29 1st Avenue
also 87 East 2nd Street | East Village | built 1910
Open on the map3 entries
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.
- 1871
William Jose designs a tenement at the First Avenue corner
Architect William Jose designed a two-story tenement for owner Ferdinand Emerling in 1871, later raised to five stories by 1897. The Romanesque Revival facade features foliated spandrels, decorative friezes, and terra-cotta animal-head keystones above the storefront.
- 1918
Gringer & Sons opens as an appliance store at 29 First Avenue
Gringer & Sons began selling household appliances from the ground floor of the corner tenement in 1918. The store has operated continuously at the address for more than a century, outlasting most of its East Village retail neighbors.
Source: Ephemeral New York
- 1953
Philip Gringer commissions a yellow neon storefront sign
Owner Philip Gringer had a yellow neon sign made advertising General Electric color televisions and air conditioners, some no longer manufactured. The stylized GE logos required specialized neon craftsmanship, and the sign survives as one of the East Village's oldest working neon signs.
Source: Ephemeral New York
Further reading
- 33 First AvenueVillage Preservation: East Village Building Blocks
- 87 East 2nd StreetVillage Preservation: East Village Building Blocks
- The century-old appliance store that has one of the East Village’s oldest neon signsEphemeral New York
Nearby
- 80 East 2nd Street2 entries
- 77 East 2nd Street1 entry
- 39 1st Avenue1 entry
- 78 East 2nd Street3 entries
- 75 East 2nd Street3 entries
- 13 1st Avenue2 entries