221 East 5th Street

East Village | built 1896

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.

1896
George Pelham builds a six-story tenement at 221 East 5th Street with homes for 22 families over shops
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Architect George Frederick Pelham designed the building for Joseph L. Buttenweiser, and it housed 22 families above ground-floor stores. The brick, limestone and terra-cotta front has round-arched windows on the fifth floor, a recessed arched entrance and sunburst details above the sixth-story windows.
Source: buildingblocks.villagepreservation.org
1896
Pelham reuses the same facade for developer Buttenwieser on a dozen East Village tenements, this one included
Pelham designed twelve tenements for the developer Buttenwieser in what is now the East Village district, most with identical or nearly identical fronts. The group runs from this 1896 building on East 5th Street through several on East 7th and East 4th Streets and 417 East 6th Street, finished by 1898.
“…most of which utilize identical or nearly identical facades: 221 East 5th Street (1896), 94 East 7th Street (1896), 70 to 74 East 7th Street (1896-97)…”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1938
The ground-floor shops at 221 East 5th Street are replaced with an apartment-house front
In 1938 architect O. E. Kurth redesigned the ground floor for owner Dofront Realty Corp., removing the storefronts and putting in a residential facade. The building's cornice was lost at some point between about 1940 and 1988.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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