503 East 13th Street | Block : 407 | Lot #7502 Building Date : 1999 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Housing Preservation and Development Original Architect : Leslie Feder Description & Building Alterations The new condo building that stands here is contextual in its design, using bricks, stone-like details and a cornice in a manner similar to its neighbors. It houses some commercial space on the ground floor of the Avenue A side. A Certificate of Occupancy indicates that in 1962 the site was used as a parking lot. Before then, there was likely a 1904 tenement building designed by George Frederick Pelham.

Public School 64, 1920. Constructed between 1904 and 1906 to the designs of BOE architect C.B.J. Snyder, the French Renaissance Revival style building adheres to Snyder's usual H shaped design. When opened the school could hold 2,500 students and later had an annex constructed to accommodate a larger student body. As the populations of the East Village and Lower East Side declined in the 1970s and in the midst of the city's financial crisis, the school was closed in 1977. Soon after closing the building became the home of a number of non-profits, including Adopt-A-Building (which trained and empowered residents of blighted neighborhoods to improve their own buildings) and CHARAS (a neighborhood center that fostered community-based urban ecology, arts and culture). After two decades of successful reactivation of the school space, the building was sold by the Giuliani administration to a developer in 1998. The groups were evicted in 2001. For the last 15 years, the building has continued to deteriorate. The school was landmarked in 2006 and various plans have been suggested for its redevelopment, including as dormitories, which most of the local community vehemently opposes. In the fall of 2017 current mayor De Blasio stated that the city wished to buy back the property, but the future of the building is unknown.

East Side Hebrew Institute (left) and Church of St. Brigid (right), ca. 1975. Founded in 1910, the Institute was a Talmud Torah school (providing after-school and weekend classes) until mid-century when it added a day school. However, the blight and crime of the 1970s made the school’s Tompkins Square location untenable; the school moved to Irving Place in 1975, leaving the building abandoned.

313 East 10th Street Building Date : 1845-48; 1892 (alteration) Original Use : Residential Original Owner : William H. Delavan Original Architect : James C. Whitlock; Frank Baylies (1892) Description & Building Alterations The row house at No. 313 East 10th Street served as the headquarters for the St. Brigid’s Parish and Academy from the institution’s founding in 1856 to its closing in 1920. The five-story building was constructed in 1845-48 by architect/builder James C. Whitlock for owner William H. Delavan. It was built as one of a pair of row houses at Nos. 313 to 315 East 10th Street. The Gothic Revival facade was designed by Frank Baylies in 1892 and features hooded galvanized-iron window lintels and projecting sills and a bracketed cornice with a parapet decorated with quatrefoils. In 1936, the stoop and entrance enframement were removed from the left bay and the primary entrance was moved to the basement.

545 East 11th Street ca. 1930 One of the East Village’s few individually designated New York City landmarks is a distinctive Gothic Revival church at 545 East 11th Street. The building, today known as Father’s Heart Church, has been a distinctive presence in the East Village for more than 140 years. Its name and the nature of its congregants have changed over time, but its mission of spirituality and service has been consistent through the years. The Father’s Heart Church was constructed between 1867 and 1868 as the Methodist Episcopal Chapel by the New York City Sunday School and Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, an organization that provided religious services as well as housing, food and clothing. Its construction was funded by the sale of the Dry Dock Mission at East 9th Street & Avenue B, with donations and pledges totaling $25,000. The Methodist Episcopal Chapel was an early project of the architectural firm of William Field and Son who would go on to design a number of notable buildings including the Hastings Building (1870) at 134-40 Grand Street in the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District Expansion and worker housing financed by housing reformer and philanthropist Alfred Treadway White. The Home (1876) and Tower (1888) Buildings and the Workingmen’s Cottages (1879) in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn had indoor toilets and running water in the apartments, open stairways for better ventilation and playgrounds as well as libraries – all marked improvements from the living conditions in tenement buildings. Throughout its history the church has served the spiritual and social needs of its congregants and the community. In 1868, the Chapel established the Cornell Reading Room (Sound familiar? No, not that Cornell but close…) which offered “intellectual instruction and amusement for persons of both sexes, above fourteen years of age, who live in that overcrowded and poverty-stricken locality. Supplied with books, magazines, newspapers, stereoscopes, soetropes, and other parlor amusements,” according to the New York Times, March 27, 1869. The Reading Room was funded by William Wiggins Cornell, President of the City Sunday School and Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church of New York. Cornell, with his brother John Black Cornell, operated one of the largest cast iron construction firms in the city, J. B. & W. W. Cornell & Co. You’ve probably walked by one of their many foundry marks on buildings they worked on throughout the city. Cornell is also the namesake of the Cornell College (1855) in Mount Vernon, Iowa, not Cornell University (1865), in Ithaca, New York which was founded by his distant cousin Ezra Cornell, of Western Union. In addition to the Reading Room the Church sent local children to the country and had a medical dispensary. Dispensaries were the 19th century equivalent of today’s health clinic that offers free and low cost medical care. The Stuyvesant Polyclinic at 137 Second Avenue was another medical dispensary in the area. As it expanded its services, the Church grew and evolved. In 1874 a small rear addition was added to house a school. Twenty five years later the Church bought the neighboring tenement building at 543 East 11th Street and renovated both buildings. The architectural firm of Louis E. Jallade & Joel D. Barber completed the work which included converting the tenement for classroom use and changing the façade of the church by remodeling the door in the Colonial Revival style, adding brick quoins and a stone lintel as well as moving the door from the center to the western bay where it remains today. Following the completion of the renovations, in 1901 the church was renamed the People’s Home Church and Settlement. In addition to a sanctuary, the buildings housed a kindergarten, nursery, gymnasium, public baths and classrooms. The Church primarily served a German population but also had a large Italian Mission and services were offered in both languages. The Methodist Episcopal Church closed the church in 1930 and it became a Russian church in 1931. In 1941 the Church and the tenement were sold to the Russian Ukrainian & Polish Pentecostal Church, the first Slavic Pentecostal Church in the United States. The Russian Ukrainian & Polish Pentecostal Church was established in 1919 by Ivan Efimovicha Voronaeff a Russian-born minster who converted from the Baptist faith to Pentecostalism. Before acquiring the buildings at 543-545 East 11th Street, the Church used the facilities of the Emmanuel Presbyterian Church at 737 6th Street, between Avenues C & D. The Emmanuel Presbyterian Church remains at the same location, but its stunning High Victorian Gothic building (1874) was demolished and replaced by a Brutalist style building in 1970. By 1983, the Ukrainian and Polish speaking congregants had formed separate churches and the building was renamed the Evangelical Christian Church. In 1998, the Evangelical Church merged with The Father’s ...

