328 East 4th Street | Block : 373 | Lot #17

Description & Building Alterations

Before its 2012 alteration, 328 East 4th Street retained many of its original elements, including a continuous dentiled cornice, molded stone sills and lintels, railings, swirling horizontal volutes at porch level, and vertical volutes at sidewalk level. The building also showcased a brownstone entry surround with flat pilasters supporting entablatures with dentil molding. This Greek Revival row house was originally erected in 1841 for Cornelius Read. His daughter Catherine resided in the house at No. 326 from 1845 until 1849 with her husband Joseph Bishop.

Originally part of the Dry Dock District, in the late 19^th century this house was transformed from a home for successful merchants to a tenement, and then from 1928 until 1974, 326 and 328 East 4th Street were converted to house a Hungarian Synagogue. Later, these buildings became the home of the Uranian Phalanstry, a self-described “anarchist utopian commune for practitioners of art and cosmology” founded by artists Richard Oviet Tyler and Dorthea Tyler. The group moved to the Upper West Side in 2010, after selling its two houses to a real estate developer. Village Preesrvation 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.