82-611: SoHo , short for "South of Houston Street ", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan , New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, and has also been known for its variety of shops ranging from trendy upscale boutiques to national and international chain store locations. The area's history is an archetypal example of inner-city regeneration and gentrification , encompassing socioeconomic , cultural, political, and architectural developments. The name "SoHo" derives from
164-656: A common cattle pen that was shared by their community, and later helped to construct the wall of Wall Street that replaced the initial palisade. Half-free status was not supposed to extend to children of the landholders under the Dutch rule, but in practice this seems to have been obviated, and plots were passed on to the next generation. Governor Stuyvesant diminished African properties by appropriating some of them to himself in Stuyvesant Farm , some through purchases and some through fiat, though most stayed intact. After
246-475: A former crossing farther downtown over the Broad Canal . There was not a municipal government for the village, but a series of land grants. Village Preservation , using a map from The Iconography of Manhattan Island , has documented 28 land grants, which were mostly contiguous in one area. Three of the land grants were a bit to the south, and not connected to the main part. A later neighborhood, after
328-589: A half-dozen neighborhood groups, led by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation , put forth a "community alternative plan" which they claimed would create more affordable housing without any major new development, and a report attacking the city's plan, a claim that was challenged by the city and other civic organizations. Carl Weisbrod , former chairman of the New York City Planning Commission said
410-543: A higher rate of college-educated residents than the rest of the city. The vast majority of residents age 25 and older (84%) have a college education or higher, while 4% have less than a high school education and 12% are high school graduates or have some college education. By contrast, 64% of Manhattan residents and 43% of city residents have a college education or higher. The percentage of SoHo and Greenwich Village students excelling in math rose from 61% in 2000 to 80% in 2011, and reading achievement increased from 66% to 68% during
492-439: A larger neighborhood tabulation area called SoHo-TriBeCa-Civic Center-Little Italy. Based on data from the 2010 United States Census , the population of SoHo-TriBeCa-Civic Center-Little Italy was 42,742, a change of 5,985 (14%) from the 36,757 counted in 2000 . Covering an area of 581.62 acres (235.37 ha), the neighborhood had a population density of 73.5 inhabitants per acre (47,000/sq mi; 18,200/km). The racial makeup of
574-530: A lively theater and shopping district and the entertainment center of New York; as usual with such areas, it was home to many brothels as well, and the side streets off of Broadway became the city's red-light district . As this change in character drove out the middle-class, their place was taken by small manufacturing concerns, including cabinet-makers and the lumberyards that supplied them, brass and copper firms, makers of china and glassware, locksmiths, snuff manufacturers and book publishers. This dramatic shift in
656-491: Is 0.0095 milligrams per cubic metre (9.5 × 10 oz/cu ft), more than the city average. Sixteen percent of SoHo and Greenwich Village residents are smokers , which is more than the city average of 14% of residents being smokers. In SoHo and Greenwich Village, 4% of residents are obese , 3% are diabetic , and 15% have high blood pressure , the lowest rates in the city – compared to the citywide averages of 24%, 11%, and 28% respectively. In addition, 5% of children are obese,
738-559: Is 38% in SoHo and Greenwich Village, compared to the boroughwide and citywide rates of 45% and 51% respectively. Based on this calculation, as of 2018, SoHo and Greenwich Village are considered high-income relative to the rest of the city and not gentrifying . SoHo and Lower Manhattan are patrolled by the 1st Precinct of the NYPD , at 16 Ericsson Place. The 1st Precinct ranked 63rd safest out of 69 city precincts for per-capita crime in 2010. Though
820-622: Is a station at Seventh Avenue, for the Houston Street ( 1 and 2 trains). The Bleecker Street station ( 4 , 6 , and <6> trains) has station entrances on the north side of Houston Street, due to its connection with the Broadway – Lafayette Street station as part of a larger station complex. Exit 5 on the FDR Drive is on Houston Street. The street also connects directly with
902-463: Is at 75 Sullivan Street. The New York Public Library 's Mulberry Street branch is located at 10 Jersey Street, where it occupies three floors of a former SoHo chocolate factory, including two basement levels. Houston Street Houston Street ( / ˈ h aʊ s t ən / HOW -stən ) is a major east–west thoroughfare in Lower Manhattan in New York City , United States. It runs