St. Brigid's Roman Catholic Church, viewed from Tompkins Square Park, ca. 1977. During the 1840s, a significant population of Irish immigrants settled in the Dry Dock District, in the present-day Alphabet City section of Manhattan's East Village. St. Brigid's was founded to serve this heavily Catholic community, with the cornerstone of the Patrick Keely-designed church laid in 1848. During the late 1980s, St. Brigid's became aligned with protestors and the neighborhood's homeless and disadvantaged residents, especially during the Tompkins Square park riots and relate police actions. By this time, the church's structure — built on piles in infilled marshland — had been deteriorating for some time (the church's twin steeples were dismantled in 1962, due to safety concerns). In 2001, longstanding structural concerns came to a head when the archdiocese ordered the church closed after engineers found it to be in imminent danger of collapse. In 2004, the parish was officially disbanded. In July 2006, demolition began abruptly, after unsuccessful efforts buy the Committee to Save St. Brigid's to forestall the wrecking ball. After immediate public outcry, the Manhattan Supreme Court temporarily stayed demolition, before permanently halting proceedings in August. Two years later, an anonymous gift of $20 million changed parish fortunes, funding a five year restoration project. Today, the renovated church is home to combined parishes of St. Brigid's and St. Emeric.

156 First Avenue Building Date : 1898 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Tobias Krakouer Original Architect : George Frederick Pelham Description & Building Alterations Originally built in 1898, this six-story brick dumbbell tenement building on 156 First Avenue was built in the same project as 158 and 160 First Avenue. It served and continues to serve as space for a store and apartments. The three buildings share identical facade. No. 156 features bracketed cornice with decorative frieze, round-arched window openings with brick lintels and key stones at third and sixth stories, slightly projecting brick piers through fifth and sixth stories, ornamented panels, elaborate bracketed window lintels with molding or triangular pediments at second and fourth stories, beltcourses. There is a molded cornice above the storefront, and metal pilasters with attached columns flanking the main entry.

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.

Whereas once when a person died, the family prepared the body at home, mourners visited at home, and one's community provided the labor for burial, new technology developed during and as a result of the Civil War—embalming— allowed funeral business to thrive. In the decades after the Civil War in New York City, carpenters became coffin makers and then undertakers, religious societies took on funerary responsibilities and liverymen who once only moved the deceased to outer borough rural cemeteries took on more mortuary duties. By the early 20th century, storefront undertakers served neighborhoods all over the city, catering to different ethnic enclaves and social-economic groups. They provided all-encompassing services: acting as notaries, securing wake, funeral and burial venues, and furnishing transportation. In 1917 commercial photographer William Hassler was hired by Sunnyside Magazine, a long-running undertaker trade journal to document some of New York's grimmest businesses. (It should be noted that The Sunnyside was not the only such publication, though it was the most pleasantly named; others included The Casket and The Weekly Shroud.) The resulting illustrated article was entitled "Grewsome Undertaker Establishments."

331 East 10th Street Building Date : 1904 Original Use : Institutional Original Owner : New York Public Library Original Architect : McKim, Mead & White Description & Building Alterations The Tompkins Square Branch of the New York Public Library is one of the earliest branches commissioned by Andrew Carnegie. It was designed by the nationally known firm, McKim, Mead & White, who was responsible for many classically influenced buildings in New York City and twelve other Carnegie branch libraries. Andrew Carnegie funded 67 local libraries in New York City, most of which were designed by the city’s top architecture firms. McKim, Mead and White designed thirteen libraries. This building was designated a New York City Landmark in May of 1998. Constructed in 1904 in the Classical Revival Style, the building’s three story, three-bay wide limestone and granite facade features rusticated piers from the ground level to the cornice, which consists of dentils and an ornamented frieze. Each story is separated by a belt course. On the second level, the windows are topped with decorated tympanums and surrounded with rounded arches that are repeated on the ground level. At the center of the tympanums is the seal of the City of New York , flanked by colophones of the Aldine Press of Venice and the Christophe Plantin Press of Antwerp.

Touring the streets surrounding Tompkins Square Park, we look at moments in time where the actions of neighbors, activists and local organizations helped change the course of history, letting personal recollection guide us through these sites. Learn how constant advocacy through zoning, historic districts and landmarking efforts helps ensure the survival of small businesses, spaces of community, and architectural identity in the East Village.

