The area south of Union Square contains a stunning array of residential and commercial architecture from the 19th through the early 20th century. There is a particularly rich array of late 19th and early 20th-century factory/loft/warehouse architecture, in every style from Italianate to Gothic and Romanesque Revival, Neo-classical, Queen Anne, Victorian, and Byzantine. Work by some of America’s greatest architects, including James Renwick Jr., Henry J. Hardenbergh, Emery Roth, Griffith Thomas, Napoleon LeBrun, Harvey Wiley Corbett, David, and John Jardine, George B. Post, Carrere and Hastings, John Kellum, and Charles Rentz, among others, can be found here. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of these and other historic buildings south of Union Square.

Constructed in 1906 for Richman Realty & Construction Company, this eleven-story loft building was designed by Samuel Sass. It features a two-story cast-iron base. This was the home of one of Book Row’s longest-running shops, which featured an extensive selection of books by Black authors and on subjects including Black Studies, radicalism, socialism, and the political left. Go back and click on the tours the building is featured in for additional information and history.

This area was a mecca for leftist and labor organizing, with many of the most significant figures and organizations of the 19th and 20th centuries located here. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of these and other historic buildings south of Union Square.

The area south of Union Square is one of New York’s main centers of cast iron architecture, from some of its earliest surviving fully cast-iron buildings to predominantly masonry buildings with distinctive and elaborate cast iron ground floors or ornament. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of these and other historic buildings south of Union Square.

This area was home to several sites connected to significant developments in African American history, including civil rights leaders and organizations, musicians, and writers. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of these and other historic buildings south of Union Square.

Since at least the 1890s and through the 20th century, this area was the center of the bookselling industry in New York, centered along Fourth Avenue as well as Broadway and University Place, and probably had the highest concentration of booksellers in the world. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of these and other historic buildings south of Union Square.