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#1732794441056984-402: Is disputed. In 1974, shortly after SoHo first came into existence, The New York Times described the boundaries as "stretching from Houston to Canal Streets between West Broadway and Lafayette Street " – a definition it continued to hold to in 2016 – but The Encyclopedia of New York City reports that SoHo is bounded by Crosby Street on the east, and Sixth Avenue to the west. These are
1066-576: Is higher than the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods. Most inhabitants are adults: a plurality (42%) are between the ages of 25 and 44, while 24% are between 45 and 64, and 15% are 65 or older. The ratio of youth and college-aged residents was lower, at 9% and 10% respectively. As of 2017, the median household income in Community Districts 1 and 2 (including the Financial District and Tribeca )
1148-738: Is now the M9 between Avenues A and C . Additional service is provided by the eastbound M14D SBS east of Avenue D and the downtown M15 from Second Avenue to Allen Street. The M15 SBS doesn’t make any stops on Houston Street. A portion of the New York City Subway 's IND Sixth Avenue Line runs under Houston Street, between Sixth Avenue to just before Avenue A ; there are stations at Second Avenue ( F and <F> trains) and Broadway – Lafayette Street ( B , D , F , <F> , and M trains). Additionally, there
1230-557: Is patrolled by the 1st and 5th Precincts of the New York City Police Department . Because of the nature of neighborhoods in New York City, different sources will often give different boundaries for each one. In the case of SoHo, all sources appear to agree that the northern boundary is Houston Street , and the southern boundary is Canal Street , but the location of the eastern and western boundaries
1312-402: Is pronounced " HYOO -stən " (" / ˈ h juː s t ən / "). The street was named for William Houstoun , whose surname was pronounced " HOW -stən ", while the city was named for Sam Houston . At its east end, Houston Street meets FDR Drive in an interchange at East River Park . West of FDR Drive, it intersects with Avenue D . Further west, other streets, including First Avenue ,
1394-412: Is served by two New York City Fire Department (FDNY) fire stations: Preterm births are more common in SoHo and Greenwich Village than in other places citywide, though teenage births are less common. In SoHo and Greenwich Village, there were 91 preterm births per 1,000 live births (compared to 87 per 1,000 citywide), and 1 teenage birth per 1,000 live births (compared to 19.3 per 1,000 citywide), though
1476-671: The Bellevue Hospital Center and NYU Langone Medical Center in Kips Bay , and NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital in the Civic Center area. SoHo is within two primary ZIP Codes . The area north of Broome Street is in 10012 while the area south of Broome Street is in 10013. The United States Postal Service operates two post offices near SoHo both in ZIP 10014: SoHo and Greenwich Village generally have
1558-621: The Bowery , Lafayette Street and Broadway , intersect Houston Street. The Broadway intersection is the division point between East Houston Street and West Houston Street. Sixth Avenue intersects Houston Street at a curve in the road in Greenwich Village . East of Sixth Avenue, Houston street is bidirectional and separated by a median ; west of Sixth, the street is narrower and unidirectional westbound. West Houston Street terminates at an intersection with West Street near Pier 40 on
1640-649: The Dutch West India Company in the wake of Kieft's War . This buffer area with the native Lenape is sometimes considered the first free African settlement in North America, although the landowners had half-free status. Its name comes from descriptions in 1640s land conveyances of white-owned properties as bordering the hereditament or freehold "of the Blacks". There were about 30 African-owned farms over about 130 acres centered in
1722-514: The Dutch West India Company , not by private slaveholders. In 1644, eleven African men who had been under the WIC for "18 or 19 years" that likely included military experience, pressed their rights in the courts in a predecessor to freedom suits , and became recognized as part of a new half-free social class of the colony, being granted lands at about the same time. These "African Eleven", who would have arrived in 1625 or 1626, may have had seniority as
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#17327944410561804-533: The Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), the city's largest real estate trade organization, had shown no interest in a rezoning of SoHo and NoHo. The proposal was immediately contentious; while most major candidates in the Democratic mayoral and Manhattan borough president primaries endorsed the plan, at least in principle, candidates for the city council district were more divided. A group of
1886-502: The West Side Highway ; however, by then, Houston Street is westbound-only. Land of the Blacks (Manhattan) [REDACTED] The Land of the Blacks ( Dutch : t' Erf van Negros , also Negro Frontier or Free Negro Lots ) was a village settled by people of African descent north of the wall of New Amsterdam from about 1643 to 1716. It represented an economic, legal and military modus vivendi reached with