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.

515 East 12th Street Building Date : 1869 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Louis Schworer Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This five story Italianate style pre-law tenement would have been built around the same time as its neighbor at no. 517 East 12th Street, when both lots’ values rose significantly. Lot 57 shifted from $3,000 to $10,000 between 1868 and 1869. It is likely, also, that both were designed by the same architect. Unlike its neighbor, 515 East 12th Street retains its cornice and some of its projecting segmental lintels. Some additional openings have been cut in the wall to house air-conditioning units.

Hare Krishnas in Tompkins Square Park, ca. 1966. On October 9, 1966, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and his followers gathered in Tompkins Square Park, sat under the large, long-standing, American elm tree near the center of park and held the first outdoor chanting session outside of India. For more than two hours, Prabhupada and his disciples in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness repeated their 16-word mantra in front of a gathering crowd. This event is considered the founding of the Hare Krishna religion in the United States and devotees still visit the tree as a significant location in their history and community.

540 East 13th Street | Block : 406 | Lot #24 Building Date : 1923 Original Use : Commercial Original Owner : Louis Levey Original Architect : Morris Whinston Description & Building Alterations The current building was constructed in 1923 by architect Morris Whinston as a one-story laundry, according to the Office for Metropolitan History. A 1915 photograph reveals that an earlier laundry building existed here previously.

182 First Avenue; 401-403 East 11th Street Building Date : 1866-67 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Martin Miller Original Architect : Julius Boekell Description & Building Alterations Currently two buildings stand on this lot. The five-story brick tenement at 182 First Avenue was built in 1866-67 for stores and 8 families, designed by architect Julius Boekell. Its present facade features a bracketed cornice, segmental-arched window openings with molded lintels and footed sills. Windows have been added and altered at the two center bays on the front facade. The first story has also been altered and filled in with brick. The two-story extension at 403 East 11th Street was originally erected in 1866-67 as a one-story store, and was altered into a five-story tenement around the turn of the century.

746 East 9th Street. Service Builders Supply is visible.

297 East 10th Street is the first full building seen at left (with the woman in the white skirt in front).

406 East 14th Street; 413 East 13th Street Building Date : 1894-96 (No. 406), 1945 (No. 413) Original Use : Institutional Original Owner : Church of the Immaculate Conception Original Architect : Barney & Chapman (No. 406), Eggers & Higgins (No. 413) Description & Building Alterations Two buildings currently stand on this lot, both originally built and owned by the Church of Immaculate Conception. No. 406 East 14th Street, the former Grace Chapel, was designed by architect Barney & Chapman and erected in 1894 in stone and Roman brick. The mission closed in 1943, after which the complex was bought by Immaculate Conception, which had lost its 1858 Gothic Revival church during the construction of Stuyvesant Town. This building is a great example of Gothic Eclectic architecture and as such was designated as a New York City landmark in 1966 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The church consists of three major sections, a free-standing tower with clean-cut profile at center, a church section with a steep gable facing the street and an attached intimate round chapel, and two wings of three and a half stories with peaked roofs. According to the Office for Metropolitan History, the four-story building at No. 413 East 13th Street was built in 1945 as a convent and school. It features brick facing, simple window enframements, crosses at the top of the side bays, an inscription on top of the first floor, and projecting brickwork at the first and second stories.

East Side Hebrew Institute ca. 1975 Now home to seven apartments, 295 East 8th Street a.k.a. 127 Avenue B, opened in 1887 as the Children’s Aid Society, Tompkins Square Lodging for Boys and Industrial School. Landmarked in 2000, 295 East 8th Street was “one of a series of buildings in which the Children’s Aid Society sheltered and educated destitute working children, particularly newsboys and bootblacks.” according to the designation report. Designed by Calvert Vaux of the architectural firm of Vaux and Redford, in the style of High Victorian Gothic, the building is the oldest remaining property built for the use of the Children’s Aid Society. It may be the oldest remaining boarding house designed by Vaux. The land acquisition and building construction was funded by a $50,000 donation by Mrs. Robert L. Stuart, (about $1 million today according to the Daytonion). From 1887 to 1910 the building served its original purpose which was not just to house, feed, and clothe the boys, but to reform them into successful members of society. In 1910 the building ceased operations as a boarding house and was a Children’s Aid Society school until 1925. In 1925 the building was purchased by the Darchei Noam Congregation, which used the space as a Jewish social service building and Yeshiva for almost the next 50 years. The building was left vacant in 1974 until it was purchased in 1977 and developed into apartments in 1978. It was renovated again in 2003. Matt Dillon allegedly lived at 295 East 8th Street in the mid 2000’s

Christodora House ca. 1929 Christodora House was constructed in 1928 as a settlement house for low- income and immigrant residents, providing food, shelter, and educational and health services. It was founded by Christina Isobel MaColl and Sarah Carson to care for “the physical, social, intellectual, and spiritual development of the people in the crowded portions of the city of New York, and the training of those who shall be in residence in practical methods of settlement work.” Christodora House also launched the career of social reformer Harry Lloyd Hopkins, advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt and architect of the New Deal programs. Christodora’s bold experiment in providing both housing and services in the same building was an important but challenging one. The combination presaged the mix typically found in public housing, which began in New York around the same time just blocks away at First Houses. However, in part because of the massive expansion of publicly funded public housing nearby providing similar services and housing, Christodora’s model became more and more financially burdensome, and the building was sold via condemnation to the City in 1948. The building remained abandoned or semi-utilized until 1975, when the City sold it to a private owner. After changing hands many times in the ensuing years, in 1986 work began to convert the building to high-end residences, and it became a symbol of gentrification in the neighborhood, as well as a flashpoint for resistance to it. That said, the building has housed a number of notable artists and activists in the years since its conversion, including Iggy Pop. Today the East Village Community Coalition also calls the building home.

