This four-story building was constructed c. 1851-52 for Benjamin Valentine. The Fourth International Socialist Worker’s Party Bookstore and Samuel Roth’s Book Store were located here. Roth was known best for publishing unauthorized excerpts of James Joyce’s Ulysses. 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.

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.