1968-678: The West Village to the north; and the Lower East Side , most of the Bowery , Nolita , and SoHo to the south. The numeric street-naming grid in Manhattan, created as part of the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 , begins immediately north of Houston Street with 1st Street at Avenue A . The street's name is pronounced " HOW -stən " (" / ˈ h aʊ s t ən / "), in contrast to the city of Houston , Texas, whose name
2050-638: The seizure of New Netherland in 1664 and its incorporation into the Province of New York , the rights of the Free Negro social group were gradually eroded. Stuyvesant affirmed some of the properties in a letter to the English in 1665. Shortly after the English conquest, Jasper Danckaerts wrote of the community in his travel memoir: We went from the city, following the Broadway [ Bowery ], over
2132-502: The 1639 Manatus Map as living in quarters farther north at the mouth of the Sawkill , though this is not recorded elsewhere, and may have been either an error or a temporary measure due to military efforts. The settlement was created as a buffer area (a sort of military march ) by the succeeding governor Willem Kieft when Dutch people evacuated the region due to Kieft's War against the native Lenape people. Although their freedom
2214-437: The 1950s, the area had become known as Hell's Hundred Acres , an industrial wasteland, full of sweatshops and small factories in the daytime, but empty at night. It would not be until the 1960s, when artists began to be interested in the tall ceilings and many windows of the empty manufacturing lofts, that the character of the neighborhood began to change again. SoHo boasts the greatest collection of cast-iron architecture in
2296-631: The District. During the colonial period, the land that is now SoHo was part of a grant of farmland given to freed slaves of the Dutch West Indies Company , and the site of the first free Black settlement on Manhattan island. This land was acquired in the 1660s by Augustine Hermann, and then passed to his brother-in-law, Nicholas Bayard. The estate was confiscated by the state as a result of Bayard's part in Leisler's Rebellion , but
2378-456: The GVSHP's report was "misleading and disingenuous", and a spokesman for the mayor's office described the "community alternative plan" as "an exercise in magical thinking". In July 2021, the area's community board voted to reject the proposal, although the vote was ultimately non-binding. In September 2021, Manhattan Borough president Gale Brewer expressed concerns about the plan, particularly
2460-628: The Hudson River. Houston Street is named for William Houstoun , who was a delegate from the state of Georgia to the Continental Congress from 1784 through 1786 and to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. The street was christened by Nicholas Bayard (b. 1736), whose daughter, Mary, was married to Houstoun in 1788. The couple met while Houstoun, a member of an ancient and aristocratic Scottish family,
2542-550: The Hudson River. The SoHo–Cast Iron Historic District is contained within the zoned SoHo neighborhood. Originally ending in the west at the eastern side of West Broadway and to the east at the western side of Crosby Street, the SoHo–Cast Iron Historic District was expanded in 2010 to cover most of West Broadway and to extend east to Lafayette and Centre Streets. The boundary lines are not straight, and some block-fronts on West Broadway and Lafayette are excluded from
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2624-536: The M1-5a and M-5b districting was established to permit visual artists, certified as such by the Department of Cultural Affairs, to live where they worked. In 1987, non-artists residing in SoHo and NoHo were permitted to grandfather themselves, but that was the only extension to non-artists and was a one-time agreement. The area received landmark designation as the SoHo–Cast Iron Historic District in 1973. In 2005,
2706-510: The appeal of lofts as living spaces, its architecture, and its reputation as a haven for artists all contributed to this change. The pattern of gentrification is typically known as the "SoHo Effect" and has been observed elsewhere in the United States. A backwater of poor artists and small factories in the 1970s, SoHo became a popular tourist destination for people seeking fashionable clothing and exquisite architecture, and home to some of
2788-729: The area being "South of Houston Street ", and was coined in 1962 by Chester Rapkin, an urban planner and author of The South Houston Industrial Area study, also known as the "Rapkin Report". The name also recalls Soho , an area in London 's West End . Almost all of SoHo is included in the SoHo–Cast Iron Historic District , which was designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1973, extended in 2010, and
2870-401: The cast iron. An American architectural innovation, cast iron was cheaper to use for facades than materials such as stone or brick. Molds of ornamentation, prefabricated in foundries, were used interchangeably for many buildings, and a broken piece could be easily recast. The buildings could be erected quickly; some were built in four months. Despite the brief construction period, the quality of