428 East 11th Street Building Date : 1852 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Stevens Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations Originally a five-story tenement was built on this lot along with 426 East 11th Street. They were raised to six stories at some point after 1970. In 2007 the two buildings were combined and renovated during an alteration designed by OCV Architects. The present facade features a molded cornice, brick facing at second to fifth stories, stucco at the sixth story, and a new simple modern front at the first story.

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.

The Eagle Pencil Company was one of the largest producers of No. 2 pencils in the early 20th century, employing thousands in New York City. In mid-1938 the company announced a 10% pay cut for all existing employees with an increased working schedule to 44 hours a week. On June 16th, 1938, 850 Eagle Pencil Workers walked out to demand a contract and restoration of the recent pay cut. The strike was recorded extensively by the Edwin Levick Studio, the leaders in the emerging spot news photography. The studio sold these photos to local newspapers around the city. The strike became well known and was even covered in the local Marxist paper, 'The Socialist Appeal,' arguing for public support for the union workers. The strike lasted seven weeks, ending on August 8th when the company agreed to welcome back all the striking employees and promised to reinstate their original pay.

“View of 18-story Christadora House from Tompkins Square, showing a game of ball being played in the park. February 29, 1929.” Designed by Henry C. Pelton, the building originally included both a settlement house, with various social services and community facilities (including an indoor swimming pool), and residential apartments to support the settlement’s activities via rental income. In 1948, no longer able to finance settlement operations, the Christadora Board of Managers sold the building to the city. It fell into disuse — or extra-legal use — for decades before being redeveloped as condominiums in the 1980s, becoming a target of the 1988 Tompkins Square Park Riot for its role in the neighborhood’s nascent gentrification.

This five-story old law tenement, designed by Benjamin E. Lowe in the Queen Anne style, was built in 1888 for owner Emma J. Mason. The red brick building was originally occupied by 18 families. The storefront consists of pilasters and a modillioned cornice. The upper story windows consist of brownstone and plain lintels (the lintels on the third story have been replaced). In 1967, the deteriorated cornice was removed and replaced with a brick parapet. A map of East Village art galleries from 1983 (see sidebar) shows that Civilian Warfare was at this location. 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.

Snowstorm on Avenue A, ca. 1888. This is possibly the aftermath of Great Blizzard of 1888, a March snowstorm that lasted three days and froze transport across the Northeast. In New York City, frozen and broken telephone and telegraph lines created hazardous conditions, with exposed wires and infrastructure (poles, etc.) obstructing street and sidewalk traffic, as seen above. The building at far left (with Meltzer Bros. beer advertisement) is likely 225 Avenue A at the southwest corner of 14th Street. In the background at center is the 14th Street station of the Second Avenue El, which ran over First Avenue between Houston and 23rd Streets.

539 East 12th Street Building Date : 1845 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Joseph Stuyvesant Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations According to tax records, this modest three story brick row house was built in 1845. The bracketed cornice and parapet are unusual for this style, and both were likely added at a later date. The storefront has been altered over the years, but the entrance on the right seems to have retained a bracketed pediment.

174 – 176 First Avenue Building Date : 1840-41 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : E. Townsend Original Architect : Unknown The two buildings on this lot were originally erected in 1840-41, along with the buildings at nos. 172 and 178 First Avenue. No. 174, a three story and basement structure, features a bracketed cornice with paneled frieze, hooded window lintels with moldings, and footed sills. The first and basement levels have been reconfigured to accommodate additional retail. No. 176, opened in 1904 as Caffè Pugliese by Paolo DeRobertis, an immigrant from Puglia in Apuli, was probably raised to the current height around the turn of the century. The five-story structure features a projecting bracketed cornice with decorated frieze and simplified window lintels and sills. The first floor housed DeRobertis Pasticceria & Caffe, which represents the Italian immigrant population in the early 20th Century.

Join us for a tour filled with Village Pride!

Allen Ginsberg lived at 437 E. 12th Street (second building from the right) when he memorialized his view of Mary Help of Christians Church from his tenement window in the poem “May Days, 1988”. At the time, the plain building mid-frame was a convent, whose sisters used to run across the street to ring the church bells!

This image was gifted to the National Art Gallery by Gary S. David.

410-414 East 13th Street Building Date : 1907 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : S. Wanderman & Sons Original Architect : Henry G. Harris Description & Building Alterations This six-story brick new law tenement was erected at the same time as the three buildings at 416-426 East 13th Street. It was also designed by the same architect, Henry G. Harris, who gave these buildings similar facade designs and elements. This six-bay wide building, originally for stores and 34 families, features elaborate window surrounds with pilasters and triangular pediments, splayed lintels with keystones, and rectangular sills with ornaments. The lintels at the sixth story have been stripped and the roof cornice has been removed. Before the present building was constructed, the lot held a wagon factory.

Pretzel vendor at First Avenue and 14th Street, under the Second Avenue elevated station, ca. 1935.

