33 St. Mark’s Place Building Date : 1833/1873 alt. Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Thomas E. Davis/Cook & Weiler Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This lot was was acquired from the Stuyvesant family by Thomas E. Davis, who sold larger lots of Federal row houses to meet the demand for homes “above Bleecker.” No. 33 St. Mark’s Place was built in 1833 as a three story row house and extended to five stories in 1873 (as per tax records). This change was most likely an alteration rather than a new building. This building once housed the Manic-Panic punk-rock clothing store. It also held “Ray’s Occult Books,” featured in the movie Ghostbusters. The building is nearly unrecognizable today, as the white paint has been stripped from the natural brick exterior and a staircase has been built, among other changes. Poet Anne Waldman and her husband, the writer and published Lewis Warsh lived in this building from 1966 until 1969. Poet Anne Waldman was the Poetry Project’s first secretary in 1966, editor of the in-house magazine The World, and director of the Poetry Project, a position she held until 1978. Warsh was also part of the community of writers centered around the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church.

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

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

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

135-137 Second Avenue William Schickel, 1883-84 In the 1840’s, this area became known as “Kleindeutschland” (Little Germany) for its large number of German immigrants. The Ottendorfer Library (now a branch of the New York Public Library) and German Dispensary (later renamed the Stuyvesant Polyclinic) were funded by German-American philanthropists Anna and Oswald Ottendorfer to uplift the minds and bodies of their fellow German-Americans. The buildings include Italian Renaissance Revival and Queen Anne-style details, with red brick, terra-cotta trim, arched windows and symbolic ornament: urns and books on the library and busts of famous physicians and scientists on the dispensary. By the end of the 19th century, Kleindeutschland began to diminish as Germans moved uptown to Yorkville and other immigrants moved in. This decline quickened after the 1904 General Slocum disaster, a paddle boat accident that claimed the lives of over 1,000 German parishioners of St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church. The Library is a designated New York City Individual and Interior Landmark, and listed on the State and National Register; the German Dispensary is a New York City Individual and listed on the State and National Register.

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

9 East 7th Street; 53-61 Cooper Square Building Date : 1867 Original Use : Commercial Original Owner : Metropolitan Savings Bank Original Architect : Carl Pfeiffer Description & Building Alterations This New York City Landmark building, constructed in 1867 and designated a landmark in 1969, is an impressive marble work of the Italianate and French Second Empire style. It remains a significant presence on the corner of Third Avenue and East Seventh Street. Originally constructed for the Metropolitan Savings Bank by architect Carl Pfeiffer, the structure is considered one of the earliest examples of fireproof construction in the city, prompting the Superintendent of Buildings to remark at the time of its construction that “it is one of the handsomest and most thoroughly constructed buildings in the city, and a perfect model in its precaution against fire.” The building’s four-and-a-half story facade is constructed entirely of elaborately articulated marble, with decorative band courses at each floor, extensive rustication and quoinwork, ornamental entablatures and braces, and ceremonial Corinthian columns and pediments framing the entry. The building’s final floor is in a distinctive and delicately-articulated Mansard roof supported by a decorative marble cornice, creating a sophisticated Second Empire profile on the streetscape. In 1937, the building was sold to the First Ukrainian Assembly of God and has seen continuous ecclesiastical use since, primarily by the First Ukrainian Evangelical

Men and boys outside the entrance to 30 Lafayette Place (now No. 417 Lafayette Street), measuring cracks in the stoop of No. 28, August 8, 1901. Between 1897 and 1904, the city undertook twin projects connecting Lafayette Place to Elm Street, while building the IRT East Side Line (which later became the Lexington Avenue Line) by the cut and cover method. The man at right holds a measuring tape to the protruding stoop of No. 28 Lafayette Place, then a residential dwelling with a lower-floor storefront. The stoop and Greek Revival ornamentation were removed in 1911, during a street-widening project. Other such "encroachments" were removed along the block.

78-80 St. Marks Place Building Date : 1845 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : William Bollman Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations Originally constructed as two separate houses in 1845, the three-and-a-half-story and four-story buildings were combined at an unknown date. Its is said that Leon Totsky lived in the house at No. 80 in 1917, at which point he contributed to the magazine Novy Mir, run by Nikolai Bukharin and Alexandra Kollontai. The magazine was published across the street at No. 77. In 1931 the building at 78 St. Mark’s Place became occupied for institutional purposes and later a restaurant. From 1917 until 1964, a music club called Jazz Gallery, owned by brothers Joe and Iggy Termini, opened at this site. The brothers also owned the Five Spot at 5 Cooper Square. Thelonious Monk Quartet, the John Coltrane Quartet, and Lord Buckley all performed at this venue. Starting from around the 1960s part of the building was used as a theater. Howard Otway owned the houses in 1966, when he worked with architect Miller Breslin to convert them into Theater 80. Theatre 80 premiered Clark Gesner’s Your a Good Man, Charlie Brown in 1967, and played it until 1971, when Otway made the theater a revival movie house with double features of old Hollywood films showing every day. The revival theater closed in 1994, and then this building was occupied by the Pearl Theater Company, founded in 1984, which stayed here until 2009. Outside the theater there is a mini-Off-Broadway Walk of Fame, consisting of hand-prints, footprints and signatures from some celebrated 20th-century actors and actresses. The original facades – including lintels, sills, and cornices of these two buildings remain. No. 78 retains its stoop and multi-paned sash, and No. 80 has a one-story brick extension with glass block windows.

144 Second Avenue Building Date : 1914-15 Original Use : Commercial Original Owner : Philip & Benjamin Menschel Original Architect : Louis A. Sheinart Description & Building Alterations This three-story brick building was originally erected between 1914 and 1915 as a movie theater with office space, designed by architect Louis A. Sheinart. In 1928, the building was converted to retail and office use. It was part of the Yiddish Theater District/Jewish Rialto during the early 20th century, and has housed the Ukrainian restaurant Veselka since 1954. The west rusticated stone facade features a bracketed thin cornice above the storefront’s segmental-arched window opening, framed by festive garland decorations. The north facade features patterned brickwork, simple rectangular window sills, and glass brick on top of the storefront.

Electric Circus, 23 St. Marks Place. These three buildings were constructed as separate row houses in the 1830s. At their completion, they would have looked much like their neighbor across the street, the Daniel Le Roy House at 20 St. Marks Place. In the 1870s nos. 19 and 21 became the headquarters of the Arion Society, a German music club, reflecting the new immigrant community in the neighborhood. In the late 1880s, all three were purchased by brewery magnate George Erhet, who turned them into Arlington Hall, a venue of community halls and ballrooms. In 1920, the properties were purchased by the Polish National Home, Polski Dom Narodwy, and served in a similar function for the Polish community. In the 1950's a nightclub called "The Dom" opened in the basement level. Advertised as "a groovy get-together place of the neighborhood cats and chicks who dig dancing and Polish food at Avenue A prices," the Dom enjoyed patrons such as Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and other Beats. In 1966, Andy Warhol rented the upper level as a psychedelic performance space. Their house band: Velvet Underground. By then the Dom was losing popularity. In its final hurrah, the basement became a nightclub once again, boasting the "chic bohemian" Electric Circus. Famously, a bomb was set off on the dance floor in 1970, which injured dozens of patrons. The nightclub was never able to return to its heyday of the 1950s and 1960s, and it closed in 1971.

Building Date: 1848 Original Use: Residential Original Owner: Thomas F. Woodruff Original Architect: Unknown Description & Building Alterations This four-story with basement building was originally erected in 1848 as a Greek Revival-style row house. The present facade features bracketed iron cornice, molded window lintels, footed sills, the entrance flanked by engaged simple pilasters supporting an entablature.

