326 East 4th Street | Block : 373 | Lot #16

Description & Building Alterations

Before its 2012 alteration, 326 East 4th Street was a Greek Revival style building built as part of the Dry Dock (shipbuilding) District which occupied the easternmost blocks of this neighborhood. It was erected in 1841 by Fickett & Thomas, a shipbuilding company that built the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean, and was part of a seven-house row constructed between 1837 and 1841. In the late 19^th century this house was transformed from a home for successful merchants to a tenement. In the early 20^th century, 326 and 328 East 4^th Street were converted to house a Hungarian Synagogue and in the 1970s, they became the home of the Uranian Phalanstry, a self-described “anarchist utopian commune for practitioners of art and cosmology.” This group later moved to the Upper West Side in 2010, according to their website. Still, for a century and a half, this building retained its original cornice, dentils, six-over-six windows, leaded transom, entry pilasters and entablature, and stair railings.

GVSHP unearthed a great deal of history about this building and its neighbor at 326 East 4^th Street for its request to the Landmarks Preservation Commission to designate the buildings as individual landmarks. This request was denied. The owner subsequently altered these buildings by adding two additional stories.