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A GUIDE TO HISTORIC NEW YORK CITY NEIGHBORHOODS EAST VILLAGE/LOWER EAST SIDE ManhaTTan The Historic Districts Council is New York’s citywide advocate for historic buildings and neighborhoods. The Six to Celebrate program annually identifies six historic New York City neighborhoods that merit preservation as priorities for HDC’s advocacy and consultation over a yearlong period. The six, chosen from applications submitted by community organizations, are selected on the basis of the architectural and historic merit of the area, the level of threat to the neighborhood, the strength and willingness of the local advocates, and the potential for HDC’s preservation support to be meaningful. HDC works with these neighborhood partners to set and reach pres- ervation goals through strategic planning, advocacy, outreach, programs and publicity. The core belief of the Historic Districts Council is that preservation and enhancement of New York City’s historic resources—its neighborhoods, buildings, parks and public spaces—are central to the continued success of the city. The Historic Districts Council works to ensure the preservation of these resources and uphold the New York City Landmarks Law and to further the preservation ethic. This mission is accomplished through ongoing programs of assistance to more than 500 community and neighborhood groups and through public-policy initiatives, publications, educational outreach and sponsorship of community events. Six to Celebrate is generously supported by The New York Community Trust. Additional support for Six to Celebrate is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and by public funds from the New York City Depart- ment of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and New York City Councilmembers Margaret Chin, Inez Dickens, Daniel Garodnick, Vincent Gentile, Sara Gonzalez, Stephen Levin and Rosie Mendez. 232 East 11th Street, New York, NY 10003 tel 212-614-9107 fax 212-614-9127 e-mail [email protected] www.hdc.org Copyright © 2014 by Historic Districts Council Cover: 47 Orchard Street (site #14) Guide design: Lost In Brooklyn Studio Guide design: Lost In Brooklyn A BRIEF HISTORY amous worldwide as home to waves of immigrants arriving in New York City, the East Vil- lage / Lower East Side is one of the most culturally significant sections of the city. While Fmuch new development has taken place, including luxury residential high-rises built to take advantage of the neighborhood’s relatively new caché, its built environment offers rich reminders of its storied past. Historically, the Lower East Side extended from East 14th Street south to Fulton and Franklin Streets, and from the East River west to Broadway and Pearl Street. Today, the regarded boundaries of the East Village and Lower East Side extend roughly from East 14th Street to the Bowery to the East River, with Houston Street as their north-south divider. Nicholas Bayard III, a descendant of Peter Stuyvesant (director-general of New Netherland), named the street for his son-in-law, William Houstoun, a member of the Continental Congress. The Bowery, one of Manhattan’s oldest streets, runs through both neighborhoods. Please see the Historic Districts Council’s 2011 Six to Celebrate Bowery brochure to explore this historic thoroughfare. The East Village became its own entity in the 1960s, when Greenwich Village bohemians moved east for affordable housing and established the East Village art, music and theater scenes. The main thoroughfare through this artists’ haven was St. Mark’s Place, a strip of funky shops, tattoo parlors and cheap eats that still evokes this period in the neighborhood’s history. The area’s architecture reflects its early development, with extant examples of early-19th-century rowhouses, religious structures, theaters, schools, libraries, banks and settlement houses. The major character-defining building type is the tenement, a multi-family dwelling that typically consists of five or six stories with four apartments per floor. Originally, as many as 10 people occupied each roughly 300-square-foot apartment. Lacking light, air and privies, these crowded, slum-like condi- tions led to the passing of regulatory legislation. Though few adhered to it, the first law passed in 1867 requiring the installation of fire escapes and outdoor privies. In 1879, the Tenement House Act required that new tenements center shafts to allow in more light and air. In 1901, the New York State Tenement House Act refined this concept with required inner courtyards and shared bathing facilities. Due to their larger size, these were built on multiple or corner lots. Thus, tene- ments built before 1879 are referred to as “pre-law,” between 1879 and 1901 as “Old Law,” and after 1901 as “New Law.” Exterior ornament speaks of the tenement’s construction date: pre-law were quite austere, Old Law often included multi-colored brick and carved sandstone figures, and New