2952-451: The cast-iron designs was not sacrificed. Bronze had previously been the metal most frequently used for architectural detail. Architects found that the relatively inexpensive cast iron could provide intricately designed patterns. Classical French and Italian architectural designs were often used as models for these facades. Because stone was the material associated with architectural masterpieces, cast iron, painted in neutral tints such as beige,
3034-486: The city in the 1970s. The upper floors of many of these buildings had been built as commercial Manhattan lofts , which provided large, unobstructed spaces for manufacturing and other industrial uses. These spaces attracted artists who valued them for their large areas, large windows admitting natural light and low rents. Most of these spaces were also used illegally as living space, despite being neither zoned nor equipped for residential use. This widespread zoning violation
3116-465: The coalition put forward a rezoning plan that would produce 3,400 additional housing units, nearly 700 of which would be affordable, and later that month the city officially proposed a similar plan that envisaged the creation of 3,200 new residential units and up to 800 affordable units. Observers suggested that the coalition's campaign for a residential rezoning had spurred a previously reluctant mayor to act, noting that even real estate industry groups like
3198-412: The cold water used to extinguish fire. In 1899, a building code mandating the backing of cast-iron fronts with masonry was passed. Most of the buildings that stand today are constructed in this way. It was the advent of steel as a major construction material that brought an end to the cast iron era. In the 1960s, the SoHo area was to have been the location of two enormous elevated highways that comprised
3280-435: The construction of residential buildings on empty lots in the historic district was permitted. Nevertheless, with no enforcement of the new zoning laws by the city, beginning in the 1980s, in a way that would later apply elsewhere, the neighborhood began to draw more affluent residents. Due to rent protection and stability afforded by the 1982 Loft Law , in addition to the fact that many of the artists owned their co-ops, many of
3362-486: The current Houston Street, from Sixth Avenue to the West Side Highway , was known as "Hammersley Street" (also spelled "Hamersly Street") until the middle 19th century, and was inside Greenwich Village . It later came to be regarded as the Village's southern boundary. In 1891, Nikola Tesla established his laboratory on Houston Street. Much of Tesla's research was lost in an 1895 fire. The street, originally narrow,
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3444-657: The dispossessions of property, was called Little Africa in Greenwich Village . Its legacy is preserved at the African Burial Ground National Monument . A 2020 resolution by Manhattan Community Board 2 supported the commemoration of the African landholding community, otherwise publicly unmarked, and pointed to the suitability of a potential monument in Washington Square Park . In 2021, a temporary digital exhibition at
3526-466: The enlarged windows. The strength of cast iron permitted high ceilings with sleek supporting columns, and interiors became expansive and functional. During cast iron's heyday, many architects thought it to be structurally more sound than steel. It was also thought that cast iron would be fire-resistant, and facades were constructed over many interiors built of wood and other flammable materials. When exposed to heat, cast iron buckled, and later cracked under
3608-465: The first enslaved men ever brought to the colony, predating the group from the ship Bruin Visch in 1628, which included the first African women. Africans had largely built the fortifications of New Netherland , including Fort Amsterdam and the northern palisade , and combat veterans among them may have been given preferential treatment in the assignment of lands. Enslaved Africans are also depicted on
3690-669: The first of the New York slave codes were passed, which further limited freedom of the African community in New York. African land ownership in the area was effectively ended by anti-Black legislation passed after the New York Slave Revolt of 1712 , which included a ban on inheritance of property. The revolt was blamed on two groups, Smith's Fly Boys in the modern East Village, and the Long Bridge Boys , after
3772-634: The full width of the island of Manhattan , from FDR Drive along the East River in the east to the West Side Highway along the Hudson River in the west. The street is divided into west and east sections by Broadway . Houston Street generally serves as the boundary between neighborhoods on the East Side of Manhattan— Alphabet City , the East Village , NoHo , Greenwich Village , and
3854-437: The importance of the artery to the city. Nevertheless, through the efforts of Jane Jacobs , Tony D'Apolito, Margot Gayle , and other local, civic, and cultural leaders, as well as SoHo artist residents themselves, the project was derailed. After the abandonment of the highway scheme, the city was left with a large number of historic buildings that were unattractive for the kinds of manufacturing and commerce that survived in
