214 First Avenue; 214-216 First Avenue; 400-404 East 13th Street | Block : 440 | Lot #8

Building Date : 1903
Original Use : Residential/Commercial

Original Owner : Jacob Baum & Elias Lakin
Original Architect : Bernstein & Bernstein

Description & Building Alterations

This six-story tenement was built along with 212 First Avenue, and designed by the same architect Bernstein & Bernstein. It was originally erected for stores on the first floor and 25 families on the upper floors. The present facade features slightly projecting corner bays, brick quoins, splayed lintels with keystones, elaborate pediments, foliated lintel brackets, beltcourses, and panels. The storefront has been largely altered and the roof cornice has been removed.

Block : 440 / Lot : 008 / Building Date : 1903 / Original Owner : Jacob Baum & Elias Lapin / Original Use : Residential/Commercial / Original Architect : Bernstein & Bernstein

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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.