704 East 5th Street | Block : 374 | Lot #10-16, 59-64

Building Date : NA
Original Use : Community Garden

Original Owner : New York City Parks and Recreation
Original Architect : NA

Description & Building Alterations

Lots 59-64 are now part of El Jardin Del Paraiso community garden. The lots were once the site of four tenements built by developers Feldman & Weiss in 1903 for $100,000. These lots were all vacant by the 1980s according to tax photos from the period.

Children’s book author Sydney Taylor lived in one of the tenement buildings previously on this lot ca. 1905, as did poet and writer Allen Ginsberg from 1964-65.

Block : 374 / Lot : 010-018, 059-064 / Building Date : NA / Original Owner : New York City Parks and Recreation / Original Use : Community Garden / Original Architect : NA

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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.