Schuchman Apartments

126 East 12th Street | East Village | built 1900

Open on the map4 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1. 1900

   Architect John G. Prague designs a bachelor apartment house at 126 East 12th Street

   In 1900, Judge John P. Schuchman bought two older houses on East 12th Street, and John G. Prague filed plans for a six-story brick and stone apartment building there at an estimated cost of $60,000. Each floor held four five-room apartments, which the Herald called a bachelor apartment house, with an elevator and steam heat. Prague, who built mostly on the Upper West Side, put his ornament on the ground floor, where a carved female head forms the keystone of the entrance arch.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

2. 1908

   May 1

   Former judge Schuchman is thrown through a trolley window after his buggy hits the car

   On the evening of May 1, 1908, John P. Schuchman, the building's original owner, was driving a light buggy on Lenox Avenue when his horse bolted and crashed into a trolley car. The former City Court judge was flung through the car's side window and landed in the aisle, where he was treated for cuts. Later that year he moved back to Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, where he died in 1914.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

3. 1937

   March 6

   Federal agents arrest resident See Too after 600 tins of smoking opium are seized

   On March 6, 1937, federal agents arrested See Too, a resident of 126 East 12th Street, on the day a freighter from Shanghai reached Brooklyn with crates addressed to him. Customs officials seized 600 tins of prepared smoking opium. Agents said the larger significance was that the raid broke a link in a smuggling ring stretching from Shanghai to New York.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

4. 2017

   A restoration brings back the Schuchman Apartments' lost cornices

   The building's intermediate and top cornices were removed in the 1960s or 1970s, and around 1937 the ground floor had been covered with stucco. A restoration begun in 2017 installed approximate replicas of the cornices, removed the ground-floor covering, and cleaned and repaired the masonry.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

• The Schuchman Apartments - 126 East 12th StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
• 126 East 12th Street; 126-128 East 12th StreetVillage Preservation: East Village Building Blocks

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• Webster Hall125 East 11th Street | 13 entries
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• 88 3rd Avenue1 entry

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