louis and Abraham Gerstenzang located at 670 Broadway. The company created flowers for millineries throughout the city as well as fruits, vegetables, and feathers. The American Gas Engineering Journal showcased the factory for its excellent use of gas. Boilers in various rooms turned rolls of cotton into ornament, steam was used to dye feathers, and gas-fed flames melted wax to coat the skin of false cherries. From a tour of the factory in 1918, a guide is quoted as saying: "We have to put the most serious-minded girls we have at the daisy table... Otherwise, they spend most of their time counting the petals mumbling, 'Loves me-loves me not."

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.

"Wooster Street, south from Grand Street to its southern end at Canal Street, showing the New York Telephone Building, 1933." The New York Telephone Building at 32 Sixth Avenue, now called the AT\&T Building, (seen here from the corner of Grand and Wooster Streets) is an Art Deco skyscraper. Constructed in 1932 (from a much smaller original building) by the firm of Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker, the building housed the technical offices and equipment for the AT\&T's transatlantic communications. A grand 27-story structure that highlights classic Art Deco features, including asymmetrical massing, striped motifs, and light colored brick parapets at the roof line. Equally spectacular is the lobby of the building, which features a tiled world map (appropriate for a long distance communication building) and mosaics with themed on the seven continents. Both the interior and exterior of the building are landmarked.

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.

H.H. Upham Company building, ca. 1975. In 1891, the H.H. Upham Company, a leading manufacturer of commercial signs, moved into its new headquarters on South Fifth Avenue (later West Broadway and LaGuardia Place). The Romanesque Revival building, designed by the Brunner & Tyron firm, features terra cotta ornamentation a bronze cartouches inscribed with the company’s founding date and the date of completion for the new structure.

77 Bleecker Street, ca. 1975.

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

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.

Buildings at the southeast corner of Thompson and West Houston Streets; July 2, 1929. Signage for the corner building's storefront touts "Building Coming Down" fire sale prices, ahead of the razing of the entire southern blockfront for subway and street widening work. The white brick building at far right is 152-154 Thompson Street, which today sits at the Houston Street corner.

155 Wooster Street, ca. 1935. In 1968, Paula Cooper opened her first gallery in this building, becoming one of the first gallerists to open up shop downtown, in a neighborhood that would soon become synonymous with the city's contemporary art scene. Cooper's inaugural show included works by Sol LeWitt, Dan Flavin, and Donald Judd. The gallery relocated to Chelsea in 1996.

Broadway, north of Spring Street, 1898. Street scene featuring streetcars, horse-drawn carriages, cobblestones, and cast iron facades along the west side of Broadway. At left, the building with awnings and a pair of American Flags is the “Charles Broadway Rouss” building. In 1889, Rouss, a wealthy, self-made merchant, built a massive three-bay-wide building at 549-553 Broadway to house his department store. A keen self promoter, Rouss stamped his name “Charles Broadway Rouss” across the facade, between the first and second stories. Eleven years later, Rouss acquired the lot immediately to the north, and added a matching fourth bay, adopting the 555 Broadway address. “Charles Broadway Rouss” was amended to cover the facade’s full width. Indeed, when Rouss died in 1902, his death certificate bore his adopted middle name.

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.

Bayard-Condict Building, ca. 1970. Described in its 1974 LPC Designation Report as, "the most significant commercial building utilizing skyscraper structural techniques in New York City," the Bayard-Condict Building was both a structural and architectural modern marvel for the city. Completed in 1899, this office and loft building is the only structure constructed in New York to the designs of famed Chicago architect Louis Sullivan. Sullivan pioneered a new style of ornamentation and the idea that a building's design should reflect the structure. Here the facade can not be defined as one particular architectural style, but with his ideas on a new ornamental aesthetic, the design is organic and based on natural forms, Also the facade, entirely clad in a bright white terra cotta, has very strong verticals highlighting the steel-structural frame. The building is considered by some to be the first truly modern skyscraper in New York, completed nearly two decades before other New York architects moved on from historic precedents to build skyscrapers in the late 1920s.

