New York Turn Verein Building
66 East 4th Street | also 15 East 3rd Street | East Village | built 1833
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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.
- 1833
Merchants Peck and Phelps build these houses as the centerpiece of their Albion Place terrace
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Around 1832-33 the merchant partners Elisha Peck and Anson G. Phelps, who traded as Peck & Phelps, built a row of Greek Revival houses on East 4th Street known as Albion Place. The two houses now numbered 66 and 68 stood at the middle of the row and were its centerpiece. Each rose three and a half stories above a basement, and the brick below the top story is laid in Flemish bond.
- 1871
The New York Turn Verein turns the two houses into its German gymnastics clubhouse
In 1871 the New York Turn Verein, a German gymnastics society with Socialist leanings, took over the houses at 66 and 68 as its headquarters. The conversion raised the attic to a full fourth story, added a new cornice and ornate window frames, and put a grand entrance where the paired stoop had been. The society dated back to 1850, when it was founded as the Socialistischen Turn Verein.
“…converted in 1871 into the headquarters of the New York Turn Verein, a German gymnastics organization with Socialist political leanings…”
- 1882
Goldfaden's Koldunye plays at Turn Hall, the first Yiddish production in America
In 1882 the Turn Verein's hall staged two Yiddish plays by Abraham Goldfaden, A Frightful Dream and Koldunye (The Sorceress). The program is regarded as the first entirely Yiddish theatrical production in American history. Boris Thomashefsky, a singer and actor born in Ukraine, was among the performers and went on to become one of Yiddish theater's major stars.
- 1899
The building becomes Manhattan Lyceum Hall, an anarchist meeting place where Goldman and Berkman speak
After the Turn Verein moved out, the property was renamed Manhattan Lyceum Hall in 1899 and served as a gathering place for anarchists. Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman both spoke there.
- 1905
Pavel Orlenev and Alla Nazimova open the Orlenev Lyceum, staging Ibsen and Chekhov in Russian
From November 1905 until early 1906 the building housed the Orlenev Lyceum, founded by a troupe of actors from St. Petersburg led by Pavel Orlenev and Alla Nazimova. They performed plays by Ibsen, Chekhov and Gorky in Russian. Emma Goldman acted as the troupe's interpreter and manager, and the Barrymores, Ethel and John, came to see the troupe along with Minnie Maddern Fiske, Margaret Anglin and the producer Henry Miller.
- 1938
The hall reopens as Manhattan Plaza, a catering and dance hall, and later becomes a film studio
In 1938 the building was renamed Manhattan Plaza and converted into a catering facility and dance hall. In 1954 it became a film studio, the Biltmore Studios, which was later known as ABC Stage City.
- 1969
Millennium Film Workshop, an avant-garde film center, starts a 44-year run here
From 1969 until 2013 the Millennium Film Workshop, previously called the Film Project, worked out of 66 East 4th Street. It showed experimental films by Stan Brakhage, Hollis Frampton, Michael Snow, Carolee Schneemann, Kenneth Anger and other avant-garde makers.
- 1974
La MaMa opens an annex in the former Turn Hall
In 1974 La MaMa, a theater company with a long record of featuring and supporting LGBTQ artists, opened its annex in this building. The annex followed the building's earlier lives as a German gymnastics hall, an anarchist lyceum, a catering hall and a film studio.
- 2005
The city sells this and seven other East 4th Street buildings to Fourth Arts Block for a dollar each
In 2005 New York City sold this building and seven other properties on East 4th Street between the Bowery and Second Avenue to the nonprofit Fourth Arts Block, which had been founded in 2001. Each sale was priced at $1. The city had acquired the properties in the 1950s for an urban renewal project that was never carried out.
Further reading
- 66-68 East 4th Street; 15-17 East 3rd StreetVillage Preservation: East Village Building Blocks
Nearby
- 70 East 4th Street4 entries
- 64 East 4th Street2 entries
- Duo Theater62 East 4th Street | 5 entries
- 13 East 3rd Street2 entries
- New York Theatre Workshop, 72 East 4th Street72 East 4th Street | 3 entries
- Fortnight Institute21 East 3rd Street | 1 entry