268 East 7th Street | Block : 376 | Lot #26

Description & Building Alterations

Tax records indicate that this row house along with several others on the block were constructed circa 1842. The street was once part of a large shipbuilding area known as the Dry Dock district. Merchants and artisans worked along the East River and built homes for their families nearby. By the latter part of the 19th century, East 7th Street was known as Political Row where the Eleventh Ward’s most important political figures resided. Many of the city’s civic leaders were affiliated with notorious Tammany Hall. The block housed judges, lawyers and politicians as well as Democrat and Republican clubhouses in the row houses along this quiet enclave.

By the early 20th century, many of its original residents moved away amidst the onslaught of tenement construction. Between 1911 and 1912 owner Isidor Wels altered the interior and exterior of the building by changing the partitions and modifying the rear frame extension.  Wels again modified the rear extension in 1915 by removing the frame building and replacing it with a brick building.  Though not reflected in the building permits at some point this brick building was resurfaced with a cement coating that mimics brownstone.  Tax photos indicate that the building was coated with this type of material at the time of the photo being taken.