"West Broadway, (left) at and adjoining the north east corner of Grand Street, showing the 2-story Sapphire Hotel, 1939."

6 Centre Market Place ca. 1937 The shop on the small alley of Centre Market Place had belonged to gunsmiths since the 1850s. Its oversized shop sign was an age-old form of European advertising, originally devised for illiterate patrons and still useful on the multi-lingual Lower East Side. The ornate French Baroque police headquarters was built across the street in 1909 for the then-staggering cost of $1.5 million, and stood as a potent symbol of the rule of law. One of Abbott’s photographs of the shop offers a straightforward description of the storefront, similar to Atget’s Parisian views. A second photograph, with the camera pointed up from beneath the sign, transforms the gun from a symbol of a craftsman’s trade into a surrealist found object or a political joke. The shop remains a gunsmith, although the sign is gone. In the 1970s, a new police headquarters was built near the Municipal Building. The old headquarters is now a landmarked luxury condominium called The Police Building, home to artists and celebrities.

Charles Broadway Rouss Building, 1938.

You'd assume that in two decades time these little food joints, pictured in 2001, might have disappeared. But, alas, a shop that sells 1,000 carrot 🍰 a week, a 🍕 chain owned by Albanians, and many greasy spoons ☕ are resilient. Discover the everyday culinary delights that have persisted on Broadway.

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

112 Prince Street, c. 1978. Artists Richard Haas' first mural, on the north party wall of 112 Prince Street, is called "Soho Mural." It was completed in 1975 after Haas proposed his idea to Doris Freedman, who led City Walls Inc. Haas drew from his surroundings in SoHo, a neighborhood rapidly changing due to plans of urban redevelopment and large-scale construction that disrupted the cityscape and left an abundance of exposed blank walls in the area. The mural's building, at 112 Prince Street, is now listed as part of the SoHo Cast-Iron Historic District, though this designation came after the completion of Haas' work. Haas worked with architect Hanford Yang to acquire drawings of the West facade, which he meticulously copied in oil paint onto the brick party wall of the building. Ada Louis Huxtable, renowned architecture critic for the New York Times, called the work "an exercise in art and wit and instant architecture," a year after it was painted. Her successor Paul Goldberger called Richard Haas "the great architectural muralist of our time" in 2000. Haas started a campaign to conserve his first piece of work, titled "Save 112 Prince," in 2015.

No. 420 West Broadway (left), ca. 1980. The loft building at 420 West Broadway dates to the 1870s, when it was built for the prominent developer Amos R. Eno by architect Robert Mook. The building was extended to Thompson Street during the 1880s. Until 1970, the building's tenants represented a variety of manufacturing industries, including glass and paper products. After 1970, the building became a locus of the burgeoning downtown art scene, and home to several prominent gallerists. In 2001, the remaining gallerists were displaced, as the building was redeveloped for residential use. Today, marketing materials refer to it as the "Soho Gallery Building."

View north from the northeast corner of Prince and Elm (now Lafayette) Streets, January 4, 1901.

Great Jones Alley, ca. 1980s. Great Jones Street was named for a lawyer, Samuel Jones, who donated land to the city in 1789 and stipulated that his name be attached to the resulting road. The donation allowed the city to complete 3rd Street between Broadway and Bowery. A problem arose in that another street, in the West Village, had already been named for a Jones (Samuel's brother-in-law, a Dr. Gardiner Jones). The newer street had to settle for the "great" moniker. The small alley that runs south from Great Jones Street, mid-block between Broadway and Lafayette, is called Great Jones Alley. According to rumors, the term “jonesin(g),” meaning an intense craving for a drug, can trace its inception to this small dead-end street where addicts hung out in the 1960s.

