Editing East Village, Manhattan (section)

==History==
===Early development===
[[File:Stuyvesant Street.JPG|thumb|300px|[[Stuyvesant Street]], one of the neighborhood's oldest streets, in front of [[St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery]]. This street served as the boundary between boweries 1{{nbs}}and 2, owned by [[Peter Stuyvesant]].]]

The area that is today known as the East Village was originally occupied by the [[Lenape]] Native people.{{sfn|Brazee|Most|2012|p=8}} The Lenape relocated during different seasons, moving toward the shore to fish during the summers, and moving inland to hunt and grow crops during the fall and winter.{{sfn|Burrows|Wallace|1999|pp=5–23}} Manhattan was purchased in 1626 by [[Peter Minuit]] of the [[Dutch West India Company]], who served as director-general of [[New Netherland]].<ref>{{cite web | title=New York City in Indian possession |last=Bolton |first=Reginald Pelham, 1856–1942 |edition=2nd |publisher=Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation |year=1975 |via=Internet Archive | url=https://archive.org/details/newyorkcityinin00bolt | access-date=September 29, 2019 |page=7}}</ref>{{Sfn|Stokes,|1915|loc=vol. 1, p.6}}

The population of the Dutch colony of [[New Amsterdam]] was located primarily below the current [[Fulton Street (Manhattan)|Fulton Street]], while north of it were a number of small plantations and large farms that were then called ''bouwerij'' (anglicized to "boweries"; {{langx|nl|label=modern [[Dutch language|Dutch]]|boerderij}}). Around these farms were a number of enclaves of free or "half-free" Africans, which served as a buffer between the Dutch and the Native Americans.{{sfn|Brazee|Most|2012|p=8}}{{Sfn|Stokes,|1915|loc=vol. 1, pp. 18–20}} One of the largest of these was located along the modern [[Bowery]] between Prince Street and [[Astor Place]], as well as the "only separate enclave" of this type within Manhattan.{{sfn|Brazee|Most|2012|p=8}}<ref>{{cite book | last=Foote | first=T.W. | title=Black and White Manhattan: The History of Racial Formation in Colonial New York City | publisher=Oxford University Press, USA | year=2004 | isbn=978-0-19-508809-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zf3dR6wabKsC | access-date=September 30, 2019 | page=149}}</ref> These Black farmers were some of the earliest settlers of the area.<ref name="encnyc"/>{{rp|769–770}}

There were several "boweries" within what is now the East Village. Bowery no.{{nbs}}2 passed through several inhabitants, before the eastern half of the land was subdivided and given to Harmen Smeeman in 1647. [[Peter Stuyvesant]], the director-general of New Netherland, owned adjacent bowery no.{{nbs}}1 and bought bowery no.{{nbs}}2 in 1656 for [[Stuyvesant Farm|his farm]]. Stuyvesant's manor, also called Bowery, was near what is now 10th Street between Second and Third Avenues. Though the manor burned down in the 1770s, his family held onto the land for over seven generations, until a descendant began selling off parcels in the early 19th century.{{sfn|Brazee|Most|2012|p=5}}{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=9}}

Bowery no. 3 was located near today's 2nd Street between Second Avenue and the modern street named Bowery. It was owned by Gerrit Hendricksen in 1646 and later given to Philip Minthorne by 1732. The Minthorne and Stuyvesant families both held enslaved people on their farms.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=9}} According to an 1803 deed, enslaved people held by Stuyvesant were to be buried in a cemetery plot at [[St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery]].<ref name="Valentine's Manual 1862">{{cite book |title=Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York |last1=Valentine |first1=David Thomas (1801–1869) |publisher=[[New York City Council|New York City Common Council]] (publisher) (see [[New York City Board of Aldermen]]). Edmund Jones & Co. (printer) |year=1862 |via=HathiTrust |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433066343512&view=1up&seq=758 |access-date=September 30, 2019 |page=690 }} {{LCCN|10006227}}; {{OCLC|6671620|show=all}}.<div style="margin-left:2em">Re: ''[[Valentine's Manual]]''.</div></ref> The Stuyvesants' estate later expanded to include two [[Georgian architecture|Georgian]]-style manors: the "Bowery House" to the south{{sfn|Brazee|Most|2012|p=5}}{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=9}} and "Petersfield" to the north.{{sfn|Brazee|Most|2012|p=6}}{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=10}}