297 East 10th Street Building Date : c. 1846 Original Use : Unknown Original Owner : Walter F. Brush Original Architect : Joseph Trench (attributed) Description & Building Alterations This four-story residential building was constructed in 1846 for original owner Walter F. Brush, and was designed by Joseph Trench. The three-bay wide building was originally designed in a transitional Greek Revival and Italianate styles. Though alteration plans filed by architect Louis F. Heinecke indicate that the building’s peaked roof was removed and the upper story was raised in 1893. The Queen Anne style elements such as the cornice, lintels, and sills date to this period. A plaque on the facade reads “Doctor I. Grossman,” after the building’s owner and occupant from the 1930s. Other facade features include molded iron lintels and sills, and the bracketed and modillioned cornice is raised in the center. Adolf Mandel, a wealthy banker, lived at No. 297 East 10th Street from 1903 to 1912.

501 East 11th Street Building Date : 1898 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Department of Housing Preservation & Development Original Architect : Michael Frudakis Description & Building Alterations This somewhat plain, post-modern brick apartment building was constructed in 1998. Before demolition in 1984, four five-story pre-law tenements (with ground floor stores) stood here. The building that stood at 501 East 11th Street, corner of Avenue B, was home to famous author Jack Kerouac during the summer of 1953 and was said to be the inspiration for the setting of his novel, The Subterraneans.

Public School 36, 1920. Constructed in 1876 as Grammar School No. 36 and designed by David I. Stagg (whose career as a builder of schools lasted half a century), the school building on East 9th Street replaced a previous Board of Education school on the site (Ward School 21). The four-story structure with a five-story central entrance bay, Grammar School 36, later P.S. 36, remained in service to the neighborhood children until the 1970s. For three decades at the end of the 20th century it was the home of the Henry Street Settlement Day Care and Loisaida, a Latino neighborhood revitalization organization. In 2011 the former school underwent a massive interior and exterior renovation. The building had a a full fifth floor added on either side of the historic top floor bay. Today it functions as a residence for homeless young adults and youth that have aged out of the foster system, as well as a community center for the Loisaida organization.

Construction on the BMT Canarsie Line (L) at Avenue D, November 28, 1916.

This image is part of Robert Fisch's collection on Village Preservation's Historic Image Archive, to explore more images like this click here. This collection of photos was donated by longtime Greenwich Village resident Robert Fisch, primarily of the Greenwich Village of his youth in the 1980s, landmarks and familiar sights of the neighborhood and city in the decades since then, the former World Trade Center and 9/11, and the annual Gay Pride Parade.

165 Avenue A Building Date : 1880 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Louis Rallwagen Original Architect : William Jose Description & Building Alterations The four buildings at 165-171 Avenue A were constructed in 1880 designed by architect William Jose and owned by Louis Rallwagen. They shared an identical facade when completed. No. 165 features a bracketed cornice with paneled frieze, hooded window lintels, with neo Grec-style triangular pediments at the third story, footed sills, patterned brickwork, decorative beltcourses, and engaged pilasters with neo-Grec details flanking the main entry.

601-630 East 9th Street; 143 Avenue B Building Date : 1928 Original Use : Settlement House Original Owner : Christodora House Original Architect : Henry C. Pelton Description & Building Alterations On the northeast corner of Avenue B and East 9th Street is the Christodora House, founded as the Young Women’s Settlement by Christina MacColl and Sarah Libby Carson. Built in 1928 and designed by Henry C. Pelton, the building originally served as a settlement house, a charity organization that provided housing, food, training, and health care to low-income immigrants. Its construction was funded by Mr. Arthur Curtiss James, a wealthy railroad and mining tycoon, and his wife, who served as president of Christodora’s board. The building included community spaces, a music school, an auditorium, a gymnasium, a chapel, a lounge, classrooms, and a library. On the upper floors, the building contained residential suites, a dining room, a lounge, a roof garden, and a solarium. It was the first settlement house to provide social services while making a profit, and was located on the at this site to expand the impact of settlement houses north of Houston Street. Several accounts report that George Gershwin gave his first public appearance here. The Christodora House is listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places. The building is clad in red brick, and its brick-faced steel piers are subtly raised. The two-story entryway on Avenue B showcases terra-cotta medallions and grotesques that outline the limestone enframement with fluted pilasters. At the top of the building, bands of Romanesque-inspired ornament outline the parapets. Like many of its neighbors, the building fell into disrepair in the post-World War II years and in 1969, due to extensive damage to the electrical system, the building was condemned. It sat vacant until 1975 when it was purchased at auction. In 1986, two developers converted the building into luxury condos, sparking anti-gentrification riots by residents. On August 6, 1988 for instance, upset neighbors organized a protest rally. Responding to unprovoked attacks by the police, protesters used a police barricade to smash the windows and front door of the Christodora House, vandalizing the building’s lobby.

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

434 East 11th Street Building Date : 1852-53 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : John Bennett Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This four-story tenement was originally built in 1852-53. Most historical elements have been stripped from the facade, including the bracketed cornice, molded window lintels and rectangular sills. The building today features a paint or stucco coating over the brownstone facade, and a molded cornice above the first story.