In 1853, young Samuel L. Clemens wrote his mother in Missouri: "Well, I was out of work in St. Louis, and didn't fancy loafing in such a dry place, where there is no pleasure to be seen without paying well for it, and so I thought I might as well go to New York." It was the first time the future Mark Twain would visit, but it wouldn't be the last. New-York Historical's 2019 exhibition 'Mark Twain and the Holy Land' took a deep dive into a pivotal moment in Twain's career: the five-month cruise to Europe and the Holy Land that would inspire his bestselling travelogue 'The Innocents Abroad.' Like many good journeys, it started in New York. Check out some NYC sites that have a Twain connection.

Josiah Purdy House, 1932. In 1818, Josiah Purdy built a Federal style frame house at the corner of Spring and Wooster Streets, likely including a ground floor storefront. The house was home to a succession of working class families on the upper floors, while the ground floor space had by 1870 been converted to a saloon. Charles Von Urban’s 1932 photograph, taken during Prohibition, shows a painted advertisement for Peter Doegler beer (“available in bottles and barrels”) on the upper-floor clapboards along Wooster street, though the storefront itself appears to be available for rent. From 1978-2006, Tennessee Mountain, a barbecue restaurant and bar, operated in the first two floors. The restaurant was likely responsible for the addition of ahistorical ground floor bay windows. A 2006 restoration project replaced the Wooster Street clapboards, refreshed the Spring Street Brickwork, and reverted the bay window alterations.

No. 205 Prince Street, ca. 1977. The corner house is one of two buildings said to have been constructed by Aaron Burr in 1834. Now owned by the artist Anna Thornhill and her husband Simon Nuchtern, the building today remains a residence and includes a studio for Simon's film and subtitling company, Katrina Productions. According to Thornhill, the cellar may have housed a Prohibition-era brewery. After Nuchtern and Thornhill purchased the house in the mid-70s, they hired architects James Swan and Thomas Pritchard to sketch plans for extensive renovations, including an ambitious and as-yet unrealized feature described in a 1976 New York Times feature: a roof made entirely of glass. Edmund Vincent Gillon's late 1970s photo was taken from Father Fagan Square, a small triangular plaza named after a Brazilian-born priest who died rescuing his fellow clergymen from a 1938 fire at the St. Anthony's rectory on Thompson Street.

"I am the Best Artist" on the West Broadway facade of 500 Broome Street, ca. 1986. The mural "I am the Best Artist" is the work of René Moncada, a South American-born artist. He created a number of these self-aggrandizing pieces on walls in SoHo beginning in the 1970s. This mural at West Broadway and Broome was the most prominent, completed in 1986, and measuring 10 foot by 50 foot. It became an iconic and culturally important art piece for the neighborhood and within the NYC art scene, propelling the artist into renown in the art world. The street art here is no longer extant, most of his street art was removed or covered up as the neighborhood began to change and gentrify in the 1990s.

E.V. Haughwout Building ca. 1974 In 1857 the first practicable passenger elevator to be installed in a mercantile establishment was put in operation in this building. Haughwout's boasted a fine line of glass, china, and silverware. Its proud exterior, harbinger of the endless vista, is somewhat reminiscent of Sansovino's Library on the Piazetta in Venice. The attempt to borrow beauty from the Continent, for even such newfangled structures as these cast-iron buildings, was indicative of our lack of assurance in the direction of our own architectural development.