Many of these farms had become wealthy country estates by the middle of the 18th century. The Stuyvesant, DeLancey, and Rutgers families would come to own most of the land on the Lower East Side, including the portions that would later become the East Village.{{sfn|Burrows|Wallace|1999|pp=178–179}} By the late 18th century Lower Manhattan estate owners started having their lands surveyed to facilitate the future growth of Lower Manhattan into a [[street grid]] system. The Stuyvesant plot, surveyed in the 1780s or 1790s, was planned to be developed with a new grid around [[Stuyvesant Street]], a street that ran compass west–east. This contrasted with the grid system that was ultimately laid out under the [[Commissioners' Plan of 1811]], which is offset by 28.9 degrees clockwise. Stuyvesant Street formed the border between former boweries 1{{nbs}}and 2, and the grid surrounding it included four north–south and nine west–east streets.{{sfn|Brazee|Most|2012|p=5}}{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=9}}

Because each landowner had done their own survey, there were different street grids that did not align with each other. Various state laws, passed in the 1790s, gave the city of New York the ability to plan out, open, and close streets.{{sfn|Brazee|Most|2012|p=6}}{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=10}} The final plan, published in 1811, resulted in the current street grid north of [[Houston Street]]{{snd}}and most of the streets in the modern East Village{{snd}}were conformed to this plan, except for Stuyvesant Street.{{sfn|Lockwood,|1972|p=196}} The north–south avenues within the Lower East Side were finished in the 1810s, followed by the west–east streets in the 1820s.{{Sfn|Stokes,|1915|loc=vol. 5, p. 1668}}

===Upscale neighborhood===
{{multiple image
|align       = right
|direction   = horizontal
|total_width = 300
|image1      = Hamilton-Holly House.jpg
|image2      = Daniel-leroy-house-20-st-marks.jpg
|caption1    = [[Hamilton-Holly House]]
|caption2    = [[Daniel LeRoy House]]
|footer      = Two of the remaining rowhouses on St. Mark's Place. Both are city landmarks.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=10}}
}}

The Commissioners' Plan and resulting street grid was the catalyst for the northward expansion of the city,{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=11}} and for a short period, the portion of the Lower East Side that is now the East Village was one of the wealthiest residential neighborhoods in the city.<ref name="Saint">{{cite web |first=Christopher |last=Gray |title=Streetscapes / 19–25 St. Marks Place; The Eclectic Life of a Row of East Village Houses |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |date=November 8, 1998 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/08/realestate/streetscapes-19-25-st-marks-place-eclectic-life-row-east-village-houses.html | access-date=September 29, 2019}}</ref> [[Bond Street (Manhattan)|Bond Street]] between the Bowery and Broadway, just west of the East Side within present-day [[NoHo, Manhattan|NoHo]], was considered the most upscale street address in the city by the 1830s,{{sfn|Burrows|Wallace|1999|pp=178–179}} with structures such as the [[Greek Revival architecture|Greek Revival]]-style [[Colonnade Row]] and [[Federal architecture|Federal]]-style [[rowhouse]]s.{{sfn|Brazee|Most|2012|p=7}}{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=10}} The neighborhood's prestigious nature could be attributed to several factors, including a rise in commerce and population following the [[Erie Canal]]'s opening in the 1820s.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=11}}

Following the grading of the streets, development of rowhouses came to the East Side and NoHo by the early 1830s.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=11}} One set of Federal-style rowhouses was built in the 1830s by [[Thomas E. Davis]] on 8th Street between [[Second Avenue (Manhattan)|Second]] and [[Third Avenue]]s. That block was renamed "[[St. Mark's Place (Manhattan)|St. Mark's Place]]" and is one of the few remaining terrace names in the East Village.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=12}} In 1833 Davis and [[Arthur Bronson]] bought the entire block of 10th Street from [[Avenue A (Manhattan)|Avenue A]] to [[Avenue B (Manhattan)|Avenue B]]. The block was located adjacent to [[Tompkins Square Park]], located between 7th and 10th Streets from Avenue A to Avenue B, designated the same year.{{Sfn|Stokes,|1915|loc=vol. 5, pp. 1726–1728}}

Though the park was not in the original Commissioners' Plan of 1811, part of the land from 7th to 10th Streets east of First Avenue had been set aside for a marketplace that was ultimately never built.{{sfn|Brazee|Most|2012|p=8}} Rowhouses up to three stories were built on the side streets by such developers as [[Elisha Peck]] and [[Anson Green Phelps]]; [[Ephraim H. Wentworth]]; and [[Christopher S. Hubbard]] and [[Henry H. Casey]].{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=13}}