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

The oldest surviving WPA Retail Market building in New York City is in fact the East Village’s First Avenue Retail Market, which dates to 1938 (the very first to open was what came to be known as “La Marqueta” under the Park Avenue viaduct between 111th and 116th Street in East Harlem, then an Italian-American neighborhood from which LaGuardia was elected to the State Assembly and Congress; little of that original structure still exists due to demolition, fires, and alterations). In 1937, architects Albert W. Lewis and John D. Churchill were commissioned by the Department of Markets to design several of these indoor market buildings, including the new Fulton Fish Market Complex, the Gansevoort Market, the Bronx Terminal Market, and the First Avenue Retail Market. The First Avenue Market was opened by LaGuardia himself in 1938 on First Avenue between East 9th and 10th Streets. It was constructed in an L-shaped design that spanned numbers 155-157 1st Avenue and numbers 230-240 East 10th Street. Historic photos show a bustling neighborhood market that sold cheese (a 1947 New Yorker article states that the cheese vendor sold 300 varieties!), vegetables, and likely everything in, until its closure in 1965. In 1986, Theater for the New City (TNC) purchased this 30,000-square-foot former market building with the help of Bess Myerson, Ruth Messinger, and David Dinkins. TNC converted the market building into a vibrant community arts center, where they remain to this day. This transformation was a critical factor in the cultural and commercial revitalization of the surrounding East Village neighborhood. When the Theater for the New City purchased the former First Avenue Retail Market building, there was a stipulation that they had to still share part of the space with the Sanitation Department, which had been occupying the building since the Market closed in 1965. TNC didn’t have enough money to complete the four theaters, dance space, cafe, administrative offices, and rehearsal spaces, but put on shows regardless, creating interim theaters. Co-founders Crystal Field and George Bartenieff completed TNC’s home with $2 million they had raised. The City, however, retained the air rights to the building, and in 2001, a 16-story residential tower was erected above the theater. Despite this construction, though, TNC remains an important East Village institution that echos the community sentiment and necessity of the former First Avenue Retail Market, and is the oldest remaining intact Retail Market from this transformative LaGuardia/WPA project.

44 Stuyvesant Street ca. 1927 On January 31, 1795, Nicholas William Stuyvesant, descendent of Director-General Petrus Stuyvesant, married Catherine Livingston Reade, herself a descendant of New York royalty of sorts (the family name can be found on streets in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn). While clearly this was a significant date for these two early New Yorkers, why should we care over two centuries later? Because that marriage led to the construction of what is today the oldest residence in Manhattan, 44 Stuyvesant Street. Nicholas built 44 Stuyvesant Street for his wife and what would end up being a very, very large family. Walking down the unusually angled Stuyvesant Street today, this subtly elegant early Federal building may seem to fold seamlessly into the streetscape. However, if you were to stand across the street and turn the clock back to 1795, you would see the surrounding buildings disappear one by one, and the street grid as we know it dissolve in place of a completely different configuration. You would recognize but one structure: No. 44, the oldest building in the Village and the oldest structure in Manhattan continuously used for residential purposes. The land upon which 44 Stuyvesant Street was built was part of the original farm of Petrus Stuyvesant, Director-General of the West India Company in New Netherlands. Almost a century and a half before Nicholas and Catherine started their life together, Petrus Stuyvesant purchased two adjacent “boweries” (rooted in the old Dutch word for “farm”) from the West India Company on March 12, 1651. On November 30, 1787, a lane was cut between the two sections, running true east-west. The path became Stuyvesant Street, the only street preserved from the period when the Stuyvesants owned a huge swath of land within and beyond today’s East Village (roughly between Fourth Avenue, the East River, East 5th Street, and East 20th Street). The Stuyvesant street grid squared with the points of the compass: the streets running north-south were named for the female members of the family, and those bisecting them were named for the male members of the family. When Nicholas Stuyvesant built 44 Stuyvesant Street, it was a free-standing structure at the southwest corner of Stuyvesant Street and the no-longer-extant Judith Street. Nicholas and Catherine lived here together for twenty-three years, raising six sons and three daughters, just as the generations that followed them would raise their own families. When Nicholas’ mother, Margaret Livingston, passed away in 1818, Nicholas and Catherine moved into the Bowery house where she had lived. Nicholas had inherited the building upon the death of his father, Petrus Stuyvesant. After moving, he and Catherine rented out their former home at 44 Stuyvesant Street for the rest of their lives. It was during this period, in 1832, that the parlor floor of the house was remodeled in the later Federal style. In 1861, the rows of Anglo-Italianate homes that today fill in and form the rest of the St. Mark’s Historic District and ‘Renwick Triangle’ were finally developed. No. 44 Stuyvesant Street’s historical significance is amplified all the more by its important place in New York City landmarks history. After the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission began to identify and protect significant buildings and districts in the city in 1965, this was one of the first buildings, within one of the first districts, to be formally recognized. No. 44 Stuyvesant Street was designated as part of the St. Mark’s Historic District on January 14, 1969, almost one hundred seventy-five years after its original date of construction. Today, 44 Stuyvesant Street is one of two remaining houses from the early generations of the Stuyvesant family (along with the Stuyvesant Fish House at 21 Stuyvesant Street, built-in 1803 by Petrus Stuyvesant and similarly rich in architectural integrity and historical associations). Along with the Jumel Mansion and the Dyckman Farmhouse in Upper Manhattan, this is the only surviving residential building from the 18th century in Manhattan, and the only one “which has been solely used for residential use, successfully retaining …its original plan (which is two rooms off the hall) and its many architectural elements.” It also reflects the early building traditions in the area, displaying original Flemish-bond brickwork, splayed lintels, and a brownstone basement. Furthermore, 44 Stuyvesant Street showcases a 20th-century artist’s studio window, emblematic of the cultural and demographic shifts that took place in the East Village at that time, and the architectural features that defined it.

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

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

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

400 East 9th Street; 146-148 First Avenue Building Date : 1851 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : James Wood Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations Block 5 is comprised of three buildings erected together along with lots 7 and 8 in 1851. The buildings are four-stories along First Avenue and 9th Street with a two-story portion at the rear along 9th Street. Most historic details have been removed or stripped, including a cornice on the west facade. Simple rectangular window lintels and sills still remain.

German Hospital, ca. 1905 The German Hospital and Dispensary was founded in 1857 and opened their first facility that same year at 132 Canal Street. They moved between a number of locations downtown, settling for sometime at the William Schickel-designed building on Second Avenue, next to the Ottendorfer Library. In 1905 the hospital which had operated a location uptown for a few decades, moved their entire facility to East 77th Street location. The hospital building seen here was completed in 1900 and has since been demolished.

Schermerhorn Building ca. 1979 Built in 1888, the Schermerhorn Building's six stories were impressively tall for the time and its massing is, as the designation report states, “unusually imposing.” And although six-story buildings are a dime a dozen today, there is indeed something still very impressive and commanding about the Schermerhorn Building. The dark brown brick piers and ornamental sandstone corners combine to create a real heft at the ground level, and all the trappings of its Romanesque Revival style convey a solidness and strength. But it is also a brilliantly balanced building – the very solid and weighty ground level lifts upward toward arched windows that terminate high above Lafayette on the fourth floor, where its dark brown brick becomes a lighter, tan color. And all over the building, whimsical and playful ornamentation save the building from feeling too serious or foreboding. And it’s no wonder that the building is designed so expertly – its architect, Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, also designed The Dakota Apartments and the Plaza Hotel, two other revered New York City landmarks.

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

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

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

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

Vegetable vendor, ca. 1970.

Man pulling piano outside No. 37 St. Marks Place, ca. 1980.

Veselka (Ukrainian for “rainbow”) was established in 1954 at the intersection of Second Avenue and 9th Street, by Ukrainian immigrant Wolodymyr Darmochwal. It was originally a candy shop and newsstand. At the time, the East Village was home to one of the largest expat Ukrainian communities in the world. Veselka evolved as the neighborhood did; it became a hangout not only for Ukrainian immigrants but also for the bohemian counterculture that flocked to the East Village in the 1960s. Veselka survives today, in its original location. In the late 1980s, it became a 24-hour establishment.

24 St. Mark’s Place Building Date : 1903 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Braverman, Silverson & Louden Original Architect : Sass & Smallheiser Description & Building Alterations This six-story brick tenement was constructed in 1903 by Sass & Smallheiser for Braverman, Silverson and Louden. It features splayed lintels with scrolled keystones above the windows and stone surrounds at the second story. The historic cornice was removed sometime after the 1980s tax photo was taken. In the 19th century, 24 St. Mark’s Place housed the offices of the Children’s Aid Society. Between 1853 and 1929, more than 150,000 abandoned, abused and orphaned children were rescued from the streets and slums of New York City and taken by train to start new lives with families on farms across the country. In just a five-month period over the winter of 1875, the Children’s Aid Society’s five Manhattan lodging sites provided lodging for 68,982 needy, and served about 277,200 meals.

