53 East 7th Street | Block : 449 | Lot #55

Building Date : 1906
Original Use : Unknown

Original Owner : Unknown
Original Architect : Frank Straub

Description & Building Alterations

A three-story dwelling sat on this site until 1906 when architect Frank Straub constructed the current six-story new-law tenement.

The Renaissance Revival style tenement features decorative window enframements with keystones at second story, round-arched window openings with lintels and keystones at third story, splayed lintels with scroll keystones at fourth story, decorative segmental-arched lintels at fifth story, and projecting brick pilasters at sixth story. The cornice is supported by brackets and with garlanded frieze. The present appearance of the first-story apparently dates to a 1927 alteration.

Block : 449 / Lot : 055 / Building Date : Unknown, 1906 / Original Owner : Unknown / Original Use : Unknown / Original Architect : Frank Straub

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What is the Building Blocks Project

What does a building mean to someone who lives there? A person who lives on the block? In the neighborhood? In the city? This site presents a wealth of historic information gained from GVSHP’s architectural research survey about the buildings located in the East Village.

The site explores the area generally considered today as the East Village: from a northern border of 14th Street to a southern border of Houston Street, Avenue D in the east to 4th Avenue/the Bowery to the west. You can explore the information about the blocks and buildings featured here in two ways.

Pick a block. Maybe it’s yours, or perhaps it is just your favorite place to shop, grab a bite, or just people watch. Then explore the buildings that make up that block. Or take one of the many guided tours on the site, curated by a collection of organizations and experts from the neighborhood. See how they experience the neighborhood. Then tell us what the neighborhood means to you. The site’s comments section allows you to open a dialogue with others who feel just as passionately as you do about the East Village.