Washington Square Village, an iconic Robert Moses development right across the street from the Center for Architecture. Constructed in the 1950s, Washington Square Village was initially built as a middle-class housing complex, but due to a languishing rental market it was purchased by NYU in 1964 to be used for faculty housing. Those residents who were already living in WSV were able to retain their apartments, some of whom still live there 40 years later! However, it is important to note that Jane Jacobs vehemently opposed the construction of Washington Square Village and University Village. “This is not the rebuilding of cities,” said Jacobs, “this is the sacking of cities.” Jacobs frequently spoke out against “slum clearance” and believed that “There is no logic that can be superimposed on a city; people make it, and it is to them, not buildings, that we must fit our plans.” For Jacobs, the destruction of historic buildings and neighborhoods like Greenwich Village would irreparably harm the city and its inhabitants. Interestingly, Washington Square Village and University Village have become significant historic structures in their own right. Of particular interest are I.M. Pei and James Ingo Freed’s Silver Towers I and II, constructed in 1960 around a courtyard featuring a sculpture by Carl Nesjär and Pablo Picasso. In 2008, the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission designated Washington Square Village and University Village as NYC landmarks. In 2012, NYU submitted a plan to redevelop the empty lots between the superblock’s existing buildings. In response, NYU faculty and Village Preservation formed a coalition to oppose the development; the group claimed victory in 2014. NYU immediately appealed the decision, and it remains to be seen what will happen to this once-reviled development.

Laura Keene's Theatre ca. 1863-66 This structure was opened on November 18, 1856 and soon afterward re-christened Laura Keene's New Theatre. This name was attached to half a dozen theaters during the period from 1850 to 1870. She retired in 1863, and John Duff, who then became the manager, re-opened the house as Mrs. John Woods Olympic Theatre. After Mrs. Woods retirement in 1866 it had a checkered career and was demolished in 1880. Joseph Jefferson appeared here in the play "Our American Cousin" on its first performance on October 18, 1858.

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.

Bayard-Condict Building Doorway, 2000.

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was murdered by then Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin. As Floyd was arrested for supposedly using a counterfeit $20 bill to buy a pack of cigarettes, the officer knelt on the back of his neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds as he lay face down on the street. Despite Mr. Floyd’s pleading with the officer stating “I can’t breathe” several times Chauvin continued to use the non-sanctioned technique to restrain and subdue the victim until he died in what culminated in an extrajudicial murder. All of this was captured on video by witnesses, security cameras at a nearby restaurant, and the body camera of J. Alexander Keung, an officer complicity standing nearby. When the news broke and the footage hit the internet, the country was distraught. At the time, the world was already reeling from the Covid-19 pandemic, in the midst of a near nationwide lockdown with many out of work or working from home. Similar to the ways in which television made the injustices of the Jim Crow South no longer ignorable to Americans around the country it was almost impossible to miss the footage of this event as it proliferated across the internet and media outlets. Yet again, another murder in the seemingly never-ending string of violence committed by police forces against communities of color. Demonstrations began the very next day in Minneapolis. They spread throughout the country and eventually the entire world. All eyes were on this moment and communities mobilized to express frustration with the endemic of police brutality as well as the judicial and societal complacency towards that violence. They also came together in solidarity, ready to confront the reality of the murder, the truth behind the systemic inequalities that allowed the murder to occur, and not just to demand change but actively engage and construct ideas of what that change can and should look like. Things were no different in SoHo, Manhattan; a place that is known to be more aligned with the retail trends of the wealthy rather than a hotbed of community activism. Despite that reality the area was reclaimed by the community and made into a center of direct action. The streets, formerly deserted, were transformed into a parade ground of demonstration and the plywood boards that secured the storefronts of shops that serve the elite were co-opted by local artists and activists to transmit messages that resonated with those concerned with improving the whole of society. Since then, former police officer Derek Chauvin was charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd and the three officers also present: J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas K. Lane, and Tou Thao have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder. It is important to note that this is not justice this is accountability, but it could be a step in the right direction towards preventing further injustices by police. Local artist James Hong realized what was happening and knew it was important to capture and preserve this juxtaposition on display in the midst of a community reclaiming the streets as part of a nationwide response to the murder of George Floyd. In his own words “The poignancy of Soho – the pinnacle of consumerist society – transformed into a platform of social messaging cannot be lost. This may serve as a reminder that no matter how things in society may be beautifully cloaked in delivering subliminal messages of how we should live, a raw but potent social message can subvert it- not with iPhones and high tech, but with messy paint, caulk and spray cans.” James’ actions led to this selection of ten photographs, and many others not included here, to be exhibited at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space in the fall of 2020. The plywood windows of SoHo are torn down by this point but James and Bill DiPola, director of MoRUS, had the foresight to save the very same plywood in these photos and install them as gallery walls for the pictures to hang on, in effect recreating parts of SoHo within the museum and immortalizing the conversations these boards promoted from their storefronts. They are still on display at MoRUS and will live here on the Urban Archive so that you too might tour the neighborhood during one of its most critical moments of direct action taken by a community in the 21st century.