Mansions were also built on the East Side. One notable address was the twelve-house development called "Albion Place", located on Fourth Street between the Bowery and Second Avenue, built for Peck and Phelps in 1832–1833.{{sfn|Brazee|Most|2012|p=7}}{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=12}} Second Avenue also had its own concentration of mansions, though most residences on that avenue were row houses built by [[Land speculation|speculative land owners]], including the [[Isaac T. Hopper House]].{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=12}}{{sfn|Lockwood,|1972|p=59}} One ''[[New York Evening Post]]'' article in 1846 said that Second Avenue was to become one of "the two great avenues for elegant residences" in Manhattan, the other being [[Fifth Avenue]].{{sfn|Lockwood,|1972|p=196}}

Two marble cemeteries were also built on the East Side: the [[New York City Marble Cemetery]], built in 1831 on 2nd Street between First and Second Avenues,<ref name="NYCL-0464">{{cite web |url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/0464.pdf |title=New York City Marble Cemetery |date=March 4, 1969 |publisher=[[New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission]]|access-date=September 28, 2019}}</ref>{{rp|1}} and the [[New York Marble Cemetery]], built in 1830 within the backlots of the block to the west.<ref name="NYCL-0466">{{cite web |url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/0466.pdf |title=New York Marble Cemetery |date=March 4, 1969 |publisher=[[New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission]]|access-date=September 28, 2019}}</ref>{{rp|1}} Following the rapid growth of the neighborhood, Manhattan's 17th ward was split from the 11th ward in 1837. The former covered the area from Avenue B to the Bowery, while the latter covered the area from Avenue B to the [[East River]].{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|pp=15–16}}

===Immigrant neighborhood===
====19th century====
{{See also|Little Germany, Manhattan}}
[[File:Little Germany House.jpg|thumb|200px|Former German-American Shooting Society Clubhouse at 12 [[8th Street / St. Mark's Place (Manhattan)|St Mark's Place]] (1885), part of [[Little Germany, Manhattan|Little Germany]]]]

By the middle of the 19th century, many of the wealthy had continued to move further northward to the [[Upper West Side]] and the [[Upper East Side]].<ref name="Dolkart 2012">{{cite book | last=Dolkart | first=Andrew | title=Biography of a Tenement House: An Architectural History of 97 Orchard Street | publisher=Center for American Places at Columbia College | year=2012 | isbn=978-1-935195-29-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OcuBtwAACAAJ | access-date=September 30, 2019 }}</ref>{{rp|10}} Some wealthy families remained, and one observer noted in the 1880s that these families "look[ed] down with disdain upon the parvenus of Fifth avenue".{{sfn|Lockwood,|1972|p=199}} In general, though, the wealthy population of the neighborhood started to decline as many moved northward. Immigrants from modern-day Ireland, Germany, and Austria moved into the rowhouses and manors.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|pp=15–16}}

The population of Manhattan's 17th ward{{snd}}which includes the western part of the East Village and Lower East Side{{snd}}grew from 18,000 in 1840 to over 43,000 by 1850 and to 73,000 persons in 1860, becoming the city's most highly populated ward at that time.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|pp=15–16}}<ref name="Nadel 1990">{{Cite book |first=Stanley |last=Nadel |title=Little Germany: Ethnicity, Religion, and Class in New York City, 1845–80 |location=Urbana |publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=1990 |isbn=0-252-01677-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/littlegermanyeth0000nade }}</ref>{{rp|29, 32}} As a result of the [[Panic of 1837]], the city had experienced less construction in the previous years, and so there was a dearth of units available for immigrants, resulting in the subdivision of many houses in lower Manhattan.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|pp=15–16}}{{sfn|Burrows|Wallace|1999|p=746}}

Another solution was brand-new "tenant houses", or [[tenement]]s, within the East Side.<ref name="Dolkart 2012"/>{{rp|14–15}} Clusters of these buildings were constructed by the [[Astor family]] and [[Stephen Whitney]].{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=17}} The developers rarely involved themselves with the daily operations of the tenements, instead subcontracting landlords (many of them immigrants or their children) to run each building.{{sfn|Burrows|Wallace|1999|pp=448–449, 788}} Numerous tenements were erected, typically with footprints of {{convert|25|by|25|ft}}, before regulatory legislation was passed in the 1860s.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=17}}