No. 206 East 7th Street, an Old Law Tenement, was constructed in 1900 and designed by architect Michael Bernstein, one year after its architecturally similar neighbor at 204 East 7th Street, by the same architect. Allen Ginsberg lived in the building from 1952 to 1953 after his institutionalization at Columbia Presbyterian Psychiatric Institute. Ginsberg befriended a fellow patient named Carl Solomon, nephew of A. A. Wyn of Ace Books. Solomon helped publish Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict, written by beat generation writer William S. Burroughs as a confessional novel. Ginsberg and Burroughs lived together on the third floor of this building, after Burroughs accidentally shot and killed his wife in Mexico and sought refuge. The six-story building is four bays wide and clad in buff brick. The windows at the first and fifth floors are arched with decorative keystones and the windows at the second floor have segmental arches also with decorative keystones. The windows at the third and fourth floors are capped by ornate lintels and the entire facade features recessed bands of contrasting red brick. The first floor is three bays with the entry at the center and all of the openings are arched. The metal cornice is intact and It originally housed twenty-four families with stores on the ground floor. The architectural features of the building’s upper stories remain intact, however, the above-ground basement appears to have undergone some changes since its construction. This image is from Village Preservation's East Village Building Blocks map. You can explore the map and more buildings in the East Village by clicking here.

Tompkins Square Park Building Date : 1834 Original Use : Institutional Original Owner : New York City Original Architect : Julius Munckwitz Description & Building Alterations From swamp land, to public square, to military parade ground, to city park, the lot that is now Tompkins Square Park has a long and varied history. The park is bounded on the north by East 10th Street, on the east by Avenue B, on the south by East 7th Street, and on the west by Avenue A. St. Marks Place abuts the park to the west. Originally located on land belonging to Peter Stuyvesant, this site was eventually acquired by Daniel D. Tompkins, who served as Governor of New York from 1807 to 1817 and as Vice President of the United States under James Monroe from 1817 to 1825. The park is named for Tompkins. The land was bought by the City in 1834, at which point it was drained, planted, and turned into a public square. The park served as a parade ground for several decades, and in 1878 The New York State Legislature designated the square as a public park. It was redesigned the following year by Julius Munckwitz…

219 First Avenue; 351 East 13th Street Building Date : 1848-50/2014 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Bowen Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations While this building was originally constructed as a row house in 1849-50 for owner John Bowen, little remains of the structure except for the four story, three bay facade on First Avenue and a small part of the brick facade facing East 13th Street. In 2014, it was given a mostly new facade and a two and a half-story rooftop addition. According to tax assessment records, the original building on this site was constructed along with those on the adjacent three lots. It was home to a dry goods store in 1934.

127 Avenue B ca. 1928 This building was erected in 1886 by the Children’s Aid Society as the Tompkins Square Lodging for Boys and Industrial School. It was designed by Calvert Vaux and George K. Radford as a combination home and school for poor boys, particularly newsboys and bootblacks. The Children’s Aid Society engaged Vaux and Radford to design about a dozen residences for needy children between 1879 and 1892; this is the third, in rust-colored brick with matching terra-cotta ornamentation, a varied roofline with dormers and chimneys, and a prominent corner tower — complementing the tower of St. Brigid’s Church across 8th Street. An article in Harper's from 1886 about the building describes its denizens: “the grimy little bootblacks and their rivals in trade, the newsboys.” The boys “can sleep in a common dormitory for a nickel a night. …The boy willing to cough up a dime can sleep like a little prince in his own bed.” The status of child laborers in America was a subject to which Harper’s would return in other articles. The Lodging for Boys, commonly called “the Newsboys Home,” had several lives before becoming a seven-unit apartment building. According to Roland Legiardi-Laura, one of the resident-owners of the building (which also has renters), in the 20th century a Jewish center called Talmud Torah Darchei Noam owned the building, then the East Side Hebrew Institute. In the late 1970s, Legiardi-Laura and others acquired the building and financed a series of renovations, from removing the light yellow and dark red paint that covered the building, to replacing the slate and copper roofing, to renovating the entryway in mahogany, to re-pointing the brick façade. Still ahead, they would like to restore to their original style all 65 window and door penetrations on the two facades; the perimeter metal fencing; and a side entry on the 8th Street alleyway. The owners welcomed designation as a New York City Landmark in 2000, and won a New York Landmarks Conservancy Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award in 2008. And the building continues to inspire pride and joy in its neighbors.

162 First Avenue Building Date : 1846-47 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : James Hart Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This four-story tenement was originally erected in 1846-47. The current building features simplified cornice on west facade, simple molded window lintels and rectangular sills. The storefronts have been largely reconfigured, and some windows on north facade have been filled in with red brick.

532-542 East 12th Street Building Date : N/A Original Use : Playground Original Owner : N/A Original Architect : N/A Description & Building Alterations This large lot is the site of a playground known as Joseph C. Sauer Park. It was once home to a seven-story tenement as well as a school building that can be seen on an 1867 map. The school, designed in a classical style, at one time was called P.S. 126 and is visible in a historic photo from 1931.

168 First Avenue Building Date : 1838-39/1871 alt. Original Use : Residential Original Owner : R. L. Patterson(1838-39)/Mary Cummiskey(1871) Original Architect : Unknown(1838-39)/William Weissner(1871, builder) This five-story tenement was originally built as a three story structure in 1838-39. During an alteration in 1871 the house was raised to four stories. The fifth story was added in 1891, in conjunction with the building at 170 First Avenue. The famed Italian restaurant Lanza has been at this site since 1904. Most of the interior elements are original to the 114 year old restaurant. The present facade features a Queen Anne-style bracketed cornice with elevated center piece and paneled frieze, molded window lintels with decorated brackets, simple rectangular lintels, engaged pilasters flanking the main entrance, and a molded cornice above the first story.