Law were influenced by the Beaux-Arts style, with oval and arched windows, classical orna- ment and projecting bays. The East Village contains three New York City historic districts: St. Mark’s Historic District and Extension, East Village / Lower East Side Historic District and East 10th Street Historic District. The latter two were designated in 2012 after a robust advocacy and outreach effort by community groups and preservationists. A section of the Lower East Side is a National Register of Historic Places District. There are currently no locally designated historic districts in the Lower East Side. 1 — HISTORIC DISTRICTS COUNCIL — East Village / Lower East Side 1. FORMER YIDDISH ART THEATER J X D 189 Second Avenue Harrison G. Wiseman, 1925–26 This part of Second Avenue was once referred to as the “Yid- dish Rialto” for its many theaters catering to Jewish immi- grants, for whom theater was a popular form of entertainment and an important cultural institution. The Moorish Revival structure was built for Brooklyn lawyer and civic leader Louis N. Jaffe to house the Yiddish Art Theater company, which ulti- mately only held four seasons here. Subsequently, it functioned as a Yiddish playhouse and theater until being converted to a cinema in 1988. 2. ST. MARK’S HISTORIC DISTRICT 2a. ST. MARK’S CHURCH IN-THE-BOWERY J Q X 131 East 10th Street John McComb, Jr., 1795–99 Steeple: Ithiel Towne and Martin E. Thomp- son, 1828; Portico: attributed to James Bogardus, 1854; Parish hall: John C. Tucker, 1835; Parish hall addition: James Renwick, Jr., 1861 2b. 21 STUYVESANT STREET J Q 1803–04 44 STUYVESANT STREET Q 1795 LEGEND OF DESIGNATIONS National Historic Landmark: F National Register of Historic Places—District: H National Register of Historic Places —Property: J New York City Historic District: Q New York City Individual Landmark: X New York City Interior Landmark: D 2 — HISTORIC DISTRICTS COUNCIL — East Village / Lower East Side 2c. 112–128 EAST 10TH STREET AND 23–35 STUYVESANT STREET Q Attributed: James Renwick, Jr., 1861 The St. Mark’s Historic District encompasses portions of East 10th Street and Stuyvesant Street between Second and Third Avenues, as well as the campus of St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery, Manhattan’s oldest site of worship. Stuyvesant Street was originally a lane separating two farms purchased in 1651 by Peter Stuyvesant, governor of New Am- sterdam. In 1787–93, Peter’s great-grandson, Petrus, laid out Stuyvesant Street and donated the land and funds for St. Mark’s Church. Located on the site of a 1660 chapel, under which Peter Stuyvesant and his de- scendants were buried, the present structure has a Georgian fieldstone body, Greek Revival steeple and Italianate cast-iron portico. The district’s rowhouses date to the mid 19th century, constructed in elegant variations of the Italianate and Greek Revival styles. Referred to as “Renwick Tri- angle,” 112–118 East 10th Street (bottom) and 23–25 Stuyvesant Street were designed by famed church architect James Renwick, Jr. The oldest houses on the street are 21 and 44 Stuyvesant Street (top), which Petrus built for his daughter Elizabeth and son Nicholas, respectively. When the City mandated a street grid adhering to Manhattan’s axis, St. Mark’s petitioned to keep Stuyvesant Street’s due east-west configuration because of its burial ground location. Thus, small triangles were created where Stuyvesant Street abuts East 9th Street, East 10th Street and Third Avenue. 3. OTTENDORFER LIBRARY J X D AND FORMER GERMAN DISPENSARY J X 135–137 Second Avenue William Schickel, 1883–84 In the 1840s, this area became known as “Kleindeutschland” (Little Germany) for its large number of German immigrants. The Ottendorfer Library (now a branch of the New York Public Library) and German Dispensary (later renamed the Stuyvesant Polyclinic) were funded by German-American phi- lanthropists Anna and Oswald Ottendorfer to uplift the minds and bodies of their fellow German-Americans. The buildings include Italian Renaissance Revival and Queen Anne–style details, with red brick, terra-cotta trim, arched windows and symbolic ornament: urns and books on the library and busts of fa- mous physicians and scientists on the dispensary. By the end of the 19th century, Kleindeutsch- land began to diminish as Germans moved uptown to Yorkville and other immigrants moved 3 — HISTORIC DISTRICTS COUNCIL — East Village / Lower East Side in. This decline quickened after the 1904 General Slocum disaster, a paddle boat accident that claimed the lives of over 1,000 German parishioners of St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (see site # 8b). 4. FORMER ST. MARK’S MEMORIAL CHAPEL X 288 East 10th Street James Renwick, Jr. and W. H. Russell, 1882–83 Occupied since 1925 by the Saint Nicholas of Myra Ortho- dox Church, this building was donated by Rutherford Stuyves- ant as a branch of the Mission Society of St.

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