Olympic Theatre (Laura Keene's Theatre) In remembering the 150th anniversary of the Lincoln assassination, the Merchant’s House Museum displayed a dress in the house that was worn by a member of the Tredwell family to an entertainment venue known as Laura Keene’s Theatre. In one of the pockets was a ticket from a performance there. This is how I first became aware of this lost theater, which had burned down in 1881. But first, who was Laura Keene? While her name may not be familiar to many people today, Keene was a noted actress and theater manager who happened to be onstage at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. the night that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated 150 years ago last April. She played the lead role in the play, Our American Cousin. Interestingly, that play debuted at Keene’s theater in New York in 1858. The popular Laura Keene’s Theatre was located at 622-624 Broadway, between Bleecker and Houston Streets, in present-day NoHo. The thru-block building extended to Crosby Street. 1862 Perris & Browne Map Laura Keene’s Theatre is the thru-block building at right, which faces Broadway and Crosby Streets. 1862 Perris & Browne fire insurance map. Plate 49. Source: NYPL. Replacing the theater was a six-story cast-iron building constructed in 1880-82, which is now part of the NoHo Historic District. The designation report for the historic district mentions that the theater originally opened in 1856. It is reported that Keene managed this theater until 1863, by which time her popularity had been waning. Keene hailed from England, but had been performing at various theaters up and down the East Coast of the United States. In New York, she became a theater manager at a time when only men held this position. Before and after opening a theater named after her, she appeared in a number of theaters along Broadway – stretching from present-day TriBeCa to 14th Street

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.

Last horse-drawn street car, 1917. The last horse-drawn streetcar line, the Bleecker Street & Fulton Ferry Line, finally ended service in 1917. Lasting more than a decade after the opening of the subway, the horse-drawn cars also shared the road with electric streetcars for decades. The Bleecker Street line had been in operation since 1864, transporting passengers from the West 14th Street Ferry in Chelsea to the Fulton Ferry in the Financial District. When it closed in July 1917 it was not replaced with a trolley or bus route.

453-455 Broome Street, ca. 1975. Built in 1872-1873 and designed by Griffith Thomas, this cast-iron building was the headquarters of the Hancock Silk Company. Hancock Silk was, for much of the 19th century, the oldest dress goods importer in the country. Founded in 1818 they went out of business unexpectedly in 1897. In the 1920s the building housed A. Galewski & Sons, a leather and canvas manufacturer. During the later 20th century the building was converted into residential lofts and a ground floor commercial space.

Sidewalk altar, ca. 1935.

Mori Restaurant, Bleecker Street, November 21, 1935. 144 Bleecker Street was built 1832 as two townhouses (Nos. 144 and 146). Placido Mori established his Italian restaurant at No. 144 in 1883. In 1920, Mori enlisted then-unknown architect Raymond Hood — who would go on to design several New York skyscrapers, including Rockefeller Center — to create a new facade incorporating No. 146 for an expanded restaurant. As part of Hood’s compensation, he received an apartment upstairs. Mori closed in 1937 and the building was later occupied by another restaurant and a handful of activist organizations. Between 1962 and 1990, the building was home to the well-loved Bleecker Street Cinema. Today the building has been split up again with no. 144 housing a pharmacy and no. 146 a stationary store.

