38 Second Avenue | Block : 444 | Lot #1

Building Date : 1843-45
Original Use : Residential

Original Owner : John Larkin
Original Architect : Unknown

Description & Building Alterations

There are two four-story former tenement buildings on this lot that were altered and combined. No. 38 and No. 40 Second Avenue were merged into one building and covered in pale stucco at some point between 1966 and the 1980s. Before this alteration, No. 38 was four stories and housed a store and dwelling, and No. 40 was also four stories, housing a popular Romanian-Jewish restaurant called Moskowitz & Lupowitz, an office, and two families.

The current building features a sloped green slate roof with no ornament on the facade. No new building records have been found, making it difficult to determine the original architect.

Block : 444 / Lot : 001 / Building Date : 1843-45 / Original Owner : John Larkin / Original Use : Residential / Original Architect : Unknown

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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.