To address concerns about unsafe and unsanitary conditions, a second set of laws was passed in 1879, requiring each room to have windows, resulting in the creation of air shafts between each building. Subsequent tenements built to the law's specifications were referred to as [[Old Law Tenement]]s.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=21}}<ref name="Riis 1971"/> Reform movements, such as the one started by [[Jacob Riis]]'s 1890 book ''[[How the Other Half Lives]]'', continued to attempt to alleviate the problems of the area through [[settlement house]]s, such as the [[Henry Street Settlement]], and other welfare and service agencies.<ref name=encnyc />{{rp|769–770}}

Because most of the new immigrants were German speakers, the East Village and the Lower East Side collectively became known as "[[Little Germany, Manhattan|Little Germany]]" ({{langx|de|links=no|Kleindeutschland}}).<ref name="Nadel 1990"/>{{rp|29}}{{sfn|Burrows|Wallace|1999|p=745}}<ref name="Haberstroh"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/a-short-walking-tour-of-new-yorks-lower-east-side-1572853/?no-ist|title=A Short Walking Tour of New York's Lower East Side|author=Susan Spano|work=Smithsonian|access-date=March 29, 2016}}</ref> The neighborhood had the third largest urban population of Germans outside of [[Vienna]] and [[Berlin]]. It was America's first foreign language neighborhood; hundreds of political, social, sports and recreational clubs were set up during this period.{{sfn|Burrows|Wallace|1999|p=745}} Numerous churches were built in the neighborhood, of which many are still extant.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=21}} In addition, Little Germany also had its own library on Second Avenue,<ref name="Haberstroh"/> now the [[New York Public Library]]'s Ottendorfer branch.<ref name="NYPL Ottendorfer"/> However, the community started to decline after the sinking of the ''[[SS General Slocum|General Slocum]]'' on June 15, 1904, in which more than a thousand German-Americans died.<ref name="Haberstroh">{{cite web | last=Haberstroh | first=Richard | title=Kleindeutschland: Little Germany in the Lower East Side | website=LESPI-NY | url=http://www.lespi-nyc.org/history/kleindeutschland-little-germany-in-the-lower-east-side.html | access-date=September 30, 2019 | archive-date=September 30, 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190930214505/http://www.lespi-nyc.org/history/kleindeutschland-little-germany-in-the-lower-east-side.html | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=R. T. |last=O'Donnell |year=2003 |title=Ship ablaze: The tragedy of the steamboat General Slocum |publisher=Broadway Books |location=New York |isbn=0-7679-0905-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/shipablazetraged00odon }}</ref>

The Germans who moved out of the area were replaced by immigrants of many different nationalities.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=22}} This included groups of Italians and Eastern European Jews, as well as Greeks, Hungarians, Poles, Romanians, Russians, Slovaks and Ukrainians, each of whom settled in relatively homogeneous enclaves.<ref name=encnyc/>{{rp|769–770}} In ''How the Other Half Lives'' Riis wrote: "A map of the city, colored to designate nationalities, would show more stripes than on the skin of a zebra, and more colors than any rainbow."<ref name="Riis 1971">{{cite book | last=Riis | first=Jacob | title=How the other half lives : studies among the tenements of New York | publisher=Dover | location=New York | year=1971 | isbn=978-0-486-22012-3 | oclc=139827 }}</ref>{{rp|20}}

One of the first groups to populate the former Little Germany were [[Yiddish]]-speaking [[Ashkenazi Jews]], who first settled south of Houston Street before moving northward.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=23}} The [[Roman Catholic]] [[Polish people|Poles]] as well as the [[Protestant]] [[Hungarians]] would also have a significant impact in the East Side, erecting houses of worship next to each other along 7th Street at the turn of the 20th century. American-born New Yorkers would build other churches and community institutions, including the Olivet Memorial Church at 59 East 2nd Street (built 1891), the Middle Collegiate Church at 112 Second Avenue (built 1891–1892), and the Society of the Music School Settlement, now [[Third Street Music School Settlement]], at 53–55 East 3rd Street (converted 1903–1904).{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|pp=24–25}}

By the 1890s tenements were being designed in the ornate [[Queen Anne architecture in the United States|Queen Anne]] and [[Romanesque Revival architecture|Romanesque Revival]] styles. Tenements built in the later part of the decade were built in the [[Renaissance Revival architecture|Renaissance Revival]] style.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|pp=26–27}} At the time, the area was increasingly being identified as part of the Lower East Side.<ref>{{cite book | last1=Sanders | first1=R. | last2=Gillon | first2=E.V. | title=The Lower East Side: A Guide to Its Jewish Past with 99 New Photographs | publisher=Dover Publications | series=Dover books on New York City | year=1979 | isbn=978-0-486-23871-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Epqr_te4DBsC | access-date=September 1, 2019 | page=13}}</ref>

====20th century====
{{See also|Yiddish Theatre District}}
[[File:Village East former Yiddish Arts Theatre.jpg|thumb|300px|The [[Village East Cinema]]/Louis N. Jaffe Theater was originally a Jewish theater.]]

