615 East 6th Street | Block : 389 | Lot #53

Description & Building Alterations

According to Department of Buildings’ documents, no. 615 East 6^th Street is an old law tenement constructed in 1881 as a seven-family building with a workshop on the ground floor. Strangely the building does not have air shafts, which were required by the Old Law, suggesting that it was built at an earlier date. It is five stories in height and four bays wide, clad in brick with a modern stucco first floor, and has a simple fenestration. Ornament at the window openings has been removed but the metal cornice with brackets and modillions is intact. The architect, Julius Boekell, designed the First German Baptist Church, now Congregation Tifereth Israel, at 334 East 14th Street.

In 1908, the workshop at this site was converted into a store, and later the building became entirely residential. Tax photos circa 1940 show window sills that have since been removed.