Storefront for Art and Architecture

87 Kenmare Street | also 13 Cleveland Place | Nolita | built 1900

Open on the map3 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1. 1908

   June

   B. W. Berger & Son build a three-story loft on a pie-shaped sliver left by Kenmare Street

   Clearing for Kenmare Street, a road meant to relieve traffic from the Williamsburg Bridge, left Brooklyn real estate operator Augusta Liebertz with a sliver of land. It was 3 1/2 feet wide on Marion Street (now Cleveland Place) and about 19 feet wide at its eastern end. The firm B. W. Berger & Son designed a three-story loft with beige brick on the upper floors, five stacked bays, a cafe in front and a garage in back. The Real Estate Record & Guide put the cost at $16,000, and the Tribune reported the plans in June 1908.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

2. 1920

   July 16

   A shooting outside the corner restaurant at 87 Kenmare Street kills Alfredo Grassiano

   In the neighborhood called the "whisky curb market," the ground-floor restaurant, run by Giuseppe Alfano, became a haunt of Italian crime figures. On July 16, 1920, Alfredo Grassiano was shot dead outside it, three days after a fight inside with Jerry Ruberto, known as Jerry the Wolf. Police arrested Ruberto as the accused shooter, along with Alfano and others. Ruberto himself died in a shootout at Cafe Venezia in 1922.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

3. 1984

   Storefront for Art and Architecture takes the ground floor at 87 Kenmare Street

   By the late 1970s the building held lofts upstairs and a tire repair shop in back, and photographer Robert Herman lived on one floor. Around 1984 the Storefront for Art and Architecture gallery took the ground level, which Daytonian in Manhattan says marked the start of this section of SoHo's rediscovery. Today the ground floor shows movable panels designed by Steven Holl and Vito Acconci.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

• Storefront for Art and ArchitectureWikipedia
• An Unlikely Pie-Shaped Solution -- Nos. 87-97 Kenmare StreetDaytonian in Manhattan

Nearby

• 25 Cleveland Place4 entries
• 406 Broome Street3 entries
• Former Con Edison substation214 Lafayette Street | 4 entries
• 210 Lafayette Street1 entry
• 194 Lafayette Street2 entries
• New York Dispensary Building (Judson Health Center)34 Spring Street | 3 entries

All 41 buildings with stories in Nolita