Opened:

Mar 28, 1887.

Located:

Northeast corner of Avenue B and Eighth St. The address was given as 295 E Eighth St. or 127 Avenue B.

Built to replace:

Eleventh Street LH.

Construction funded by:

Mrs. R. L. Stuart.

Building dimensions:

Four stories plus basement. Ground dimensions: 47 x 93 feet.

Accommodations:

?

Building notes:

Victorian Gothic style, assymmetrical red brick building, high mansard roof with iron crestings on top. The architects were Calvert Vaux, the same who co-designed Central Park, and George Radford.

The main entrance was on Eighth St., but like the Brooklyn LH, it was meant to be used by staff and visitors, and the boys themselves had to enter via a basement door.

Basement: Bathing rooms.

First, second floors: dining room, classrooms and lecture rooms.

Third, fourth floors: dormitories.

The building stands across the street from Tompkins Square Park and also from St. Brigid's Church. The latter was built in 1848 and is today the subject of on-going controversy as to whether it should be demolished to make way for a high-rise.

What became of it?

In 1925, the CAS sold the building and it became the synagogue Talmud Torah Darch Noam. In the 1950's, it became the East Side Hebrew Institute, which made extensive changes to its interior, partioning the space into classrooms, for example. By 1975, the building was abandoned.

Still standing?

Yes! In 1978, Roland Legiardi-Laura began renovating the interior, eventually converting it to a seven-apartment co-op, which is how it still exists today. There is also a yoga-instruction place in the basement.

The building is a designated landmark.

Images.

See "Images" page for Tompkins Square LH..