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

Now that school is back in session and summer weather is having its last hurrahs, we’re all either living by the bell or remembering the days when we did. So many schools in our neighborhoods have come and gone over the decades, while others have stuck around. While all these schools served the function of educating young people, many also delight passersby with their architecture. So while there are many beautiful schools out there, this post is dedicated to the forgotten ones that went out of session and never went back in — school buildings that remain, but have been put to new and different uses.

15 St. Marks Place, ca. 1970. The business seen here on St. Marks Place is Paul McGregor Haircutters. Before finding fame as a stylist, McGregor had worked as a longshoreman, sandhog, and truck driver. He opened his shop in 1965 and within a decade was well-known for having invented the shag haircut, which he famously gave to actress Jane Fonda. After moving on from hair styling, McGregor transformed this location into the world’s smallest roller-skating disco, a bar called McGregor’s Garage, and finally BoyBar, a gay nightclub well known for its drag scene.

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

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

6 St. Mark’s Place Building Date : 1831 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Thomas E. Davis/Daniel Rogers Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This heavily-altered 4-story building started out as part of the row house development that Thomas E. Davis’ began in 1831. The first three floors have been added to, bringing out the front facade of the building and facing it with a red brick storefront topped with arched transom windows and an iron balustrade on the third-floor terrace. The facade is obscured by large retail signs. The upper floors of the building have been stuccoed and the attic level extended to create a full fourth floor. In the early 20th century, this building was the home of The Modern School, an anti-capitalist and anarchist institution dedicated to “provide education to the working classes from a liberating, class-conscious perspective”. Famed academic and anarchist thinker Emma Goldman was a founder of the institution, and lived nearby on East 13th Street. In 1979, Bruce Mailman opened the New St. Mark’s Baths at this site. They were closed by the New York City Health Department in 1985.

Colonnade Row ca. 1913 These four houses survive from a row of nine Greek Revival marble-fronted residences that, at the time of their completion, were among the grandest dwellings in New York and were occupied by members of New York’s leading families. Erected, and possibly designed, by the developer Seth Greer and named for the Marquis de Lafayette’s estate in France, the row is unified by the use of a Corinthian colonnade that was once crowned by a continuous band of anthemia (now visible only at No. 434). The buildings began to deteriorate in the post-Civil War era as the wealthy moved out of this neighborhood, and the houses were subdivided into apartments and commercial spaces. The row now contains apartments, restaurants, and theaters. From the "Guide to New York City Landmarks", courtesy of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.

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

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

132-144 Second Avenue, showing Ukrainian businesses and organizations along the avenue at the intersection of 9th Street, ca. 1975. No. 138 Second Avenue is one of just a handful of fine Federal row houses left in the neighborhood. Its bottom floor is occupied by Fresco, a gelato store. The shop is owned and run by Anna, Ilias, and Vanessa Iliopoulos– three siblings who grew up in South Africa and Greece. They considered opening their business in Cyprus or Dubai, but eventually found their way to the East Village of Manhattan. Both they and their customers consider that a very good (and yummy!) thing.

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

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

115 Avenue A Building Date : 1858-59 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Bessy & Hipler Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This four-story, three-bay wide building was originally erected in 1858-59, along with the buildings at 117-123 Avenue A. The lot was once part of William B. Astor’s holdings and was leased between c. 1850-1875. The present facade of No. 115 features bracketed cornice with a simple paneled frieze, simple rectangular lintels and sills, and small rectangular windows added to the right of center bay at second to fourth stories. A new storefront was constructed in 1931.

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

93 St. Marks Place ca. 1916 Since 1896, the Little Missionary Day Nursery has been serving the families of the Lower East Side and the East Village, providing care and education for the young children of this area. It was founded by Sara Curry, who dedicated her life to the care of the neighborhood’s impoverished children and their families. Sara Curry (c. 1863-1940) was known locally as The Little Missionary due to both her diminutive stature and her work with the impoverished families of the Lower East Side. She came to New York City from Utica New York in 1896. She started her nursery in two rooms she rented at 204 Avenue C, providing local working parents a place to bring their children where they would be fed and looked after. But her work wasn’t restricted to just the nursery. She took it upon herself to go into people’s homes and help residents improve their living quarters and aid those who were sick. By 1898 she had moved her nursery to 365 East 10th Street, and her work began to receive attention by the press. With that increased awareness by the public, financial assistance came by way of several wealthy philanthropists. With the aid of these philanthropists, Sara was able to incorporate the school and purchase the house at 93 St. Mark’s Place as a permanent home for the school. Additionally, one of the benefactors donated his home as a summer retreat for sick mothers and their children. An article in 1908 in Harper’s Weekly described the scope of the work of the school and breadth of services: Here are a few things done during 1907: children received at the Nursery. more than 28,000; poor families visited, 16,000; sick persons nursed, 10,000; families provided with Thanksgiving dinners, 624 (which amounted to 3800 individuals); children and sick mothers received at the summer home at Netherwood, New Jersey, 2423. There were also nightly meetings for girls, boys, mothers, and fathers. All of these services were conducted with the aim to “restore dejected families to moral and physical health and teach them self-support and self-respect” as described in that same article in Harper’s Weekly. Sara retired from the school in 1940 and her adopted daughter, Anna Almasy, took over managing the school. Sara died that same year. Well over a century after it’s founding, the Little Missionary Day Nursery, still located at 93 St. Mark’s Place, continues Sara’s tradition of serving the community.

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

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

Ottendorfer Library (at left) and Stuyvesant Polyclinic Hospital (at right), date unknown. The Ottendorfer Library and Stuyvesant Polyclinic Hospital are a pair of neo-Italian Renaissance buildings constructed between 1883 and 1884. Designed by German-born architect William Schickel, the brick facades are highly ornamented in terra cotta. The structures were funded by the philanthropist Oswald Ottendorfer, publisher of Staats-Zeitung, the city's largest German-language newspaper. (Schickel also designed the newspaper's building on Park Row, now demolished.) The building at left became the Ottendorfer Library, the second branch of the New York Free Circulating Library, later to become part of the New York Public Library. Today it remains a branch of that institution, the oldest library in the city to occupy its original building. The white building at right, originally called the Ottendorfer Clinic, was the larger, more showy of the pair, with busts of both classical and modern figures related to medicine.

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

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

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

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

On December 1, 1917, the Evening Post wrote: “The tide of Jewish immigration to this country had begun in 1883, following the first of the Russian massacres, and the question was what to do with refugees who were swarming to the United States as a Promised Land. Always a seer far into the future, \[Henry Marcus] Leipziger… was asked to take charge” of the Hebrew Technical Institute, “the first manual training school of a public nature in New York.” This school, housed in a complex of buildings located around the triangular intersection of 9th and Stuyvesant Streets, was the site of life-changing education for children and adults of all religions, nationalities, and backgrounds The Hebrew Technical Institute grew rapidly to occupy three buildings on this triangular block. The oldest of these buildings is 225 East 9th Street, which was originally built in 1891 for the Baron de Hirsch Trade School, a charitable organization established in the 19th century to help poor Jews from Eastern Europe escape poverty and violence in Eastern Europe and settle in the New World. Some time between 1899 and 1901 the Hebrew Technical Institute (a separate group with a related mission) took over 225 East 9th Street and built 34 Stuyvesant Street as an addition to 225 East 9th Street, at the same time raising the older building from four to six stories, and altering its facade from the neo-Romanesque style building we see in the 1893 image to the Beaux-Arts style building we see today. No. 34 Stuyvesant Street was built in a similar Beaux-Arts style. The newest of the buildings, 28 Stuyvesant Street, dates to some time prior to 1914, and is a 6- story neo-Renaissance style building. The building sits on the asymmetrical lot, whose shape is created by Stuyvesant Street cutting through the block. The first story features tall arched windows. The windows on the second and third floors are separated by a decorative panel and the second and fifth-floor windows feature a continuous sill. The entryway is flanked by engaged columns and topped with an arched pediment. In 1914, The Real Estate Record and Builders Guide announced that the architects were drawing up plans for the site as an addition to 34 Stuyvesant Street. The Hebrew Technical Institute was founded in 1884 and operated on 9th and Stuyvesant Street until 1939. A non-sectarian school, it was one of the first technical schools in the United States. The United Hebrew Charities, the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, and the Hebrew Free School came together to found the Hebrew Technical Institute in November 1883. It officially began its life as a vocational school on January 4, 1884, and provided training in mechanical drawing, woodwork, metalwork, instrument making, electricity and auto mechanics for students between the ages of 14 and 17. After completing two years at the school, students could specialize in wood-working, pattern making, metalworking, instrument making, mechanical drawing, architectural drawing, wood carving, free-hand drawing, applied electricity, printing, textiles, automotive mechanics, aeronautics, ceramics, leatherwork, and much more. When the Institute was one year old, Dr. Edgar Starr Barney joined the staff as a teacher of engineering and math, then in 1887, he became the principal of the school, a post he held until his death in 1938 – that’s 51 years. When Barney died, “more than 20,000 volumes, including a separate collection of rare technical books…were donated by the executors of his estate, \[and] constitute the building’s library.” After 55 years of operation, the Hebrew Technical Institute closed in 1939. The building at 28 Stuyvesant was taken over by NYU and was used as a site for Industrial Arts education. NYU named the building the Barney Building, after Dr. Barney, to keep the legacy of the building’s history alive through its name. The buildings’ impressive unified architectural style and historical connection to immigration, Jewish history, and educational innovation warrants recognition and preservation. Currently lacking in landmark protections, these and many surrounding buildings could be torn down at any time.