Photographs of New York City streets can show us sites and scenes that have long disappeared from the ever-changing city. Along with more permanent features like monuments and buildings, these snapshots can capture some of the most ephemeral aspects of New York: the broadsides, building signs and billboards that constantly changed with new businesses, consumer products and entertainments. From soap to Broadway shows, the street advertising in the Thomas W. Kennedy photographs in the Seaport Museum's collection can tell us a lot about what late 19th and early 20th century Manhattan was selling.

Saint Patrick’s Old Cathedral ARCHITECT: Joseph-François Mangin DATE: 1809-15 STYLE: Gothic Revival, Church Although only the shell of this building remained intact after the church was completely gutted by a fire in 1886, the original Cathedral, when completed in 1815, was one of the earliest examples of Gothic Revival architecture in the City. Some of this early Gothic work survived the restoration of 1868. Formal and severely plain in appearance, this smooth-faced windowless wall has great dignity and character in its restrained simplicity.

Building at the northeast corner of Houston and Elm (now Lafayette) Street during construction of the IRT East Side Line, October 26, 1900.

Although its cornerstone was laid in 1809, St. Patrick's was not dedicated until May 1815. The War of 1812 and financial difficulties within the diocese delayed its construction. Leading citizens attending the opening ceremonies included Mayor John Ferguson and his predecessor, DeWitt Clinton. The novelty of a Roman Catholic cathedral within the United States made the original St. Patrick's on Mott Street, below Houston, a tourist destination and an artist's subject.

Construction of the Mulberry Street: IRT East Side Line, now the site of 54 Bleecker Street. Taken 11/13/01.

316 Bowery, ca. 1980. The building with the mansard roof at left is known as the Irwin Building. Constructed in 1868 for the banker Robert Irwin, by the architect Nicholas Whyte, the four-story brick and sandstone building was unabashedly Italianate in style. Planned with commercial space on the lower floors and dwellings on the upper floors, the handsome building remained a respectable location during its first decade. Irwin was forced to sell in 1878 and the building cycled through dozens of tenants and owners over the next century, serving as a hotel, warehouse, brewery, hardware store, and factory at various points. The Bowery, a sordid locale for much of the 20th century, has seen a revitalization in the last few decades. In 2004 a substantial restoration was undertaken by the owners of the Irwin Building, reinstalling slate on the mansard, rebuilding the chimneys, cleaning the brick, and replicating lost cast iron ornamentation.

Silk Exchange Building, October 7, 1935. This long and narrow building (the Broadway frontage is only 28 feet, while the Broome Street frontage is 200 feet) dates to 1896. In the late 19th century this corner was the center of the silk district. The designer, contractor, and real estate developer for the building was John Townsend Williams. The ornate facade of the 12-story building was limestone, buff-colored brick and terra cotta. The plain limestone base is in contrast to the highly decorated and textured terra cotta ornamentation at the upper levels. The original tenants included a number of silk manufacturing companies earning it the name The Silk Exchange Building.The silk focus of the structure survived through the 1910s after which it began to move uptown, and by the 1920s most of the silk merchants had moved out. In 1938 (when this Federal Art Project photograph was taken) the building was the headquarters of the Banco di Sicilia Trust Company. After suffering through the financially unstable and gritty years of the 1970s, along with the rest of SoHo (and the city), the building was converted to residential units, and is now known as the Haggin Building.

St. Anthony of Padua, during subway and street construction on West Houston Street; June 15, 1930. The congregation of St. Anthony of Padua was established in 1859 and was the first Roman Catholic Italian congregation organized in New York City. The first services were conducted at former site of the Church of St. Vincent de Paul on Canal Street. In 1866, the community moved into an edifice that had previously been the Sullivan Street Methodist Episcopal Church. It was organized was a hybrid between a national parish and a territorial parish. It had permission to minister to all Italians, wherever they resided, but it also had geographic bounds and welcomed all those within its borders. It opened a school in 1872, with some 500 Italian and Irish students taught by the Franciscan Sisters of Allegheny. Finally the parish began raising funds for their own purpose-built church. The new church, seen here, was designed by Arthur Crooks in the Romanesque Revival style, and completed in 1888. The church has been featured in a number of motion pictures including the The Godfather, Part II, Moonstruck, and Men in Black.

