338 East 5th Street

East Village | built 1900

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.

1892
Developer August Ruff builds twin apartment houses on a former factory site
German-born developer August Ruff buys a mineral water factory site for $42,000 in October 1891 and hires architects Frederick Kurtzer and Richard Rohl to design two five-story, $18,000 apartment buildings, including No. 338. The facade mixes Romanesque Revival stonework, Renaissance Revival Corinthian columns at the entrance, and neo-Grec and Queen Anne details above.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
1904
June 15
Three sons of the Metteer family die in the General Slocum disaster
On June 15, 1904, Kate Metteer boards the excursion steamer General Slocum with her six children for a church trip up the East River. Fire breaks out below deck as the vessel enters Hell Gate. Metteer and three of her children, George, William and Elsie, survive, but Albert, Robert and Frederick, aged 11, 10 and 8, are lost.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
2001
Architects Jason Tang and Maki Kawasaki open a design studio in the building
Cornell-educated architects Jason Tang and Maki Kawasaki, both born in 1977, open their Tang Kawasaki Studio at 338 East 5th Street. The partnership takes on interior design, furniture, and architectural commissions from the address.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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