Shops on Orchard Street, ca. 1975.

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

127 First Avenue Building Date : 1855 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Joseph Wood Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This five-story tenement building was originally erected in 1855. The present facade features bracketed cornice with paneled cornice, molded window lintels and sills with brackets. The window sills at second story have been strippe

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.

"Peter Cooper became one of New York’s prominent millionaires, yet he still saw himself as a master craftsman, 'A Mechanic of New York.' However, education was paramount on Cooper’s agenda. With the fortune Cooper had amassed from his glue business, ironworks, his patent inventions and his real estate holdings Cooper invested his money in The Cooper Union, commonly called at that time, Cooper Institute. It would be the crowning glory of his life. The cornerstone was laid in 1854.He erected an imposing six-story Italianate building between Third and Fourth Avenue at Astor Place. To support the floors and make the building fireproof the rolled structural iron beams were produced at the Cooper Hewitt & Company ironworks. These iron beams would make possible the building of future skyscrapers... Cooper Union was the first free institute to provide adult education in the fields of engineering, architecture and science for young men and women who qualified regardless of race, religion, sex or social status. It is acknowledged that although Cooper Union was Peter Cooper’s vision, it was Abram Hewitt’s brain that made it possible because he oversaw the construction of the building and served as Cooper Union’s president for over forty years." For more on Peter Cooper and Cooper Union, check out this article by Polly Guérin in Gotham: A Blog for Scholars of New York City History.

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

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

103-107 East 7th Street Building Date : 1900-01 Original Use : Religious Institution Original Owner : St. Stanislaus B. & M. Church Original Architect : Arthur Arctander Description & Building Alterations This two-story with tower, Gothic Revival-style church was built in 1900-01 for the St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Church. It was designed by the church’s architect Arthur Arctander. The Roman Catholic Church of St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr, founded in 1873, is the church of the oldest Polish Roman Catholic congregation in Manhattan. In 1999 and 2001, Polish president Lech Walesa visited this church. The brick church features a tripartite facade divided by engaged pilasters. Three pointed arced entrances are found at the first story and Gothic arched stained-glass windows are found at the second story. The squared bell tower features a thin steeple, stone finials, and pinnacles at the roof line. A cornerstone on the western corner of the church reads “A.D. 1900.”

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

131 First Avenue Building Date : mid 19th century/1939 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : unknown/Aron L. Frankel Original Architect : unknown/S. Pollack Description & Building Alterations This one-story brick commercial building was originally a five-story mid 19th century tenement (a flower and fruit stand constructed in 1901 adjoining the building on the north side). In 1939 the upper stories of the tenement were demolished leaving the cellar and first floor and the one-story store space was extended to cover the entire lot. The storefront was partially replaced in 1963 due to a fire.

96 St. Marks Place, 1980. Led Zeppelin immortalized the twin tenements at 96 and 98 St. Mark’s Place between First Avenue and Avenue A for the cover of their album Physical Graffiti. The cover featured the two buildings (with the fourth floors removed to make them fit the square shape of the album cover) with the windows cut out to reveal the letters of the album title printed on the inner sleeve, or, if the sleeve was reversed, a series of images of different characters seeming to occupy the building, including lead-singer Robert Plant in drag. The buildings earn double notoriety in rock and roll history as the place where Keith Richards meets Mick Jagger in the video for ‘Waiting on a Friend’ (the two end up meeting the rest of the band and playing in the bar just a few doors down at 132 First Avenue and St. Mark’s, now known as V Bar). 96 and 98 St. Mark’s Place’s place in popular cultural history is now noted by the presence of a used clothing store in the basement called Physical Graffiti. These old-law or ‘dumbbell’ tenements were constructed in 1890.

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

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

11 St. Mark’s Place Building Date : 1885 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : John Kreusser Original Architect : Julius Kastner Description & Building Alterations This six story old law tenement was constructed in 1885 by Julius Kastner for John Kreusser. The cornice is highly decorative and has been painted in multiple colors. The windows at the third and fifth stories feature hooded lintels while the second story features windows with splayed lintels.

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

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

Astor Library ARCHITECT: Alexander Saeltzer; Griffith Thomas DATE: 1849-69 STYLE: Northern Italian Renaissance The Library is a three-story brick and stone building with basement and attic story. This structure has special value because each of the three portions of its development has been carefully maintained and constituted a source of stylistic influence over a wide area. Modifications, for the most part, have been few. The Library is developed in a symmetrical plan in an early Renaissance manner. Most of the architectural details of the building stem from North Italian Renaissance work of the first half of the 15th century.

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

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

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

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

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

121 East 7th Street Building Date : 1843-45/1903 alt. Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Hungarian Reformed Church Original Architect : Frederick Ebeling Description & Building Alterations This three-story with basement building was constructed in 1843-45 as a row house. In 1903, it was altered into the Gothic Revival First Hungarian Reformed Church and its rectory by architect Fred Ebeling. In 1904 the front facade was extended to the street line and the bell tower was added. The building was sold to the Christian Orthodox Catholic Church of the Eastern Confession in North America in 1916, and to the Church of St. Peter & St. Paul Russian Orthodox Church in 1935. It was then purchased by St. Mary’s American Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in 1961. The three-bay wide church is clad in an artificial stone surface as the result of a 1961 alteration. The building features a short central bell tower with a Slavic cross covered by a hipped roof above a fourth story window, round arched openings at the first story, pointed arched openings at the second and third stories, and a decorative painted transom over the center entrance.

27 Third Avenue | Block : 464 | Lot #3 Building Date : Circa 1850 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Unknown Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations 25 Third Avenue was constructed in 1829 for William Butler, and 27 Third Avenue was constructed in 1831 for Piere Hall. Both were originally built as residences above ground-floor shops. By 1914, both buildings were six-stories tall and only used for commercial purposes. In 1936, the upper floors of both buildings were removed and the remaining one-story structures were joined along with 3 St. Mark’s Place.

