201 Avenue A | Block : 440 | Lot #35

Building Date : c. 1850
Original Use : Residential

Original Owner : John Peterkin
Original Architect : Unknown

Description & Building Alterations

This four-bay wide, four-story house was originally erected between 1848 and 1850, along with 199 Avenue A (the 1849 tax assessment record is missing). Its facade features a simple bracketed cornice, molded lintels and rectangular sills, and decorative metalwork at the fire escape. Some of the lintels have been stripped or simplified.

Vincent Rizzo, a member of the Genovese mafia family and lifelong resident of Avenue A, owned and lived in 201 Avenue A in the mid-20^th century. Rizzo illegally exported guns to South America and cocaine from South America, loan-sharked businesses and restaurants, and stole and forged stocks and bonds worth a billion dollars. Though he was arrested a number of times between 1952 to 1967, strikingly, he never spent a full day in jail.

Block : 440 / Lot : 035 / Building Date : c. 1850 / Original Owner : John Peterkin / Original Use : Residential / Original Architect : Unknown

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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.