Lower East Side II Houses

620 East 5th Street | also 624 East 5th Street, 628 East 5th Street, 644 East 5th Street | East Village | built 1988

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.

1887
The Aguilar Free Library opens a branch for Jewish immigrants on this site
The Aguilar Free Library Society, founded in 1886 to bring reading rooms to the Lower East Side's Jewish immigrant community, opened one of its first three branches at 624 East 5th Street in 1887. The branch relocated to 616 East 5th Street in 1896 and became a forerunner of the New York Public Library's Tompkins Square branch, which opened in 1904.
Source: buildingblocks.villagepreservation.org
1988
NYCHA completes the Lower East Side II Houses on this superblock
Architect Robert Yauch designed seven low-rise buildings totaling 48 apartments for the New York City Housing Authority, completed in 1988 on a site that had held dozens of separate tenement lots. Each building runs only half as deep as its lot, leaving a large yard behind. The complex replaced a mix of old-law tenements, two synagogues, a bakery, and Turkish baths that had lined the block.
Source: buildingblocks.villagepreservation.org

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