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

128 East 10th Street; 37 Stuyvesant Street Building Date : 1861 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : James Sinclair Original Architect : James Renwick, Jr. Description & Building Alterations Situated at the prow, or point, of the triangular piece of land formed by Stuyvesant and East 10th Streets, this beautifully preserved four-and-a-half-story Anglo-Italianate townhouse was built in conjunction with the surrounding houses as part of the disposal of the Stuyvesant family estate surrounding St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery. The most prominent feature of this house is the wall that faces the prow of the block, distinctive from the rest of the houses in that it is faced in stone, rather than brick, with decorative quoinwork and a large, ornamented bay window in the center of the ground and parlor floors. Like its neighbors, the house also displays a rusticated light-colored stone ground floor with vermiculated keystones and cornerstones and corbeled entablatures over the entry doors. The parlor floor is higher than the others in the Italianate tradition of the piano nobile or “grand floor,” and the upper floors of the facade are red brick with light stone window surrounds. This is the only house of the group to have retained the original ironwork handrails and balconies. The original owner of this lot was Mathias Banta, the developer. Elizabeth Stuyvesant Fish willed that her estate, which included the land upon which this group of town houses is built, be divided equally amongst her four children, and the property was subsequently sold to Mathias Banta in 1858 for development on the condition that no “dangerous, noxious or offensive establishments whatsoever, nor any houses generally known as tenement house” be erected there. Banta subdivided the property into the present lots and listed the properties for sale in the newspapers. The lots were sold within a few months, and construction on the triangular piece of land encompassing nos. 23 through 35 Stuyvesant Street and 112 through 128 East 10th Street began in 1859. The architecture has been attributed to architect James Renwick Jr. The five-story buildings at 112-128 East 10th Street have parlor floors covered in rusticated brownstone with vermiculated panels at the bottom. The segmental-arched doorways have carved brackets and hold double doors, but the stoops are low and narrow. Each building is faced in red brick set off by Italianate-style stone window enframements from the second through fifth floors. They are part of the St. Mark’s Historic District, designated in 1969.

Columbia Hall/"Paresis Hall" (former location), 32 Cooper Square ca. 1919 James T. (Biff) Ellison (a gangster affiliated with the Five Points Gang) opened Columbia Hall, better known as Paresis Hall, in the 1890s in the building that is still standing at 32 Cooper Square. He apparently made no attempt to disguise the establishment as anything other than what it was, a 'fairy resort', where male prostitutes waited tables, performed, and offered sex to patrons. For the men who frequented Paresis Hall, it was not the degenerate resort that tourists and reformers saw. It offered them an important social center and provided a sense of community and support.

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

The East Village has long been a richly diverse immigrant neighborhood. It has also served as a hub for cultural movements: the Beats, punk rock, bohemians, Hare-Krishna…the list goes on. Take a walk through the area that was considered the center of counterculture in New York.

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

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

Veselka, ca. 1980. Established in 1954 in a small storefront—as a candy shop and newsstand— Veselka was founded by Ukrainian refugees Wlodymyr and Olha Darmochwal. The new business was named for the Ukrainian word for rainbow. In 1966 the owners took over an adjacent space on 9th Street, allowing for a full luncheonette. A family-run business, even still, Veselka has long been a curious mix of old world traditions and the modern social milieu of the East Village. They began offering 24 hour service in 1990 and expanded in size in 1996. Pierogi and borscht for everyone, whenever you want!

New York's first major library, the Astor Library, founded on Lafayette Street with money donated by financier John Jacob Astor. The Astor is one of three private libraries that merged to form the New York Public Library in 1895.

German- American Shooting Society Clubhouse, ca. 1975. Emblazoned with an eagle, crossed guns, and a symbolic target and the words Einigkeit Macht Stark (“unity is strength”), the German Renaissance Revival building recalls a time when this neighborhood was Kleindeutschland or “Little Germany.” The German-America Shooting Society was likely established in the late 1830s or 1840s, as part of German immigrant support of the German revolutions of that era and the nativist milieu present in the city at the time. The 1888 building is four-and-a-half-stories tall, with a steep mansard roof, ornate dormers, and German-inspired terra cotta decorative elements. Designed by William C. Frohne, his first major New York commission, the building was crafted with a small shooting gallery in the basement (though most of the shooting happened at a space in Queens), a saloon, lodge rooms, and a bowling alley. Despite opening in the era where German-Americans were moving away from the old neighborhood, the building still housed meetings for 24 militia groups. Later in the 20th century, it was occupied by subsequent ethnic communities that made the East Village their home, serving as a Polish community center from 1943 until 1962 and a Ukrainian Culture Center in the 1960s. Today the landmark building is a yoga studio.

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

Ottendorfer Library The library was built in 1883-4 by Oswald Ottendorfer, a wealthy German newspaper magnate, along with the adjoining Stuyvesant Polyclinic Hospital. These buildings are both representative of Kleindeutschland, or “Little Germany,” a German immigrant community that existed in what is now the East Village and Lower East Side back in the late 19th/ early 20th century. In the 1977 designation report, the Ottendorfer Library is described as follows: The Ottendorfer Library is the oldest branch library in Manhattan and one of the earliest buildings in the city constructed specifically as a public library. Designed in 1883-1884 by the German-born architect William Schickel, it is a particularly interesting example of late Victorian architecture exhibiting elements of both the neo-Italian Renaissance and the Queen Anne styles. Built in conjunction with the German Dispensary, now the Stuyvesant Poly-clinic, next door, the library was the gift of Anna and Oswald Ottendorfer, German-American philanthropists who concerned themselves with the welfare of the German population centered on the Lower East Side in the mid to late 19th century. The juxtaposition of the library and the clinic building is by no means coincidental. Rather it reflects the 19th-century philosophy, particularly influential in Germany, of developing the individual both physically and mentally. Ottendorfer’s desire was to help to uplift both the body and the mind of his fellow Germans in the United States (“dem Korpen und dem Geisten zu helfen”). Today the library still functions as one of the oldest branches of the New York Public Library and serves as a reminder of the enduring architectural legacy of Kleindeutschland, which is still visible around the East Village.

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

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

Colonnade Row ca. 1929 Presenting a uniform facade to the street, this building might be best described as a "house of mansions," in that it consisted of a row of individual, privately owned town houses unified behind its superb colonnade. Unfortunately, half of these have been torn down to make way of a warehouse. We can see that New York, with such superb planning as this, once had ideals that might have rendered entire city blocks as handsome as those of Paris.

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

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

25 St. Mark’s Place Building Date : 1832 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Thomas E. Davis Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations According to tax assessment records, this building was constructed in 1832-33 by Thomas E. Davis as a Federal style rowhouse. Davis was a prolific real estate developer and purchased property on the south and north sides of Eighth Street in 1831. The property was originally part of Peter Stuyvesant’s Bouwerie. Davis named the block after nearby St. Mark’s church and developed homes on large lots to attract New Yorkers of wealth. The house features a plain facade and an arched Gibbs doorway surround with squarish blocks that interrupt the surrounding bands. Doorway surround, window lintels and sills are now painted black. In 1882 and again in 1888, the building, now owned by Nicholas Schultz, was expanded and used as multiple family dwelling.

My Archive Spring 2019

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

McSorley’s Old Ale House is the oldest “Irish tavern” in New York City, though its claim to have been established in 1854 is questionable. Immigration records show that founding proprietor John McSorley arrived in New York in 1851, but city records indicate that the site on East Seventh Street was vacant through 1858, with a two-story building recorded in 1861 and the present five-story structure in 1865. It is, however, possible that the purported 1854 tavern was an unrecorded building (ad hoc frame house “shanties” were not uncommon at the time).

56-58 Bleecker Street; ca. 1975.

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

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

307 East 9th Street, ca. 1970s.

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

29 St. Mark’s Place Building Date : 1833 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Thomas E. Davis Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This property was once part of Peter Stuyvesant’s Bouwerie and purchased by real estate developer Thomas E. Davis, who developed Eighth Street into St. Mark’s Place. It was built as a single-family home of three stories in 1833 and tenementized in the 1870s. From 1856 through 1859, this building hosted the Harmonie Club, a German-Jewish singing club. By the late 19th century, the building was most likely being used as a boarding or lodging house, as many colorful incidents of various residents’ were reported during the time. In the 1930s, the building housed offices for Polish organizations and businesses. Artist-poet George Schneeman lived with his wife Katie and their family in this building from the late 1960s to the early 1970s. Schneedman was the unofficial artist-in-residence of the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church, who worked often with poet-collaborators Bill Berkson and Ron Padget

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).

5 St. Mark’s Place Building Date : 1890 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Joseph Fox Original Architect : Kurtzer & Rohl Description & Building Alterations Originally meant to be a four-family dwelling and storefront, this five-story high building was constructed by Kurtzer & Rohl for Joseph Fox in 1890. The building is four bays wide and features a variety of highly decorative window surrounds made of stone and carved brick. The bracketed cornice has been painted with multiple colors to highlight its details.

