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.

April 17th kicks off NYC's Immigrant Heritage Week as the day when Ellis Island set its record for processing immigrants. In celebration of this day and the many different ethnic immigrant groups that have come to the Lower East Side / East Village over the years we will walk in their footsteps and see what they saw with the Urban Archive app as our guide. On this walk, we will explore the sites together and meet with some of the local business owners whose paths brought them to the Village, creating the landscape we see today.

Muslims make up approximately 9% of New York City's population. In the early 20th century, a portion of lower Manhattan was known as "Little Syria," where the New York Sun reported a "Turkish Chapel" on Rector Street, while in Brooklyn, a group of Eastern European Muslims converted a church into a place for them to worship. In more recent years, Muslims from all over have moved to the city to made it their home.

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.