57-59 Second Avenue | Block : 459 | Lot #32

Description & Building Alterations

This nine-story Colonial Revival tenement building was constructed in 1903 and designed by George Frederick Pelham for Joseph Witner.

Pelham incorporated hard burnt brick and decorative white terra cotta lintels on this building. Along the two projecting side bays of windows that flank the main building, terra cotta is used to create horizontal lines approximately every foot. The two stores at the ground level have storefronts of fixed glass with a central door in the center that leads up to the apartments. There were cornices on the facade above the ground floor, the eighth floor and the roof that have been removed. The stoop was removed and the entrance reconfigured.

In 1905, union leader and suffragette Rose Schneiderman moved to this recently constructed building with her mother and three younger siblings. While here, she served as the Jewish Socialist United Cloth Hat and Cap Marker’s Union secretary, as well as a delegate to the New York Central Labor Union. She also participated in a 13-week capmakers’ strike in 1905 when the company attempted to launch an open shop policy. Schneiderman lived at this address until about 1910.

From 1907 on, Schneiderman committed herself to the New York Women’s Trade Union League (NYWTUL), which was made up of middle- and upper-class reformers seeking to unionize working women and advocate for protective legislation. As Vice President, Schneiderman was given a stipend which allowed her to work full-time as the union’s East Side organizer. She spent the next thirty-five years with the organization, organizing the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union from 1909 to 1914 and the 1909 Shirtwaist Strike.  In 1911, she participated in founding the Wage Earner’s League for Woman Suffrage and promoted the Ohio suffrage referendum in 1912. She served as president of the NYWTUL from 1917 to 1949, and the national branch from 1926 to 1950.

The building is referred to as the “Victoria” on a 1916 Bromley map.