220 East 4th Street | Block : 399 | Lot #20

Building Date : 1873
Original Use : Institutional

Original Owner : Church of the Most Holy Redeemer
Original Architect : William Schickel

Description & Building Alterations

Constructed as three buildings in 1873 in a blend of Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival styles, two of the buildings were built as tenements, with stores on the ground floor and temporary housing for families above. The third building served as a school.

Shortly after construction, the building functioned as St. Joseph’s orphanage. The orphanage and school remained until the early 1960s when the orphanage appears to have left, but the school remained, along with a convent on the upper floors and a bowling alley in the basement. Presently it houses the Connelly Theater.

Block : 399 / Lot : 20 / Building Date : 1873 / Original Owner : Church of the Most Holy Redeemer / Original Use : Institutional / Original Architect : William Schickel

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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.