"Tompkins Square Branch of the New York Public Library, ca. 1904." The history of the Tompkins Square Branch goes back to 1901, when controversial steel magnate Andrew Carnegie donated $5.2 million to the city to help build a network of branch libraries across the five boroughs. The Tompkins Square Branch was the ninth Carnegie Library built in the city and was designed in a restrained Classical Revival style by Charles McKim of the well-known firm of McKim, Mead, & White. Carnegie’s business dealings were known as very anti-labor and for the violent repression of striking workers during the Homestead strike. The library’s designation report notes that the nearby institutional buildings helped influence the siting of the library – these include P.S. 64 to the east, which was in the planning stages, the (now landmarked) public baths a block north on 11th Street, and the Boys Club Building on Avenue A and 10th Street. The library reached out to the local community from its beginning — at the time the large German population was giving way to new immigrant groups like Italians, Eastern-European Jews, and Poles. The library held one of the most extensive Polish book collections in the city, and used its specially-built community rooms for meetings and classes for the public. The New York Public Library Digital Gallery houses a great collection of English language course posters from 1920 that show the diverse communities that the library sought to serve, and continues today. Today the Tompkins Square Branch continues the tradition of community education and offers programs like picture book readings for toddlers, yoga classes, art and manga drawing workshops.

426 East 11th Street Building Date : 1852 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Stevens Original Architect : Unknown Originally a five-story tenement was built on this lot along with 428 East 11th Street. They were raised to six stories at some point after 1970. In 2007 the two buildings were combined and renovated during an alteration designed by OCV Architects. The present facade features a molded cornice, brick facing at second to fifth stories, stucco at the sixth story, and a new simple modern front at the first story.

Tompkins Square Park, Arbor Day, 1904. Named after Daniel H. Tompkins, fourth Governor of New York and Vice President under James Monroe, the Tompkins Square Park site was once part of a salt marsh owned by the Stuyvesant family. The Stuyvesants transferred the land to the city in 1829, and between 1834 and 1850, the site was drained, graded, landscaped, and finally opened as a public park. Arbor Day was founded in the United States in 1872 by a Nebraskan newspaper editor and later Secretary of Agriculture, J. Sterling Morton. It is a holiday (observed in most countries) that celebrates and encourages the care and planting of trees.

Raymon's Candy, date unknown. The candy store and ice cream shop seen here (likely in the early 1980s) is better known as Ray's Candy Store. Established in 1974, Ray's offers a fun mix of treats, including egg creams, soft serve ice cream, frozen yogurt, New Orleans style beignets, Belgian fries, and coffee. It was founded by Ray Alvarez (real name Asghar Ghahraman), an Iranian immigrant who adopted a new identity once in New York. The shop has been featured in a number of television shows and films and remains open today, with Ray still behind the counter.

St. Brigid's Roman Catholic Church In the East Village, the Church of Saint Brigid-Saint Emeric was founded by Irish New Yorkers for an expanding Irish population. Originally known as St. Brigid’s, the church was built by notable Irish-American architect Patrick Keely, who designed and built almost 600 Catholic churches in the Eastern United States and Canada. Built on the corner of Avenue B and 8th Street, the cornerstone was laid in 1848 and was known as the “Irish Famine Church” as . As along the Hudson River in the West Village, commerce along the East River attracted many Irish immigrants. Along the East River, shipbuilding was the primary industry and the Church of St. Brigid’s was so named because Brigid was the patron saint of boatmen. Most recently, the church, in need of serious repair, was restored after a lengthy battle between the parishioners and the Diocese and an anonymous donation of 20 million dollars.

223-225 Avenue A Building Date : 1951 Original Use : Commercial Original Owner : Fleetwood Syndicate Inc. Original Architect : Charles E. Greenberg Description & Building Alterations According to the Office for Metropolitan History, the new building application for this one-story commercial building was filed in 1949 and construction was completed in 1951. The storefronts have been through various alterations. In the early 20th century, this lot housed at least two five-story buildings consisting of stores and tenements.

Designed in 1894 by Department of School Buildings superintendent C.B.J Snyder, the five-story red brick building of Public School 122 served the local community for more than eight decades. Abandoned in 1976, the school building was taken over by a "bunch of scrappy \[..] artists" in the late 1970s. Visual artists used classrooms as studios, while choreographers held rehearsals and workshops in the cafeteria. In 1980 Performance Space 122 (or appropriately, P.S. 122) was officially founded here. The non-profit arts organization has become one of the longest standing venues dedicated to contemporary performance art in New York City. For more than two decades local performance troupes staged pieces in the rooms created for the school, working around architectural columns and inappropriate-for-dancing floors. In 2005 the venue was awarded funds as part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation and closed in 2011 for the work. The spaces in the original building were brought up to code and renovated for their current use, while the architect designed an addition at the rear of the building. With four non-profits occupying the building, including the renamed Performance Space New York, the venue saw programming again starting in spring of 2018. While the occupants were very involved in the renovation and reconfiguring work, they did request that the architects "don’t make it too nice—keep the grit."

Grace Chapel ARCHITECT: Barney & Chapman DATE: 1894-96 STYLE: Gothic Eclectic Among its important qualities, the Grace Chapel is a superb example of Gothic Eclectic architecture. The building possesses individual distinction and character. Along with its companion buildings, the Clergy Houses, it combines to form a notable architectural composition, adding to the prestige of the neighborhood and that the building contributes a rare charm and architectural beauty to New York City.