3936-469: The island, but which had become polluted and rank and a breeding ground for mosquitoes. A canal was built to drain the pond into the Hudson, and the canal and pond were both later filled in using earth from nearby Bayard's Hill. Once Broadway was paved and sidewalks were built there and along Canal Street, more people began to make their homes there, joining earlier arrivals such as James Fenimore Cooper . By
4018-553: The lowest rate in the city, compared to the citywide average of 20%. Ninety-six percent of residents eat some fruits and vegetables every day, which is more than the city's average of 87%. In 2018, 91% of residents described their health as "good", "very good", or "excellent", more than the city's average of 78%. For every supermarket in SoHo and Greenwich Village, there are 7 bodegas . The nearest major hospitals are Beth Israel Medical Center in Stuyvesant Town , as well as
4100-568: The mainly residential and commercial present-day reality of the neighborhood. A coalition of nearly two dozen housing and social organizations, led by pro-housing advocacy group Open New York , and including the Citizens Housing and Planning Council , the Regional Plan Association , and Habitat for Humanity , seized on the idea of a rezoning as a means of alleviating the city's housing shortage . In October 2019,
4182-581: The mid-19th century, the early Federal - and Greek Revival -style homes were replaced by more-solid structures of masonry and cast iron, and along Broadway, large marble-skinned commercial establishments began to open, such as Lord & Taylor , Arnold Constable & Company and Tiffany & Company , as well as grand hotels such as the St. Nicholas and the Metropolitan. Theatres followed in their wake, and Broadway between Canal and Houston Streets became
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#17327944410564264-492: The modern neighborhoods of Greenwich Village and SoHo , including all of the area surrounding Washington Square Park . The area was formerly known as Noortwyck , where the ousted Dutch governor Wouter van Twiller had owned a large tobacco farm, Bossen Bouwerie , built on the earlier Lenape settlement of Sapokanikan . Africans in the area had experienced slavery in New Amsterdam and were controlled by
4346-507: The most expensive real estate in the country. SoHo's chain outlets are clustered in the northern area of the neighborhood, along Broadway and Prince and Spring Streets . The sidewalks in this area are often crowded with tourists and with vendors selling jewelry, T-shirts, and other works. SoHo is known for its commercialization and eclectic mix of boutiques for shopping – although in 2010, it had twice as many chain stores as boutiques and three times as many boutiques as art galleries. Despite
4428-567: The nature of the neighborhood continued to drive out residents, and between 1860 and 1865 the Eighth Ward, which included the SoHo area, lost 25% of its population. After the Civil War and the Panic of 1873 , in the 1880s and 1890s, large manufacturers began to move into the area, especially textile firms, and the area became the mercantile and wholesale dry-goods trade center of the city, and
4510-510: The neighborhood was 66.1% (28,250) White , 2.2% (934) African American , 0.1% (30) Native American , 22.2% (9,478) Asian , 0% (11) Pacific Islander , 0.4% (171) from other races , and 2.6% (1,098) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.5% (2,770) of the population. The entirety of Community District 2, which comprises SoHo and Greenwich Village, had 91,638 inhabitants as of NYC Health 's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 85.8 years. This
4592-641: The number of crimes is low compared to other NYPD precincts, the residential population is also much lower. With a non-fatal assault rate of 10 per 100,000 people, SoHo's rate of violent crimes per capita is less than that of the city as a whole. The incarceration rate of 100 per 100,000 people is also lower than that of the city as a whole. The 1st Precinct has a lower crime rate than in the 1990s, with crimes across all categories having decreased by 86.3% between 1990 and 2018. The precinct saw 1 murder, 23 rapes, 80 robberies, 61 felony assaults, 85 burglaries, 1,085 grand larcenies, and 21 grand larcenies auto in 2018. SoHo
4674-557: The official map drawn in 1811 to establish the street grid that is still current. In those years, the Texas hero Sam Houston , for whom the street is sometimes incorrectly said to have been named, was an unknown teenager in Tennessee . Also mistaken is the explanation that the name derives from the Dutch words huis for house and tuin for garden. The narrow, westernmost stretch of
4756-641: The original pioneering artists remained despite the popular misconception that gentrification forced them to flee. Many residents have lived in the neighborhood for decades. In the mid-1990s, most of the galleries moved to Chelsea, but several galleries remain as of 2013, including DTR Modern Galleries, William Bennett Gallery, Martin Lawrence Galleries , Terrain Gallery , Franklin Bowles Gallery, and Pop International Gallery. SoHo's location,
