626 East 11th Street | Block : 393 | Lot #20

Building Date : 1885
Original Use : Residential

Original Owner : Fred Heerlein
Original Architect : Julius Kastner

Description & Building Alterations

This lot is now a Green Thumb community garden. Originally a tenement building constructed along with the buildings on lots 21 and 22, this building likely resembled one of the neighboring buildings on those lots. Tax photos indicate that this lot was vacant by the 1980s.

Block : 393 / Lot : 020 / Building Date : 1885 / Original Owner : Fred Heerlein / Original Use : Residential / Original Architect : Julius Kastner

Do you know this building? Please share your own stories or photos of this building here!

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.