159 Second Avenue | Block : 465 | Lot #47

Building Date : 1901
Original Use : Residential/Commercial

Original Owner : Leopold Kaufman
Original Architect : Schneider & Herter

Description & Building Alterations

This seven story brick Old-Law tenement was designed by Schneider & Herter in 1901, just before the tenement law changed, to house 20 families over ground-floor shops. The windows at the third story are arched. Other architectural details include engaged columns, scrolled keystones, and dentiled and bracketed continuous sills at the fourth and sixth story windows. The historic cornice (as seen in the 1980s tax photo) has been removed.

Block : 465 / Lot : 47 / Building Date : 1901 / Original Owner : Leopold Kaufmann /Original Use : Residential/Commerical / Original Architect : Schneider & Herter

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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.