4838-626: The possibility that the occupied space might be needed for the return of manufacturing to New York City. Pressured on many sides, and organizations such as the Artist Tenant Association and later the Soho Artist Association, the city abandoned attempts to keep the district as strictly industrial space, and in 1971, the Zoning Resolution was amended to permit Joint Live-Work Quarters for artists, and
4920-533: The potential for the plan to incentivize commercial development rather than residential, a criticism echoed by some of the housing advocates who had initially pushed for the plan. In 2022, a team of over 2,000 players constructed a recreation of Soho in the sandbox game Minecraft , as part of the COVID-19 Build the Earth movement. For census purposes, the New York City government classifies SoHo as part of
5002-532: The same boundaries shown by Google Maps . However, the AIA Guide to New York City gives the western boundary of SoHo north of Broome Street as being West Broadway, and New York magazine gives the eastern boundary as Lafayette Street and the western boundary as the Hudson River . The map at the Community Board 2 profile page on New York City's official website has "SOHO" written near Broadway in
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#17327944410565084-585: The same time period. SoHo and Greenwich Village's rate of elementary school student absenteeism is lower than the rest of New York City. In SoHo and Greenwich Village, 7% of elementary school students missed twenty or more days per school year , less than the citywide average of 20%. Additionally, 91% of high school students in SoHo and Greenwich Village graduate on time, more than the citywide average of 75%. There are no New York City Department of Education schools in SoHo, although there are several just outside its borders, including: The Montessori School in SoHo
5166-407: The significant change in the neighborhood's character in the previous decades, by the end of the 2010s the area's zoning still reflected its industrial heritage; any new residential development required special permits. As such, in 2019 the city began a public consultation process called "Envision SoHo/NoHo" to plan for future growth and manage change, and ultimately to bring land use rules in line with
5248-505: The space roughly equidistant between Houston Street and Canal Street. In the 1990s, real estate agents began giving an adjacent neighborhood below West Houston Street various appellations, with no general agreement on whether it should be called (or included as part of) West SoHo, Hudson Square or the South Village . The AIA Guide calls that neighborhood "An intersection of brick and glass, searching for an identity", and refers to
5330-482: The street serves as SoHo's northern boundary; another, narrower neighborhood north of Houston Street is correspondingly called NoHo . In 1971, Houston Street became the southernmost street in Manhattan to extend between both the Hudson and East Rivers, when the World Trade Center was constructed and deprived Fulton Street of that title. With the reconstruction of the World Trade Center , Fulton Street
5412-411: The teenage birth rate is based on a small sample size. SoHo and Greenwich Village have a low population of residents who are uninsured . In 2018, this population of uninsured residents was estimated to be 4%, less than the citywide rate of 12%, though this was based on a small sample size. The concentration of fine particulate matter , the deadliest type of air pollutant , in SoHo and Greenwich Village
5494-486: The threat to other historic structures, challenged the plans because of the threatened loss of a huge quantity of 19th-century cast-iron buildings. When John V. Lindsay became mayor of New York City in 1966, his initial reaction was to try to push the expressways through, dubbing the project the Lower Manhattan Expressway, depressing some of the proposed highway in residential areas and stressing
5576-617: The two branches of the Lower Manhattan Expressway , a Robert Moses project that was intended to create an automobile and truck through-route connecting the Manhattan Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge on the east with the Holland Tunnel on the west. The young historic preservation movement and architectural critics, stung by the destruction of the original Pennsylvania Station in 1963 and
5658-510: The valley or the fresh water. Upon both sides of this way there were many habitations of negroes, mulattoes and whites. The negroes were formerly the slaves of the West India Company. But, in consequence of the frequent changes and conquests of the country, they have obtained their freedom, and settled themselves down where they thought proper, and thus on this road, where they have grown enough to live on with their families. In 1702,
5740-531: The western section of it as "The Glass Box District". Unlike Hudson Square, the South Village has traditionally appeared on maps of Community District 2, centered near the intersection of Houston Street and Avenue of the Americas. The more recent map of Community District 2 contains both the South Village and Hudson Square, with the latter written in the area below Houston Street, between Hudson Street and