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

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

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

57 St. Mark’s Place | Block : 450 | Lot #46 Building Date : 1849-50 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : William Smith Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This four-story with basement building was originally erected in 1849-50 as a private dwelling for one family. It was used as a club house in the early 20th century, and then was turned into a church space occupied by the Holy Cross Polish National Catholic Church in the mid-20th century. Most elements of the present facade probably date from the mid-20th century or later. Features include the triangular pediment at the center roofline, and point-arched openings at first and second stories. The building also housed Club 57, a famous contemporary art venue, in the 1980s. Performers Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, Jean-Michel Basquiat, RuPaul and Ann Magnuson all emerged from this club and from the Pyramid Club at 101 Avenue A.

130 Second Avenue | Block : 449 | Lot #7 Building Date : 1952 Original Use : Commercial Original Owner : Bankers Federal Savings & Loan Association Original Architect : Lester S. LaPierre Description & Building Alterations This two-story bank building was erected in 1952. There used to be a brick tenement on site, demolished in 1947.

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

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

The Asian-American and Pacific Islander community has a more than 150-year-long history in the United States, dating back to the first wave of Chinese and Japanese immigrants settling on the West Coast. And while nearby neighborhoods like Chinatown or the Lower East Side may have been much more prominent hubs for Asian-Americans, Greenwich Village and the East Village nevertheless can boast a long and impressive roster of individuals, organizations, institutions, and events located here that played an important role in the story of Asian-Americans in our city and country — especially (and unsurprisingly) in relation to civil rights and the arts. It is here that rights were won; discrimination was given a human face; innovations in painting, writing, and sculpture took place; and people gathered to confront the challenges and opportunities presented by the world around them. Here are just a few of those inspiring individuals, places, and associations:

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

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

131 Second Avenue, ca. 1980. Ruby Silverstein and Harold Shepard founded Gem Spa, originally called “Gems Spa,” at 131 Second Avenue in 1957. The name “Gems” comes from a combination of the initial letters of Gladys, Etta, Miriam, and Silverstein-Shepard. In an interview in 1969 with New York Magazine, Ruby explained that the three ladies used in deriving the name were his wife, his partner’s ex-wife, and his partner’s current wife. “Spa” was a word that he said he picked up when he was overseas in the service. Open 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week, Gem Spa has long been a cultural destination in the East Village. It is said to have invented the quintessential New York drink–– egg cream! Many famous beat poets like Jack Kerouac, among others, got their egg cream-fill here in the 1950s. By the 1960s and 1970s, Gem Spa became a hippie hangout and well-known for its wide selection of underground newspapers. Long-time customer Patti Smith and the New York Dolls shot their debut album cover in front of the shop in 1973. Jean-Michel Basquiat also named one of his major works after Gems Spa in 1982. The shop is currently run by Ray Patel, an immigrant from Gujarat state in India, who bought the business in 1986. Despite change in ownership, Gem Spa continues to make the original egg cream recipe. According the New York Times, Patel learned the recipe, "including the secret stirring motions that create a frothy head resembling beaten egg whites, from the previous owner (Italian), who learned it from the first owner (Jewish)."

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

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

72 St. Marks Place Building Date : 1845, 1932 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : William H. Webb(1845), Stuyvesant Neighborhood House(1932) Original Architect : Unknown(1845), Edward I. Shire & Brian Baylinson(1932) Description & Building Alterations Originally portions of lot 5 and lot 6, the current building was constructed in 1932 combining two four-story houses constructed in 1845. In 1932 the Stuyvesant Neighborhood House converted the two houses into one, based on the settlement house already located on the then Lot 6. The basement and first floor were used as janitors’ quarters and social hall, the upper floors as club rooms and the top floor as leaders’ living room. All historic features have been stripped as the facade has been heavily altered since 1932.

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

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

De Vinne Press Building, ca, 1975. In 1884, owing to the success and growth of the De Vinne Press company, owner and printer Theodore Low De Vinne purchased a large plot of the corner of Lafayette (then) Place and 4th Street. De Vinne commissioned the firm of Babb, Cook, and Willard to design a functional space that would also be impressive from the outside. The resulting eight-story, red brick, Romanesque Revival building, completed in 1886) met all of the press company's wishes. Though obviously a solid industrial building, the massing was lightened by multi-story arched windows and thin brick quoins at the softly curved corner. The interior had little ornamentation and was laid out for efficient productivity. It was here that the press produced the 24-part, six-volume “Century Dictionary,” considered to be De Vinne's greatest accomplishment as a printer. De Vinne Press ceased operations in 1922 and today the red brick building is the Astor Center, an event space and wine shop.

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

156 Second Avenue, June 25, 1934. Second Avenue showing the old five-story Stuyvesant and the new buildings occupying the site of the Baptist Mission Society, the Second Avenue Baptist Church, and the New York Historical Society. Cemented into the pavement at No. 156 Second Avenue is a Hollywood Walk of Fame–style memorial. The memorial is a tribute to Yiddish theater stars of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was put here in 1984 by the Second Avenue Deli to commemorate the Lower East Side's glorious past as the "Jewish Rialto." In the early decades of the 20th century, a vibrant Yiddish theatre scene blossomed on the Lower East Side. Centered at Second Avenue and the Bowery, New York’s “Yiddish Broadway” offered dramas, comedies, and musicals that entertained and inspired thousands. In 1984, Second Avenue Deli owner Abe Lebewohl installed, in the sidewalk outside his beloved restaurant, a memorial to honor the stars of this once-thriving Jewish theater scene. In the style of Hollywood Boulevard, Lebewohl embedded two rows of granite stars bearing the names of the best and brightest Jewish performers. Over 30 Jewish artists were memorialized in this way. There is one plaque of Abraham Goldfaden. According to his 1908 obituary in the New York Times, Goldfaden was the founder of Yiddish theater. Luckily, the Walk of Fame remained despite the Deli's closure in 2006. But now this civic tribute is deteriorating. Friends of the Abe Lebewohl Yiddish Walk of Fame is working to promote the history and culture of Yiddish Theatre and the neighborhood inspired by the granite stars first embedded in the sidewalk of Second Avenue by restauranteur Abe Lebewohl.

8th Street, at the intersection of Fourth Avenue, Astor Place, and the northern end of Lafayette Street, 1931. The building at right is the Bible House of the American Bible Society. Constructed in 1853 the six-story building occupied a full city block and included a salesroom, a modern printing facility, and a technologically advanced department for book binding. The first cast iron framed building in the city, the facility produced tens of millions of bibles in various languages. This headquarters along with the move of the New York Mercantile Library to a nearby building, attracted other publishing firms, libraries, and bookstores to the area, which became a sort of 'Book Row.' The Bible House was demolished in 1956, and signaled the beginning of the end for the literary and publishing firms in the neighborhood. It was replaced by the Cooper Union Engineering Building, which itself was replace by a 13-story new glass facade building in 2013.

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.

Entrance to the Stuyvesant Polyclinic, ca. 1975. Designed in the neo-Italian Renaissance style by William Schickel and constructed between 1883 and 1884, the German Dispensary served the medical needs of the neighborhood's poorest citizens first as the Ottendorfer Clinic and then Deutsche Poliklinik. Temporarily renamed the Stuyvesant Polyclinic during the anti-German sentiment of the First World War, the named was permanently changed during the Second World War. A clinic remained in the building until 2006. Purchased for $13 million, it underwent a massive interior and exterior renovation, uncovering and restoring original stained glass long cemented over. Today the building is the home of the Gehl Institute, a global urban design and policy organization.

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.

Peter Cooper monument, Cooper Square, ca. 1975. This bronze statue, enthroned under a marble and granite pedestal and canopy, was designed by Augustus Saint-Gardens in collaboration with Stanford White. Completed in 1894 and unveiled in 1897, this collaborative design reflects an inspired synthesis of the two artistic disciplines characterizing the Beaux-Arts tradition. Saint-Gardens, a student at this institution offering free instruction in the sciences and art, admired its heroic founder and chose to memorialize his legacy as an American industrialist, inventor, and philanthropist. After years of wear to the bronze patina and marble from corrosion, oxidation, cracks, pigeon droppings, and vandalism, MAS led the original restoration in 1987 with a grant from Cooper Union, 20th Century Fox Foundation, and Con Edison.

