The Cast and the Curious 3: South of Union Square
The neighborhood South of Union Square is one of New York City’s great centers of cast iron architecture. This area includes some of the city’s earliest surviving fully cast-iron buildings, as well as predominantly masonry buildings with distinctive and elaborate cast iron ground floors or ornament. Our South Of Union Square Cast Iron Tour includes 32 examples of cast iron architecture. Click here to read Part I of this series and here to read Part II. Today we look at some other examples:
12 East 12th Street

10-14 East 12th Street was constructed in 1907 by owner Middleboro and Master Builders Realty and Construction Co. and designed by Samuel Sass of Sass & Smallheiser. Three-bays wide and twelve stories in height, it features a two story cast iron base with pediments over each of its two entries with cartouches at their centers.

Ground floor view of 12 East 12th Street
84 University Place

This seven-story Romanesque Revival style building was built in 1894 as a warehouse for Leopold R. True. It was designed by Louis Korn, architect of many landmarked NYC buildings. It is an interesting combination of gray brick, stone, terra cotta and cast iron infill. Graphic designer and artist Stanley Glaubach had a studio here, and Charles Cheriff Galleries was located here for nearly a century.
39 East 13th Street

Built in 1873 for John A. Hadden, and designed by William Field and Son, this building’s original four floors feature a cast-iron front. A three-story glass addition was designed by Phillip Wu of io architects in 2008.
42 East 12th Street

Cleverdon & Putzel designed this seven-story Romanesque Revival loft building in 1894. Its bays feature intact cast iron. In the late 19th century, the building served as a boarding house run by United Hebrew Charities. In the 1970s, it was home to the Film & Dance Theater, as well as the radical Workers Laboratory Theatre.
Many of these buildings South of Union Square are at risk of alteration or demolition, but Village Preservation has been working to protect these properties with our campaign for historic district designation. You can help by sending a letter to city officials calling for the enactment of such protections HERE, and by supporting Village Preservation HERE. You can find out more about the campaign to protect this area HERE. And don’t forget to take the full South Of Union Square Cast Iron Tour, which is part of our South of Union Square Interactive Map + Tours, with the stories behind more than 200 buildings and more than forty tours covering subjects from Women’s History to Writers and Authors, Great Artists to the Civil War, and more.