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NoHo Historic District 25th Anniversary Tour, Part I

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 I includes buildings constructed between the 1830s and 1850s:

  1. Urbanization Begins: The Federal and Greek Revival Period a) 428-432 Lafayette Street, Colonnade Row b) 732 Broadway, "Treffurth's" c) 381 Lafayette Street d) 2 Bond Street e) 58 Bleecker Street, the James Roosevelt House

  2. The Development of Social and Cultural Institutions f) 423-437 Lafayette Street, Astor Library (now The Public Theater)

  3. The Store and Loft Building Type in the NoHo Historic District g) 645-647 Broadway h) 635 Broadway

  4. Cast Iron-Fronted Buildings in NoHo i) 620 Broadway (aka 154 Crosby Street)

-- To progress to Part II of the tour, click here. To skip ahead to Part III of the tour, click here.

ByVillage Preservation logoVillage Preservation
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Colonnade Row icon

Colonnade Row

The intact LaGrange Terrace in 1890 With the design and construction attributed to Seth Geer, the original row included nine Greek Revival style buildings (four of which remain extant and comprise the landmark site), all featuring the iconic Corinthian colonnade that was built to resemble and honor the estate of American Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette. Previously home to some of New York City's most elite residents, the buildings were subsequently subdivided into apartments and commercial space following the Civil War. Five of the nine houses were demolished in 1901. Today, one of the occupants is the Astor Place Theatre and its long-running Blue Man Group, a performance art company connected to the Public Theater, which is located at the former Astor Library building across the street. Click here to learn more about Colonnade Row.
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381 Lafayette Street icon

381 Lafayette Street

LPC Designation Photograph, June 1999 The original address of 381 Lafayette Street was 6 Lafayette Place (prior to the street being extended south of Great Jones Street and renamed in the early 20th century). What started out as an earlier private residence was sold to The Mission of the Immaculate Virgin for the Protection of Homeless and Destitute Children in 1888. That organization then erected a large neighboring residential hall at Nos. 2 and 4 Lafayette Place, while No. 6 became the convent and chapel for the nuns who operated the mission home. The building underwent a renovation in 1890, when two additional stories were erected, a rear extension added, and a new Northern Renaissance Revival style facade installed, with its brownstone panelled entrance portico, rusticated brownstone base, and terra cotta detailing at upper floors.
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381 Lafayette Street icon

381 Lafayette Street

381 Lafayette Street south sidewall with ghost sign, northeast corner of Great Jones Street, 1970s. Photograph by Carole Teller, courtesy Village Preservation's Historic Image Archive. By 1930, the large mission residence was being demolished after a decade of vacancy when most of the charity's functions were moved to Staten Island. The convent building, by now numbered 381 Lafayette Street, remained owned and used by the mission until 1965. The painted sign on the side of the building relates to its work with homeless children. The building was sold and resold in the 1960s to the artist Robert Rauschenberg. No. 381 became his studio and home until his death in 2008. Today the building (which underwent a further facade restoration in 2008) remains the home of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. Click here to learn more about Rauschenberg and his life and work in the neighborhood.
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2 BOND STREET icon

2 BOND STREET

LPC Designation Photograph, June 1999 This four-story structure was built in 1828-29 as a house for David S. Jones. By the late 19th century it had been converted to manufacturing use, like many buildings in the area, and served as a shirtwaist and skirt cutting factory. The building's lower floors were later given over to commercial uses, which precipitated the introduction of the large show windows at the basement, first, and second floors, which remain extant today. The building is now mixed-use, with retail, offices, and residential space. From 1973 to 1979, it was home to "Ladies’ Fort," a jazz performance space, set up by Joe Lee Wilson, a jazz vocalist, who lived in the basement of the building at the time. Among its programs, Ladies Fort hosted "Jazz at Dawn," which ran from 6-10am. As noted by William Hermes in his book, Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever, "For some fans, \[Jazz at Dawn] began their day; for others, it ended their night.”
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647 Broadway icon

647 Broadway

From 1859 to 1864, the basement of No. 647 was home to Pfaff’s, a beer and wine cellar that operated in similar fashion to a German Rathskeller, or beer saloon. Pfaff’s holds a very significant place in LGBTQ+ history, 19th century Bohemian culture, and the life of the poet Walt Whitman, who was a regular patron here. A century later, from 1970 to 1974, musical host David Mancuso held all-night invitation-only house parties in his loft on the second floor of the building. His guests were of different races, sexualities, and economic backgrounds, and Mancuso hoped that these parties would help ease societal barriers. "The Loft" has been cited as one of the most influential parties of its era, and aspects of it were later replicated in notable nightclubs including Paradise Garage and Studio 54. Learn more about these important, layered histories here.
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635 Broadway

LPC Designation Photograph, June 1999 Constructed from 1853-54 for Peter Goelet, Nos. 631, 633, and 635 Broadway were originally of a group of four buildings (No. 67 was later demolished). These store and loft buildings are each composed of four bays, standing at five stories tall, and their primary facades are of brick with marble facing. They are the oldest surviving purpose-built commercial buildings in the historic district, indicating that it was around the middle of the 19th century that this neighborhood began its dramatic transformation from a prestigious and genteel residential enclave to an increasingly gritty commercial and manufacturing hub. Some of the businesses operating out of the buildings in the 19th century included W.J.F. Dailey & Co., which opened at No. 631 in 1859 and sold decorated porcelain, china, and other novelties; and Delluc & Co., a French pharmaceutical company that opened in 1860 at 635 Broadway. Around 1985, the three structures were combined internally and converted to an apartment complex, along with the adjacent building at 200-204 Mercer Street, also within the historic district.
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