155 Avenue C | Block : 392 | Lot #33

Description & Building Alterations

The 5-story brick Pre-Law tenement was built in 1872 by architect and owner J.G. Davenport and the builder was L.K.Osborne.  The first floor held shops with 16 families living above.  The original stone lintels and sills in the Italianate style have since been painted black and the pressed-metal cornice is missing.

Pushing back against the gentrification happening in the neighborhood in the 1980s, many abandoned buildings were taken over by squatters.  C-Squat was opened in 1989, and once had a skate ramp inside.  The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space open in the storefront in 2012 and provides education on local history.  In the early 2000s, the city attempted to kick out the squatters from the 30 buildings they had claimed.  In 2002, 155 Avenue C was given to the squatters and they were allowed to develop their home as low-income co-ops, this one named the See Skwat.