209 East 5th Street

East Village | built 1910

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

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

1865
Robert Strad builds a lone five-story tenement at 209 East 5th Street
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While neighbors on East 5th Street went up in rows, Robert Strad put up this tenement by himself in 1865-66, on a single lot. It belongs to the 'pre-law' generation of East Village tenements, built before the Tenement House Act of 1879 set stricter standards. The landmarks commission's 2012 district report counts it among the smaller, individually built tenements of the 1860s.
“Robert Strad built the individual tenement at 209 East 5th Street in 1865-66.”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1890
A basement saloon here, Zum groben Michel, serves as a hub for German-speaking anarchists
In the late nineteenth century the basement of 209 East 5th Street held a saloon called Zum groben Michel, which can be rendered 'Rough Mike's' or 'Tough Mike's.' According to Tom Goyens's study of German anarchism in New York, it served as an unofficial headquarters for the city's German-speaking Communists and anarchists. Emma Goldman is said to have been a regular.
Source: buildingblocks.villagepreservation.org

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