128 Second Avenue | Block : 449 | Lot #6

Building Date : 1899
Original Use : Residential/Commercial

Original Owner : Julius Dreyfus
Original Architect : George Frederick Pelham

Description & Building Alterations

This six-story old-law tenement was built in 1899 to accommodate 22 families and 2 stores. The architect, George Frederick Pelham, designed many similar buildings in East Village.

The present facade features a bracketed cornice with a unique overhanging broken pediment and paneled frieze with an inscription on it. Round-arched window openings are found at the fourth story, pedimented window lintels are found on the side bays at the second and third stories, and decorated beltcourses, carved keystones, and ornate panels are found throughout. Many of the details are made with terra-cotta.

The former street address was No. 126 Second Avenue and in 1868, Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to earn a medical degree in the U.S., opened The Women’s Medical College of the New York Infirmary at this location. At this time, women could not typically gain admission to medical schools. The College closed in 1899, at which point other medical schools had started to accept women. For further information, see the Village Preservation Civil Rights and Social Justice Map HERE.

According to a New-York Daily Tribune article published on April 23rd, 1893, the United Hebrew Charities Building was located at 128 Second Avenue, in the building formerly at this location which had by then changed from No. 126 to No. 128. Like other charities of the time, this one included an employment bureau, an industrial school for girls, and food and lodging resources. It also provided support finding transportation for individuals seeking to live elsewhere. A number of societies were part of this overarching organization: the Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society, the Benevolent Fuel Society, the Relief Society, the Ladies’ Lying-in Society, the Congregation Darech Amuno Free Burial Fund Society, and the Baron De Hirsch Fund. The temples Emanu-El, Beth-El, Ahawath-Chesed, Shanray Tefila, Israel, and Rodef Scholom were in partnership with the organization as well. According to a New York Times article published Wednesday, April 12th, 1899, the organization distributed 125,000 dollars annually for the purpose of aiding the city’s poor Jewish communities. That same year, which is also when a new building was constructed on this lot, the organization’s offices moved uptown to Second Avenue and 21st Street, to a building created specifically for the United Hebrew Charities Building, gifted by Samuel Loeb.

Block : 449 / Lot : 006 / Building Date : 1899 / Original Owner : Julius Dreyfus / Original Use : Residential/Commercial / Original Architect : George Frederick Pelham

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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.