195-199 East 2nd Street | Block : 397 | Lot #29

Description & Building Alterations

In 1898 Leopold Schmeidler and Irving Bachrach hired George Frederick Pelham to design three connected Romanesque Revival tenement buildings.  The deeply recessed, brick arched windows on the second floor and the play of light and shadow created by the brick pattern are hallmarks of this style.  Each of the buildings housed 24 families above ground-floor shops.  By the time the ca. 1940 tax photo was taken, at least one of the buildings had its ground-floor shops replaced with apartments.  Each building had its own separate pressed-metal cornice which has since been lost and replaced with a brick pattern. The buildings have been renovated in the recent past and the ground floor completely remodeled.