323 East 10th Street | Block : 404 | Lot #44

Building Date : 1890
Original Use : Residential

Original Owner : B. F. Ayres, et. al.
Original Architect : Benjamin E. Lowe

Description & Building Alterations

This five story tenement was constructed in 1890 by owner B. F. Ayres, and designed by architect/builder Benjamin E. Lowe, a common architect of the area.

The Romanesque Revival facade features a rusticated brownstone ground level and projecting entrance enframements. The cornice consists of double brackets separating a series of dentils. The fifth story windows are surrounded by rounded arches, which are repeated throughout the building in the rounded arched, decorated terra cotta tympanums. The projecting brick piers are topped by terra cotta capitals.

The inscription on the ground level frieze reads “Bonsall”, after Robert Bonsall, whose family owned several lots on this block beginning in the 1840s. When this building was constructed, it was a home for wayward boys.

Block : 404 / Lot : 044 / Building Date : 1890 / Original Owner : B. F. Ayres, et. al. / Original Use : Residential / Original Architect : Benjamin E. Lowe

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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.