143 East 13th Street | Block : 559 | Lot #141

Description & Building Alterations

This four-story building was built in 1863 for David Glass. It stands today as a remarkably intact pre-old law tenement: it retains wood windows and cast-iron storefronts that typically do not survive in buildings of this type and age (especially considering its proximity to development-prone 14th Street and Union Square). The top three floors are clad in deep red brick and showcase plain sills, cap-molded lintels, and a simple bracketed cornice. The cast-iron ground floor is impressively intact as well. It has a center entrance, and a transomed double door framed with two molded pilasters with Corinthian capitals of cast iron. The sills and lintels of No. 143 are identical to the tenement next door at 141 East Thirteenth Street.

The photo below shows Cornell Edwards standing in the doorway of his shop, The Flower Stall, as he talks to his long-time partner Bill Curry. The two bought the building in the late 1960s and Bill still owns it today, though Cornell passed away in 2011. This stretch of East 13th Street was named “Cornell Edwards Way” in 2013 in recognition of Cornell’s dedication to the East Village community…