By the 1890s and 1900s any remaining manors on Second Avenue had been demolished and replaced with tenements or apartment buildings.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|pp=29–30}} The [[New York State Tenement House Act]] of 1901 drastically changed the regulations to which tenement buildings had to conform.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|pp=29–30}}<ref>{{cite book | title=The tenement house laws of the City of New York |date=1901 |via=HathiTrust Digital Library | url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009784289 | access-date=December 10, 2019}}</ref> The early 20th century marked the creation of apartment houses,<ref name="NYTs 1929 Jun 2">{{cite news |title=Creating New Apartment Area on Lower Second Avenue – Second Avenue Awakening |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |date=June 2, 1929 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1929/06/02/archives/creating-new-apartment-area-on-lower-second-avenue-second-avenue.html |volume=78 |issue=26062 |page=1 (column 3; section 11) |access-date=September 1, 2019}} ({{cite book |title=''permalink'' |work=The New York Times |url=https://nyti.ms/394yuis |url-access=subscription |via=[[TimesMachine]]}}).</ref> office buildings,<ref>{{cite news |title=Second Avenue Skyscraper – Martin Engel and Louis Minsky Are to Put up the First There |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |date=October 5, 1907 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1907/10/05/archives/second-avenue-skyscraper-martin-engel-and-louis-minsky-are-to-put.html |volume=57 |issue=18151 |page=8 (column 7) |access-date=September 1, 2019}} ({{cite book |title=''pdf'' |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1907/10/05/104996309.pdf |via=[[TimesMachine]]}}) ({{cite book |title=''permalink'' |work=The New York Times |url=https://nyti.ms/3GPrrq8 |url-access=subscription |via=[[TimesMachine]]}}).</ref> and other commercial or institutional structures on Second Avenue.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=30}} After the widening of Second Avenue's roadbed in the early 1910s, many of the front stoops on that road were eliminated.<ref>{{cite web | title=City to Descend on Old St. Mark's – Second Avenue Widening to Take Fifteen Feet off Church's Lawn | work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 | date=June 19, 1912 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1912/06/19/archives/city-to-descend-on-old-st-marks-second-avenue-widening-to-take.html | access-date=September 1, 2019}}</ref> The symbolic demise of the old fashionable district came in 1912 when the last resident moved out of the Thomas E. Davis mansion at Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place, which ''The New York Times'' had called the "last fashionable residence" on Second Avenue.<ref>{{cite web | title=Landmarks Passing On Second Avenue; Keteltas Mansion, the Last Fashionable Residence, to Become a Moving Picture House | work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 | date=November 10, 1912 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1912/11/10/archives/landmarks-passing-on-second-avenue-keteltas-mansion-the-last.html | access-date=September 1, 2019}}</ref> In 1916, the [[Slovene Americans|Slovenian]] community and [[Franciscans]] established the [[Slovenian Church of St. Cyril in New York|Slovenian Church of St. Cyril]], which still operates.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Surk |first=Barbara |date=September 28, 1997 |title="NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: EAST VILLAGE; Slovenian Church Endures" |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/28/nyregion/neighborhood-report-east-village-slovenian-church-endures.html |website=The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331}}</ref>

Simultaneously with the decline of the last manors, the [[Yiddish Theatre District]] or "Yiddish Rialto" developed within the East Side. It contained many theaters and other forms of entertainment for the Jewish immigrants of the city.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ClbSVEha8gC&pg=PT199 |title=The Rough Guide to New York City |first1=Andrew |last1=Rosenberg |first2=Martin |last2=Dunford |publisher=Penguin |year=2012 |isbn=9781405390224 |access-date=March 10, 2013 }}
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6-sGw8H-yRkC&pg=PA171 |title=Let's Go New York City 16th Edition |author=Let's Go, Inc |publisher=Macmillan |year=2006 |isbn=9780312360870 |access-date=March 10, 2013 }}
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3c0RAQAAIAAJ |title=Oscar Israelowitz's guide to Jewish New York City |author=Oscar Israelowitz |publisher=Israelowitz Publishing |year=2004 |isbn=9781878741622 |access-date=March 10, 2013 }}
* {{cite news |last=Cofone |first=Annie |url=http://eastvillage.thelocal.nytimes.com/tag/theater-district/ |title=Theater District; Strolling Back Into the Golden Age of Yiddish Theater |newspaper=The New York Times |date=September 13, 2010 |access-date=March 10, 2013 |archive-date=April 23, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160423081700/http://eastvillage.thelocal.nytimes.com/tag/theater-district/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="jweekly1">{{cite news|url=http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/7106/yiddish-music-maven-sees-mamaloshen-in-mainstream/ |author= Ronnie Caplane|title=Yiddish music maven sees mamaloshen in mainstream |newspaper= J|publisher=Jweekly |date=November 28, 1997 |access-date=March 10, 2013}}</ref> While most of the early Yiddish theaters were located south of Houston Street, several theater producers were considering moving north along Second Avenue by the first decades of the 20th century.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=31}}