561 Broadway (center), ca. 1977. The Little Singer Building is a 12-story Art Nouveau structure. Designed by Ernest Flagg for the offices and factory of the Singer Manufacturing Company, the L-shaped building was completed in 1904 (four years before its more massive sister was built further downtown). The main facade on Broadway is a charming mix of brick, steel, terra cotta, and glass rendered in red and green. It features a nine-story recessed central bay. The secondary facade at 88 Prince Street mimics the Broadway frontage. Since 1979 the building has been a co-op with 20 offices and 15 live/work units for artists.

504-506 Broome Street, 1939. These two Federal style buildings on the northwest corner of Broome and West Broadway, which were not in the best shape when this photograph was taken, are no longer standing. Gone too, of course, is the elevated line that ran next to them on West Broadway. According to the SoHo Historic District Extension Designation Report no. 376 West Broadway is the same plot as 504-506 Broome, and in 1993 a one-story garage was replaced with the three-story stucco building that now stands on this corner.

Gunther Building, 469 Broome Street, ca. 1975. The 1871 Gunther Building, called "one of \[architect] Griffith Thomas' finest designs" by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, was constructed as a warehouse for the furrier William Gunther. Thomas, a prolific architect of the latter 19th century, was responsible for the design of several recognized buildings in the LPC's 1973 SoHo Cast Iron District. William Gunther was the owner of C.G. Gunther’s Sons, a fur retailer founded by his father, Christian G. Von Gunther, in 1820. According to Time magazine, Gunther's was the only men's fur department in Manhattan that offered "coats made of every kind of fur, from buffalo, favored by post-Civil War tycoons, to collegiate raccoon.” Like many of SoHo's cast iron warehouses, the Gunther Building was converted to live/work loft residences, under a cooperative structure notable for the absence of monthly maintenance fees. Between 1996-2001, the architect Beyhan Karahan, a Gunther resident since 1994, led a restoration of the building's cast iron facade. Upon the project's completion, her firm, Beyhan Karahan and Associates, was recognized by the Preservation League of New York for its faithful restoration.

Mott Street Industrial School, ca. 1890. 256-258 Mott Street once housed the Fourteenth Ward Industrial School, also known as the Mott Street Industrial School and the Astor Memorial School. The structure was built in 1888-1889 as the Children's Aid Society. Construction of the project was funded by John Jacob Astor III, who named the school in memory of his wife, a lifelong supporter of the Children's Aid Society. The Society was founded by Charles Loring Brace. Brace, a philanthropist, noticed declining conditions in New York and decided "something must be done to meet the increasing crime and poverty among the destitute children of New York. \[The Society's] objects are to help this class, by opening Sunday meetings and Industrial Schools." The Mott Street building is the only of the Children's Aid Society buildings to be designed solely as a school: others offered accommodations as well as a few classrooms. From 1889 and 1913, 256-258 Mott Street hosted night and day classes to serve the large working-class Italian immigrant community of the neighborhood. Architects Vaux & Radford, who built a number of other buildings for the Children's Aid Society over their careers, designed the school. The four-story structure is built in the Victorian Gothic Style, complete with carved stone, terra cotta, molded and colored brick, and arches topped by Tudor roses. The crowning feature of the building's facade is its three-sided oriel. An architectural critic at the time said the school was "of real interest as works of architecture as well as monuments of a noble charity." In 1913, a larger structure was built as part of the Children's Aid Society on Elizabeth and Hester Streets. The building was leased to the New York Association for the Improvement of the Conditions of the Poor, who eventually bought the structure and renamed it the Mulberry Community Center. The new community served a variety of functions, including offering medical and dental services in addition to English classes. At a point later, the structure's interior was remodeled for industrial use. The building was subsequently converted into apartments, which still occupy the former school. 256-258 Mott Street was designated a New York City landmark in 1977 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.