180 First Avenue; 400 – 402 East 11th Street | Block : 438 | Lot #9

Description & Building Alterations

Lot 9 contains two five-story buildings. 180 First Avenue was erected in 1841 as a four-story row house and was raised to five stories when it was “tenementized” in 1872 by owner Peter L. Bernhardt. It is clad in red brick and has a black cornice with a curved parapet inscribed with “P.L.B.” and the date “1872.” The building retains the cap-molded lintels of the original floors and their careful replicas on the fifth story.

402 East 11th Street was built as a two-story house in 1842-43, and was raised to its present height in 1873-74. This building also features a bracketed cornice with a denticulated and paneled frieze, molded window lintels, and footed sills.

Around 1922, perfume manufacturer George Parazzo was located at 402 East 11^th Street. Bootlegger Ignazio La Barbera, who was connected to the East Village mafia and worked for Parazzo, was shot dead by two mafia gunmen that year. Afterward, police discovered that La Barbera had almost two hundred gallons of alcohol in his apartment, suggesting that Parazzo’s was a Prohibition-era perfumery front.