McSorley's Old Ale House Shortly before the Civil War, John McSorley, an Irish Quaker from Omagh, County Tyrone, founded "McSorely's Old House at Home" at 15 East Seventh Street near Cooper Union. About 1908, McSorley changed the name to "McSorley's Old Ale House, " which was consistent with McSorley's prohibition on the sale of hard liquor. The rich, golden-brown ale sold in McSorley's came from the Fidelio Brewery on First Avenue. During the late nineteenth century, its diverse clientele included Irish and German immigrants as well as local politicians and Wall Street financiers. The back room, warmed by a fireplace and ornamented with assorted odd clocks and artifacts, was used by McSorley for philosophizing sessions with patrons as well as for on-the-house beefsteak parties during the winter months. The saloon modified its long-standing otto "Good ale, raw onions, and no ladies" in 1970 , when the New York State Supreme Court ordered its ban on women to be lifted. McSorley's remains in business today.

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

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

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

Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Arts was founded in 1859. The institution began as a night school hosting courses in architectural drafting and the applied sciences, also hosting day-time classes in the Female School of Design instructing women in then-new technologies such as photography, telegraph, and typewriting. Peter Cooper's humble beginnings inspired a pedagogical model that offered working-class men and women upward mobility, at the same time instilling a sense of social responsibility that would create highly active citizens.

59 Copper Square, ca. 1975 Completed in 1867 by the architect Carl Pfeiffer, the French Second Empire building was constructed for the Metropolitan Savings Bank. The corner plot has two impressive facades, which, given the width of Cooper Square and the open plaza across the intersection, can "be advantageously viewed at the same time," (according to the 1969 LPC designation report). In 1937 the building was sold to the First Ukrainian Evangelical Pentecostal Church, a Ukrainian-language parish. In 1960, though a merger, the church became the First Ukrainian Assembly of God, which it remains today.

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

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

When McSorley’s Old Ale House opened its doors for business in 1854, Franklin Pierce was president, the Civil War was still a decade away, and lunch was free to patrons.

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

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

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.

McSorley's Old Ale House ca. 1978 When McSorley’s Old Ale House supposedly opened its doors for business in 1854, Franklin Pierce was president, the Civil War was still a decade away, and lunch was free to patrons. The only significant change to the motley customers happened in 1970 when McSorley’s was forced by the courts to admit women. After that, the motto was amended from “Good Ale, Raw Onions, and No Ladies” to “good Ale and Raw Onions.” McSorley’s, in every other way, has not changed. When pictures were put on the wall sin the 1800s, they stayed there, even as other items were added in the intervening years. The souvenirs helped draw tourists and visitors to McSorley’s even more than the ale and onions with saltine crackers. On permanent display, today you can find everything from theater and sports memorabilia to the chair of Peter Cooper, the founder of Cooper Union, a mug that Cooper engraved with an ice pick, and flags, cartoons, clipping, and photographs. McSorley’s has had a very diverse crowd, and it has attracted numerous celebrities, artists, political figures, and more. Four presidents, including Lincoln and Clinton, have stopped in for a drink at the bar; Brendan Behan had a favorite seat by the fire; John Sloan painted pictures of the bar at least four times (one of which is in the Whitney Museum’s permanent collection); e.e. cummings has a poem about McSorley’s; and New Yorker columnist Joseph Mitchell wrote a famous article about the ale house in 1940 called “The Old House at Home.” Countless other notables have stopped in over the years, and some continue to do so today.

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

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

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

33-37 Bleecker Street, ca. 1980.

31 St. Mark’s Place Building Date : 1833/1874 alt. Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Thomas E. Davis Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations Prolific real estate developer of St. Mark’s Place, Thomas E. Davis built this three-story row house in 1833. This stretch of Eighth Street property was purchased from Peter Stuyvesant and had recently been part of his Bouwerie before being converted into spacious homes on large lots. The brick building was tenementized in 1874 when it was enlarged to its current size. The building then housed two families per floor and was owned by J. Metcalfe. On a hot night in June 1897, a large fire broke out in this building and 18 families barely escaped with their lives. The fire started on the first floor and spread quickly via the hallway stair. Hook & Ladder No. 3 rescued many of the residents. The Old Law tenement building features a historic cornice and pedimented lintels above the second-floor windows.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Schermerhorn Building ARCHITECT: Henry J. Hardenbergh DATE: 1888-89 The 376-380 Lafayette Street Building is one of the truly outstanding manufacturing buildings of the late 19th century in the City. Particular artistry is evident in its careful massing and in the color of its ornamental brick and sandstone detail. These qualities of design were unusual for a building of this type at this time. It has a distinctive arrangement of windows and it is one of the outstanding loft buildings in the City.

Cooper Union This building was specially designed to house Peter Cooper's great philanthropy- a trade school for boys in New York who could not otherwise afford such specialized training. It is notable for the early use of rolled-iron sections produced by Cooper, Hewitt & Co. at Trenton Jersey- Cooper's own rolling mills. Cooper put off the completion of the school to roll beams for Astor's new library on Lafayette Street and for Harper & Brothers' publishing house on Franklin Square.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

19 St. Marks Avenue ca. 1942 One of the many wonderful things about the East Village is the fascinating layers of history that convey the evolution of the neighborhood. The buildings at 19-23 St. Mark’s Place are an excellent example of how the East Village has changed over time from a wealthy merchants neighborhood to a landing spot for immigrants, to the launch pad for numerous counterculture and artistic movements. Where else would one find a building which had been townhouses for wealthy families, a ballroom, a gangster hangout, a Polish wedding chapel, and a performance venue with the Velvet Underground as the house band? The buildings at 19-23 St. Marks Place have been altered over the years diluting the handsome architecture of the original designs. They were built as three separate rowhouses in the early 1830s by real estate developer Thomas E. Davis who constructed many of the homes on this block of St. Marks Place. This undated photo at left gives a sense of how impressive the buildings were. We can also see the buildings’ resemblance to two New York City Landmarks in the same block, the Hamilton-Holly House at 4 St. Marks Place (a Federal house which GVSHP helped get landmarked in 2003) and the Daniel Le Roy House at 20 St. Marks Place. These early buildings are truly a rarity and unfortunately many are often targets for development. Reflecting the changing demographics of the neighborhood in 1870, the buildings at 19 and 21 St. Marks Place were acquired by the Arion Society, a German music club, one of many that emerged in the East Village as it developed into Kleindeustchland, or Little Germany. When the Arion Society moved uptown in 1887 all three buildings were purchased by George Erhet and combined into community halls and ballrooms as Arlington Hall. Arlington Hall hosted everyone from Theodore Roosevelt, when he was a NYC Police Commissioner, to William Randolph Hearst. One of its most infamous incidents occurred on January 6, 1914 when there was a mob shootout between Jewish mobsters led by Benjamin “Dope Benny” Fein and Italian gangster Jack Sirocco’s crew. In 1920 the buildings were acquired by the Polish National Home or Polski Dom Narodowy, a community meeting hall and restaurant. The building began to transform again as the Beat Generation took root in the Village in the 1950s and 1960s. A performance space was opened in part of the basement that became a dance venue known as The Dom that attracted mostly black patrons. In an odd twist of “upstairs/downstairs” a short time later in 1966 Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey rented the upstairs space to open a psychedelic performance venue known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable with The Velvet Underground as the house band. Under new management, it reopened as the Electric Circus, a chic bohemian nightclub that drew more than 3,000 people to its opening night, according to contemporary coverage in The Village Voice. As evidence of its “boho chicness,” the interior pictured below, was designed to resemble a 1960s version of a Bedouin tent. So what happened to the Electric Circus? One could say it fell victim to the increasingly radicalized activity centered in the East Village in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In March 1970 a bomb was set off in the middle of the dance floor, injuring dozens. Though unconfirmed the bombing was attributed to the Black Panther Party. The club never regained its chic reputation and closed in 1971. In the 1980s and 1990s, the building was the All Craft Center, an addiction treatment and housing facility run by local interfaith minister Joyce Hartwell. A 1998 article from the New York Times recounted Hartwell’s unrealized plans to add a large tower to the facility in the adjoining rear lot. Not only were Hartwell’s plans unrealized, due to the group’s financial difficulties in 2000 the building was sold to a developer.

