Multiple innovators in the field of commerce were located here, once the center of commerce in New York, along with the headquarters of several prominent businesses. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of these and other historic buildings south of Union Square.

This two-story firehouse was constructed in 1928 for the New York City Fire Department (originally Hook & Ladder Co. No. 3) by architect John R. Sliney. Go back and click on the tours the building is featured in for additional information and history.

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.

This area served as a home to many prominent German and German-American businesses which shaped New York in the 19th and 20th centuries. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of these and other historic buildings south of Union Square.

A vast array of people who made a mark in the field of politics had connections to this area, including many notable "firsts" to run for or win office. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of these and other historic buildings south of Union Square.

Many of the most prominent publishers in America and the world were located here, producing some of the most significant works of literature of the last two hundred years. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of these and other historic buildings south of Union Square.

Designed by Marsh, Israels, & Harder, this seven-story Beaux Arts style warehouse at 127-135 Fourth Avenue/100-104 East 13th Street was built in 1895 by George W. Levy. It housed New York’s first hardware store, Hammacher Schlemmer, which published what has become the country’s longest running catalog. Go back and click on the tours the building is featured in for additional information and history.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, the area south of and around Union Square was the center of piano manufacturing in New York, a huge industry in the city at the time. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of these and other historic buildings south of Union Square.