Second Avenue gained more prominence as a Yiddish theater destination in the 1910s with the opening of two theatres: the [[Second Avenue Theatre]], which opened in 1911 at 35–37 Second Avenue,<ref>{{cite web | title=$800,000 Theatre Opens on East Side; Big as the Hippodrome, but Many Are Turned Away From First Night's Performance | work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 | date=September 15, 1911 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1911/09/15/archives/800000-theatre-opens-on-east-side-big-as-the-hippodrome-but-many.html | access-date=September 1, 2019}}</ref> and the [[National Theater (Manhattan)|National Theater]], which opened in 1912 at 111–117 East Houston Street.<ref>{{cite web | title='Cures' Great Hall at City College; Harvard Scientist Remedies Faulty Acoustics After a Summer's Experimenting | work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 | date=September 25, 1912 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1912/09/25/archives/cures-great-hall-at-city-college-harvard-scientist-remedies-faulty.html | access-date=September 1, 2019}}</ref> This was followed by the opening of several other theaters, such as the [[Village East Cinema|Louis N. Jaffe Theater]] and the Public Theatre in 1926 and 1927 respectively. Numerous movie houses also opened in the East Side, including six on Second Avenue.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=32}} By World War{{nbs}}I the district's theaters hosted as many as twenty to thirty shows a night.<ref name="jweekly1"/> After World War{{nbs}}II Yiddish theater became less popular,<ref name="U-Rochester 2005 Sep 29">{{cite news|author= J. Katz|title=O'Brien Traces History of Yiddish Theater |url=https://www.campustimes.org/2005/09/29/obrien-traces-history-of-yiddish-theater/ |work=Campus Times |publisher=[[University of Rochester]] |date= September 29, 2005 |access-date=March 10, 2013}}</ref> and by the mid-1950s few theaters were still extant in the District.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://forward.com/articles/13862/bruce-adler--star-of-yiddish-stage-and-broadw-/ |author=Lana Gersten |title=Bruce Adler, 63, Star of Broadway and Second Avenue |publisher=Forward |date= July 29, 2008|access-date=March 10, 2013}}</ref>

The city built [[First Houses]] on the south side of [[3rd Street (Manhattan)|East 3rd Street]] between [[First Avenue (Manhattan)|First Avenue]] and [[Avenue A (Manhattan)|Avenue A]], and on the west side of Avenue A between [[2nd Street (Manhattan)|East 2nd]] and East 3rd Streets in 1935–1936, the first such [[public housing project]] in the United States.<ref name="encnyc">{{cite enc-nyc2}}<div style="margin-left:2em">{{cite book|title=''Online access → Section → "Lower East Side"'' |url=https://archive.org/details/theencyclopediaofnewyorkcitysecondedition/page/n789/mode/2up |series={{free access}} |date=May 2010 |pages=769–770 |access-date=June 3, 2022 |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</div></ref>{{rp|769–770}}<ref name="NYCL-0876"/>{{rp|1}} The neighborhood originally ended at the [[East River]], to the east of where [[Avenue D (Manhattan)|Avenue D]] was later located. In the mid-20th-century, landfill{{snd}}including World War{{nbs}}II debris and rubble shipped from London{{snd}}was used to extend the shoreline to provide foundation for the [[Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive]].<ref name="Strausbaugh 2007"/>

