37 First Avenue | Block : 444 | Lot #40

Building Date : 1870
Original Use : Residential

Original Owner : Allan Hay
Original Architect : Kinkel & Klemly

Description & Building Alterations

This five-story brick tenement building was built in 1870 by owner Allan Hay, owner of the Allan Hay & Co. soap and candle factory that was on this site and the lots to the north along First Avenue. The factory was destroyed in a fire in 1863. This tenement was built along with Nos. 33 & 35 First Avenue and 84 East 2nd Street.

The three-bay wide Italianate facade features a bracketed and modillioned cornice, arched window lintels and sills, and historic piers framing the entrance.

Block : 444 / Lot : 040 / Building Date : 1870 / Original Owner : Allan Hay / Original Use : Residential / Original Architect : Kinkel & Klemly

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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.