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.

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.

Built in 1863 for David Glass, this four-story pre-law tenement retains its historic cast-iron storefront. The building became a feature of Kleindeutschland (“Little Germany”) when it was bought by William and George Schade, both of German descent, around the turn of the century. The building’s owner Bill Curry has suggested that the Herter Brothers, prominent American furniture makers of the late 19th century, might have had a workroom in the building’s basement. Go back and click on the tours the building is featured in for additional information and history.