In the mid-20th century [[Ukrainian people|Ukrainians]] created a [[Ukrainian Americans in New York City|Ukrainian enclave]] in the neighborhood, centered around Second Avenue and 6th and 7th Streets.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=36}}<ref name="McKinley 1997"/> The Polish enclave in the East Village persisted as well. Numerous other immigrant groups had moved out, and their former churches were sold and became [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox cathedrals]].{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=36}} Latin American immigrants started to move to the East Side, settling in the eastern part of the neighborhood and creating an enclave that later came to be known as [[Alphabet City, Manhattan#Loisaida|Loisaida]].{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=37}}<ref name="Foderaro 1987"/><ref name="von Hassell 1996"/>
[[File:St Nicholas Manhattan NYC 1914.png|thumb|200px|[[St. Nicholas Kirche (New York City)|St. Nicholas Kirche]] at East 2nd Street, just west of Avenue A. The church and almost all buildings on the street were demolished in 1960 and replaced with parking lots for the [[Village View Houses]].<ref name="NYT-Kirche-1960"/>]]

The East Side's population started to decline at the start of the [[Great Depression]] in the 1930s and the implementation of the [[Immigration Act of 1924]], and the expansion of the [[New York City Subway]] into the outer boroughs.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=33}} Many old tenements, deemed to be "blighted" and unnecessary, were destroyed in the middle of the 20th century.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=34}} A substantial portion of the neighborhood, including the Ukrainian enclave, was slated for demolition under the Cooper Square Urban Renewal Plan of 1956, which was to redevelop the area from Ninth to [[Delancey Street]]s from the Bowery/Third Avenue to [[Chrystie Street]]/Second Avenue with new privately owned [[cooperative housing]].{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=34}}<ref>{{cite web | title=Cooper Sq. Project Is Adding 8 Acres |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 | date=November 30, 1956 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1956/11/30/archives/cooper-sq-project-is-adding-8-acres.html | access-date=September 1, 2019}}</ref>

The [[United Housing Foundation]] was selected as the sponsor for the project,<ref name="NYTs 1959 Jun 3">{{cite news |ref={{SfnRef|''New York Times'', June 3,|1959|p=44}} |date=June 3, 1959 |title=Plan for Cooper Sq. Raises Objections |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1959/06/03/archives/plan-for-cooper-sq-raises-objections.html |work=The New York Times |volume=108 |issue=37020 |page=44 (column 6, top) |issn=0362-4331 |access-date=September 1, 2019}} ({{cite book |title=''permalink'' |work=The New York Times |url=https://nyti.ms/3maNgav |url-access=subscription |via=[[TimesMachine]]}})</ref> and there was significant opposition to the plan, as it would have displaced thousands of people.<ref name="Zipp 2010">{{cite book |last1=Zipp |first1=Samuel |date=2010 |title=Manhattan Projects: The Rise and Fall of Urban Renewal in Cold War New York |url={{GBurl|YDV3el2fp2YC|pg=PR3}} |type=limited preview |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=October 2, 2019 |page=354 |via=[[Google Books]]}} {{ISBN|978-0-19-977953-6}}; {{OCLC|646816983|show=all}}.</ref> Neither the original large-scale development nor a 1961 revised proposal were implemented and the city's government lost interest in performing such large-scale slum-clearance projects.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=35}} Another redevelopment project that was completed was the [[Village View Houses]] on First Avenue between East 2nd and 6th Streets, which opened in 1964{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=35}} partially on the site of the old [[St. Nicholas Kirche (New York City)|St. Nicholas Kirche]].<ref name="NYT-Kirche-1960">{{cite news |ref={{SfnRef|''New York Times'', January 27,|1960|p=52}} |date=January 27, 1960 |title=Church Building Faces Demolition – 100-Year-Old St. Nicholas on the Lower East Side Is Sold to Company |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1960/01/27/archives/church-building-faces-demolition-100yearold-st-nicholas-on-the.html |work=The New York Times |volume=109 |issue=37258 |page=52 (column 1) |access-date=October 4, 2019}} ({{cite book |title=''permalink'' |work=The New York Times |url=https://nyti.ms/3xgcDhd |url-access=subscription |via=[[TimesMachine]]}})</ref>

===Rebranding and cultural scene===
====Initial rebranding====
Until the mid-20th century the area was simply the northern part of the Lower East Side, with a similar culture of immigrant, working-class life. In the 1950s and 1960s the migration of [[Beatnik]]s into the neighborhood later attracted hippies, musicians, writers, and artists who had been priced out of the rapidly gentrifying [[Greenwich Village]].<ref name="EV" />{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=35}}<ref name="Miller 1990">{{cite book | last=Miller | first=Terry | title=Greenwich Village and how it got that way | publisher=Crown Publishers | year=1990 | isbn=978-0-517-57322-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0sZ4AAAAMAAJ | access-date=October 2, 2019 }}</ref>{{rp|254}} Among the first displaced Greenwich Villagers to move to the area were writers [[Allen Ginsberg]], [[W. H. Auden]], and [[Norman Mailer]], who all moved to the area in 1951–1953.<ref name="Miller 1990" />{{rp|258}}