5822-475: The world. Approximately 250 cast-iron buildings stand in New York City, and the majority are in SoHo. Cast iron was initially used as a decorative front over a pre-existing building. With the addition of modern, decorative facades, older industrial buildings were able to attract new commercial clients. Most of these facades were constructed during the period from 1840 to 1880. In addition to revitalizing older structures, buildings in SoHo were later designed to feature
5904-412: Was $ 144,878, though the median income in SoHo individually was $ 124,396. In 2018, an estimated 9% of SoHo and Greenwich Village residents lived in poverty, compared to 20% in all of Manhattan and 20% in all of New York City. One in twenty-five residents (4%) were unemployed, compared to 7% in Manhattan and 9% in New York City. Rent burden, or the percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their rent,
5986-512: Was extended past Church Street to West Street , but is closed off to vehicular traffic west of Church Street . A reconstruction project rebuilt parts of the street between 2005 and 2018. As of 2024 , Houston Street is served by the M21 New York City Bus route from Columbia to Washington Streets westbound, and from 6th Avenue to the FDR Drive eastbound. The bus route itself had replaced an earlier streetcar line , which
6068-534: Was forced to mortgage some of the property, which was divided up into lots, but even then there was very little development in the area, aside from some manufacturing at Broadway and Canal Street. Serious development of the area did not begin until the Common Council, answering the complaints of landowners in the area, drained the Collect Pond , which had once been an important source of fresh water for
6150-401: Was ignored for a long period of time, as the artist-occupants were using space for which there was little demand due to the city's poor economy at the time, and would have lain dormant or been abandoned otherwise. Nevertheless, as the artist population grew, the city made some attempts to stem the movement, concerned about the occupation of space that did not meet residential building codes, and
6232-468: Was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1978. It consists of 26 blocks and approximately 500 buildings, many of them incorporating cast-iron architectural elements. Many side streets in the district are paved with Belgian blocks . SoHo is part of Manhattan Community District 2 and its primary ZIP Codes are 10012 and 10013. It
6314-624: Was markedly widened from Sixth Avenue to Essex Street in the early 1930s during construction of the Independent Subway System 's Sixth Avenue Line . The street widening involved demolition of buildings on both sides of the street, resulting in numerous small, empty lots. Although some of these lots have been redeveloped, many of them are now used by vendors, and some have been turned into playgrounds and, more recently, community gardens . Lower Manhattan's SoHo district takes its name from an acronym for "South of Houston", as
6396-658: Was only partial, it is sometimes considered the first free African settlement in North America, that status being more commonly given to Fort Mose founded a century later in Spanish Florida, also as a military measure. It has been argued by historians that Atlantic Creole populations in both places came from communities in Africa with pre-existing European ties such as the Kingdom of Kongo , that helped them to negotiate improved living conditions. Landowning families built
6478-543: Was returned to him after the sentence was annulled. In the 18th century natural barriers – streams and hills – impeded the growth of the city northward into the Bayard estate, and the area maintained its rural character. During the American Revolution , the area was the location of numerous fortifications , redoubts and breastworks . After the war, Bayard, who had suffered financially because of it,
6560-460: Was serving in the Congress. Bayard cut the street through a tract he owned in the vicinity of Canal Street in which he lived, and the city later extended it to include North Street , the northern border of New York's east side at the beginning of the 19th century. The current spelling of the name is a corruption: the street appears as Houstoun in the city's Common Council minutes for 1808 and
6642-579: Was the subject of significant real-estate speculation. This phase came to an end by the close of the 19th century, and as the center of the city continued to move uptown , the quality of the area declined. After World War II , the textile industry largely moved to the South, leaving many large buildings in the district unoccupied. In some buildings they were replaced by warehouses and printing plants, and other buildings were torn down to be replaced by gas stations, auto repair shops and parking lots and garages. By
6724-451: Was used to simulate stone. There was a profusion of cast iron foundries in New York, including Badger's Architectural Iron Works, James L. Jackson's Iron Works, and Cornell Iron Works. Since the iron was pliable and easily molded, sumptuously curved window frames were created, and the strength of the metal allowed these frames considerable height. The once-somber, gas-lit interiors of the industrial district were flooded with sunlight through
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