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.

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

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

Alamo Sculpture, ca. 1980. The Alamo, also called the Astor Place Cube or just The Cube is an eight-foot-square cube mounted on one corner that sits in Astor Place and has become an icon of the neighborhood. Created by artist Bernard (Tony) Rosenthal and installed in 1967, the work was originally a temporary piece in the outdoor art show called "Sculpture and the Environment" organized by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. It was so popular that citizens petitioned the city to allow it to remain. Spinning the Cube (which takes more than one person) has become a sort of token New York City experience. The Cube was placed in storage between 2015 and 2016 during the reconstruction of Astor Place. It made a triumphant return in November of 2016 as the centerpiece of a new, permanent, pedestrian plaza.

The painter and writer Jack Dowling, at the Ninth Avenue station of the Third Avenue El, near Cooper Union; 1953. Dowling graduated from Cooper Union in 1957 before going abroad to teach and paint in Italy. In the mid-1960s, Dowling began to gain recognition in New York's art scene. In 1971, after losing the lease to the East Village loft where he lived and worked, Dowling moved into the Westbeth Artists Housing complex, where he later directed the in-house gallery.

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

Hebrew Actors' Union Building ca. 1978 With its stark Neo-Classical facade, the small but mighty building Hebrew Actors' Union building stands out on a block full of brick. From 1923 to 2002, the building housed the Hebrew Actors’ Union (HAU). Although they officially disbanded years ago, the HAU still owns the building. While primarily consisting of members from New York City, and more specifically from the nearby Jewish theater district on Second Avenue, the union also served Jewish actors across the country. As the union’s home for nearly 80 years, the HAU is an integral part of East Village history. Let’s take a closer look at this cultural gem. Although we’re looking at a 1978 facade, some of the bones of this building are even older. As tax records we have on file indicate, the original rowhouse that stood here likely dated to about 1848. It almost certainly had a stoop, too. Converting from single- to multi-family later in the decade (we’re guessing it became a tenementized rowhouse as the area’s immigrant population grew and grew), the building received its makeover just as the Hebrew Actors’ Union took over. Architect Victor Mayper was commissioned to give the building a 20th century update. His Neo-Classical design put a fresh face on a brick-heavy neighborhood and was likely a bright spot for many actors who passed through its doors. Overall, the building has held up well over the years, don’t you think? The LPC had actually proposed it for individual landmark designation and held a hearing in 2009 at which GVSHP testified in support. However, it ultimately became part of the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District almost a year ago now. Here’s what the designation report has to say about the building’s notable history: The Hebrew Actors’ Union (HAU) was founded in 1888, making it the first theatrical union founded in the United States. With a peak membership of 400 members, the HAU was the organizing force behind some dozen Yiddish theaters in New York and in other major American cities. In this way, the building at 31 East 7th Street, home to the HAU for nearly eight decades, is an enduring reminder of the Yiddish theater, one of the most important cultural institutions of New York City’s Jewish community in the early 20th century.

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

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

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

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.

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

The Astor Library opened to the public in 1854, and in 1895 consolidated with the Lenox Library and the Tilden Foundation to become the New York Public Library (NYPL). During this time, its building was expanded twice, in 1859 and 1881. In 1898, the Astor Library became part of the new public library at 42nd Street. Subsequently, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society purchased the building to use it as a "receiving station, aid center, dormitory, and synagogue for thousands of newly arrived immigrants." (Christopher Gray in the New York Times) In this iteration, the stacks were removed and the interior was largely reworked by architect Benjamin Levitam. The building was sold once more, in 1965, and just as the developer who bought the structure planned for demolition, it was saved by the newly established Landmarks Preservation Commission. The Commission arranged for the producer of the New York Shakespeare Festival, Joseph Papp, to step in to purchase the building. And thus, the present-day program for the building was born. Aside from major interior reimaginations, the building's front stoop, as the 1875 photo above shows, was restored (though with considerable stylistic difference), to re-establish the connection between Lafayette Street and the building entrance.

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

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

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

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

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

First Avenue Retail Market, 1938. A decisive action in Mayor Fiorello La Guardia's war on pushcarts, the opening of indoor retail markets citywide in the late 1930s and early 1940s moved the Mayor closer to his goal of riding the street of the vendors he claimed were unsanitary and causing traffic congestion. The First Avenue Market, opened in December of 1938, was the second in a series of nine public markets. Designed by architects Albert W. Lewis and John D. Churchill and using federal WPA funds, the new markets were mandated to have running water, rail facilities, and loading platforms. The generally L-shaped space occupied addresses both of First Avenue (the front entrance) and East 10th Street. The vendors within (many of whom who had previous owned pushcarts) sold cheese, vegetables, and a dizzying variety of other products. The markets were successful, often crowded, and survived through the 1960s. Pushcarts, the thorn in La Guardia's side, were never truly were eliminated, despite the new markets. After 1965 the building was used in part by the Department of Sanitation. In the mid 1980s the building was purchased by the avant-garde theatre company, Theater for the New City. The theatre has occupied the space with auditoriums, rehearsal rooms, and offices since 1986. In 2001 the city (who retained the air rights on the building) allowed the construction of a set-back, 16-story, residential tower above the original 1938 market building (which, thankfully retains its 1930s carved signage).

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

14 St. Mark’s Place Building Date : 1874 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Henry Weiler Original Architect : Julius Boekell Description & Building Alterations Constructed in 1874 by Julius Boekell this five-story tenement was owned by Henry Weiler. It features simple lintels and bracketed sills on the windows, quoins, and a bracketed cornice. In the 1920s, a one story addition was constructed at the front of the building to accommodate a storefront.

LaGrange Terrace (Colonnade Row), ca. 1890. LaGrange Terrace, a set of nine colonnade-fronted Greek revival townhouses, was built in the early 1830s on land owned by John Jacob Astor. At the time, Lafayette Place was a short, cobblestoned street between Great Jones and Art (later Astor Place) Streets, adjacent to the Vauxhall Gardens pleasure garden and theatre. Astor’s residences attracted member’s of New York’s upper crust: members of the Vanderbilt and Delano families owned homes, as did Washington Irving and Astor, himself. LaGrange Terrace remained a fashionable address through the 1870s, by which time the wealthiest New Yorkers had begun to decamp for parts uptown. Five of the townhouses were later demolished. While the 20th century has seen Astor’s development continue to deteriorate, the surviving houses were designated New York City Landmark in 1965.

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."

Stuyvesant Polyclinic Hospital ARCHITECT: William Schickel DATE: 1883-84 STYLE: Neo-Italian Renaissance This building is an exceptionally handsome building designed in a modified version of the neo-Italian Renaissance style. The extensive and imaginative use of molded terra cotta on the facade was innovative when the building was constructed. The ornament is especially Interesting for its series of portrait busts depicting famous physicians and scientists.

Julian Baczynsky opened his meat market on Second Avenue in 1970 at a time when this section of the East Village was an Eastern European enclave. Selling house-made smoked meats from Polish and Ukrainian recipes, he was popular among locals. While the demographics of the neighborhood have changed drastically in the ensuing decades, the Meat Market, with its original signage, remains. With steady business year round, the weeks before Easter are particularly busy. People travel from all over the city, waiting in lines to procure kielbasa for their traditional Eastern European Easter celebrations.

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.

The Hamilton Fish House, 21 Stuyvesant Street, ca. 1971. The Hamilton Fish House (a.k.a. Nicholas and Elizabeth Stuyvesant Fish House, Stuyvesant Fish House), was built in 1803-04 by Peter Stuyvesant, the great-grandson of the last Dutch Director-General of New Amsterdam. The three-story Federal style townhouse sits on a parcel granted to the first Peter Stuyvesant in 1651, by the Dutch West India Company . The house was a wedding gift to Stuyvesant's daughter Elizabeth and her husband, the Revolutionary War officer Nicholas Fish, a veteran of Valley Forge. Fish served throughout the Revolutionary War and at the age of 18, was commissioned as the youngest Major in the history of the United States army. His son, Hamilton Fish, who later served as Governor of New York and as Secretary of State, was born at this address in 1808.