100 East 7th Street | Block : 434 | Lot #14

Description & Building Alterations

This five-story with basement tenement was constructed in 1893. It is located in the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District in the Romanesque Revival style with a few alterations.

East 7th Street was known as Decatur Place in the mid-1800s. A number of its residents were prominent clerks and merchants, mostly of English and Irish descent. Decatur Place experienced a major architectural and social transformation in the early 1860s. In three years alone, nine new tenement buildings were constructed on the block, paving the way for an influx of first- and second-generation German immigrants. This was the beginning of Kleindeutschland or “Little Germany,” a sprawling ethnic neighborhood centered on Avenues A and B. Jobst Hoffmann, a Bavarian-born architect, not only lived on the block but also designed two of its tenements at 100 and 112 East 7th Street. The façade of the latter building features several architectural sculptures of “Green Men,” a traditional Germanic motif.

The present facade features some of the original decorations including significant features like the stone entrance with a shave entablature, engaged colonettes and banding on the first-story, metal stair railings and newel posts, and round-arched windows with terracotta pediments and moldings on the top floor among many others. More information can be found in the designation report, linked in the “Additional Resources” section.