Even pencil making can be a contentious business- On June 16th, 1938, the Eagle Pencil Workers went on strike!

424 East 11th Street | Block : 438 | Lot #20 Building Date : 1851-52 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : Woods Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This five-story tenement was originally erected in 1851-52, along with the buildings at 426-428 East 11th Street. Its present facade features molded roof cornice, molded lintels and simple rectangular sills. The first story has been altered and does not retain any historic detailing.

My Archive Spring 2019

170 First Avenue Building Date : 1838-39, 1891 Original Use : Residential Original Owner : R. L. Paterson(1838-39), B. J. Wheelwright(1891) Original Architect : Unknown This five-story tenement was originally erected in 1838-39 as a three-story house. It was raised to four stories in 1871 and then to five stories in 1891, along with the building at 168 First Avenue. The present facade features projecting bracketed cornice with decorated frieze, hooded window lintels, ornamental panels, beltcourses, and engaged pilasters flanking the main entry.

440 East 13th Street Building Date : 1885 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Liebrand Niewenhous Original Architect : William Graul Description & Building Alterations This five-story brick tenement with blue stone base was designed by architect William Graul, along with 438 East 13th Street. It was built to house four families on each floor. In the 1930s there was a store on the first floor. The present facade features molded window lintels with footings, rectangular sills, and banding. The historical roof cornice has been removed and the first story has been largely reconfigured.

Madina Mosque, 1954. The Madina Mosque was founded in 1976 primarily by Bengali immigrants. Dubbed the "Muslim cab drivers’ spiritual pit stop," in an article by the Villager, it is the third oldest active mosque in New York City, daily bringing in hundreds of followers for prayer and worship from all over the five boroughs. It's a truly diverse community of people who come together in this convenient location to pray together. The nondescript brick exterior resembles a typical East Village building, except for the lighted signs in English and Arabic that wrap around it, reading, “There is none worthy of worship but Allah. Mohammed is the messenger of Allah.” Above the building’s back corner, away from the street, a demure minaret peeks up. Unlike traditional minarets, which are large enough for a person to stand inside and call the faithful to prayer, this one is only about 8 feet tall. The call to prayer is sung out from the front door, without a microphone, its only amplification provided by the wind.

160 First Avenue Building Date : 1898 Original Use : Residential/Commercial Original Owner : Tobias Krakouer Original Architect : George Frederick Pelham Description & Building Alterations Originally built in 1898, this six-story brick dumbbell tenement building on 160 First Avenue was built in the same project as 156 and 158 First Avenue. It served and continues to serve as space for a store and apartments. The three buildings share an identical facade. No. 160 features bracketed cornice with decorative frieze, round-arched window openings with brick lintels and key stones at third and sixth stories, slightly projecting brick piers through fifth and sixth stories, ornamented panels, elaborate bracketed window lintels with molding or triangular pediments at second and fourth stories, beltcourses. There is metal pilasters with attached columns flanking the main entry, capped by a molded entablature.

De Robertis Pasticceria, April 5, 1928. Opened in 1904, De Robertis Pasticceria was an East Village mainstay for more than a century. Located in the same 176 First Avenue storefront for their entire history, the beloved shop closed at the end of 2014. Italian immigrant Paolo De Robertis first opened a tiny shop on 12th Street selling only espresso and anisette toast. In 1904, he moved around the corner and expanded his offerings. Operated by four generations of the De Robertis family, the storefront served Italian coffee, pastries, cookies and ices in a venue that still felt like it could have been 1904. The hand-cut mosaic wall tiles, pressed-tin ceiling, and patterned floor tiles were all original. (According to the family these features were all already in place when the pasticceria moved into the circa mid-19th century building.) The family, who rented the space initially, bought the building in the late 1940s. The hey day of the store's popularity came in the 1960s, while the 1970s saw the introduction of more varied and American fare while the shop and the city struggled through the financial instability of the decade. The next 30 years were largely successful for the shop. In 2014, citing the the economy and the age and health concerns of the four De Robertis siblings, the family decided to close the shop and sell the building after 110 years, much to the sadness of the neighborhood.

By Emily Byun Starting from childhood, we cherish the idea of a clean bathroom, whether through the joy of a refreshing bath or relieving ourselves in the comfort of our home. Yet, beyond private spaces, New Yorkers and pedestrians struggle to find dignified places for personal relief and bathing. Studies reveal a stark reality – only one public bathroom exists for every 6,000 New Yorkers, ranking NYC the 93rd worst among the largest U.S. cities in public bathrooms per capita. This makes bathroom accessibility a paid privilege with individuals often purchasing an overpriced water bottle for restroom access or resorting to public urination. The privatization of restrooms is especially stark for unhoused New Yorkers whose attempt to relieve themselves is often criminalized, and yet where are they supposed to go? Beyond toilet usage, bathing too has evolved into a highly commercialized venture. During the 19th century, tenement apartments underscored the need for bathhouses due to a lack of hot water in many buildings. These public bathhouses became vital third places, where generations mingled to soak and converse. Sadly, only a handful of such historical places remain, their existence reshaped mainly by the AIDS Epidemic in the 1980s and now are characterized by ongoing inflated prices. What would wider access to all facets of bathroom facilities involve? Given the daily necessity of using toilets, bathing, and the need to conserve precious resources, how can we create environments that prioritize accessibility, sustainability, and human connection?

East 14th Street, east of the Second Avenue El station, April 18, 1917. Despite its name, the Second Avenue El tracks ran over First Avenue between Houston and 23rd Streets.