334-336 East 8th Street | Block : 390 | Lot #24

Description & Building Alterations

The two six-story buildings on lot 24 were constructed in 1898 and designed by architect Michael Bernstein for original owners Isaac Polstein and Louis Cohen. Originally the buildings were considered to be on separate lots and were built to house 26 families each.

The two buildings are accessed by a single door, indicating interior renovations have transpired. The façade is decorated with carved stonework and original arched windows on the ground floor. The building originally contained a cornice, but is now capped by a unifying new brick parapet wall with some textured brickwork.  Each building is five bays wide and clad in light brick.  Some of the decorative features include radiating stone voussoirs at the second story windows and corinthian pilaster capitals below the round arches at the fifth story windows.

This building is home to the headquarters of 504 Democratic Club, a citywide political and lobbying organization that promotes and advances the interests of the disability community in the City of New York.  Often referred to as 504 Dems, it is one of only three citywide political clubs, and the nation’s first and largest club advocating for the civil rights of people with disabilities. Despite the name, 504 Dems has a nonpartisan membership.  Organized in 1983, it is the most recent institutional element in the New York City Disability Rights Movement.