Historic Chinatown Buildings Demolished

Political activist and lower east side crusader, Rob Hollander just sent us an email detailing the demolition of two early 19^th century historic buildings, one a 4-story row house and the other a “diminutive, narrow town house” in Chinatown. According to his blog Save the Lower East Side the buildings were both listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Two Bridges Historic District. The two owners filed in February for "minor alterations" with "no change of use, occupancy or egress" and there is no filing for demolition at the Dept. of Buildings.

Check out his email below:

 

Two of the oldest structures in New York were just demolished on Henry Street, 22 and 24: a four story row house and, next to it, a diminutive, narrow town house. Both must have dated at least as back as the 1820's; the town house may have dated back further. I did not have time to inquire about what is replacing it, but there is a girder structure up already.

 

The screen caps attached, cut from google street maps, don't do justice to them. They were a striking little piece of the early 19th century, unusual because of the pairing of a town house-with-dormers adjacent to a row house with a fully built fourth floor covered by a unique wood awning in lieu of a cornice. I always took visitors to see them on the Chinatown/Five Points tour. After the Mooney House (Pell & Bowery), they were the oldest buildings around, and almost unaltered.

 

The demolition of a town house in Greenwich Village would spark a protest, an outrage and an angry movement, but far to the east in Chinatown, no preservationists seem to notice or care. And yet, these two small buildings were probably older than anything in the Village, and in a neighborhood with a much longer and complex history.

 

 

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Rob Hollander, ph.d.

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