A cluster of cooperative art galleries on East 10th Street (later collectively referred to as the [[10th Street galleries]]) were opened around the same time, starting with the Tanger and the Hansa which both opened in 1952.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=35}}<ref>{{cite web | title=Art: Remember the 50s on 10th St.? |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 | date=December 23, 1977 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/23/archives/art-remember-the-50s-on-10th-st.html | access-date=October 2, 2019}}</ref> Further change came in 1955 when the [[IRT Third Avenue Line|Third Avenue elevated railway]] above the Bowery and Third Avenue was removed.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=35}}<ref>{{cite web |first=Ralph |last=Katz | title=Last Train Rumbles On Third Ave. 'El' |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 | date=May 13, 1955 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1955/05/13/archives/last-train-rumbles-on-third-ave-el-an-era-ends-with-final-run-of.html | access-date=October 2, 2019}}</ref> This in turn made the neighborhood more attractive to potential residents; in 1960 ''The New York Times'' reported: "This area is gradually becoming recognized as an extension of Greenwich Village{{nbs}}... thereby extending New York's Bohemia from river to river."{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=35}}<ref name="The New York Times 1960">{{cite web | title='Village' Spills Across 3d Ave |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 | date=February 7, 1960 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1960/02/07/archives/village-spills-across-3d-ave-demolition-of-el-opened-the-way-for.html | access-date=October 2, 2019}}</ref>

The 1960 ''Times'' article stated that rental agents were increasingly referring to the area as "Village East" or "East Village".<ref name="The New York Times 1960" /> The new name was used to dissociate the area from the image of slums evoked by the Lower East Side. According to ''The New York Times'', a 1964 guide called ''Earl Wilson's New York'' wrote: "Artists, poets and promoters of coffeehouses from Greenwich Village are trying to remelt the neighborhood under the high-sounding name of 'East Village'."<ref name="EV" /> Newcomers and real estate brokers popularized the new name, and the term was adopted by the popular media by the mid-1960s.<ref name="Mele 2000">{{cite book | last=Mele | first=Christopher | title=Selling the Lower East Side: Culture, Real Estate, and Resistance in New York City | publisher=University of Minnesota Press | series=G – Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series | year=2000 | isbn=978-0-8166-3182-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sewf0r5An-wC | access-date=October 2, 2019 }}</ref>{{rp|ch. 5}} A weekly newspaper with the neighborhood's new name, ''[[The East Village Other]]'', started publication in 1966. ''The New York Times'' declared that the neighborhood "had come to be known" as the East Village in the edition of June 5, 1967.<ref name="EV" />

====Growth====
[[File:66 Second Ave Anderson Theatre.jpg|thumb|200px|The Phyllis Anderson Theater, one of several theaters that were originally Yiddish theaters]]

The East Village became a center of the [[counterculture]] in New York, and was the birthplace and historical home of many artistic movements, including [[punk rock]]<ref name="TimesPunk">{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE3DF1231F93BA35755C0A966958260 |title=In Rocking East Village, The Beat Never Stops |first=Karen |last=Schoemer |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |date=June 8, 1990}}</ref> and the [[Nuyorican]] literary movement.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nylatinojournal.com/home/news/latest/another_nuyorican_icon_fades_2.html |title=Another Nuyorican Icon Fades |first=Santiago |last=Nieves |work=New York Latino Journal |date=May 13, 2005|access-date=April 14, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071027010459/http://nylatinojournal.com/home/news/latest/another_nuyorican_icon_fades_2.html|archive-date=October 27, 2007|url-status=dead}}.</ref> Multiple former Yiddish theaters were converted for use by [[Off-Broadway]] shows: for instance, the Public Theater at 66 Second Avenue became the Phyllis Anderson Theater.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=35}} Numerous buildings on East 4th Street hosted [[Off-Broadway]] and [[Off-Off-Broadway]] productions, including the Royal Playhouse, the Fourth Street Theatre, the Downtown Theatre, the [[La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club]], and the Truck & Warehouse Theater just on the block between Bowery and Second Avenue.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=36}}<ref name="The New York Times 1960" />

By the 1970s and 1980s the city in general was in decline and nearing bankruptcy, especially after the [[1975 New York City fiscal crisis]].{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=37}} Residential buildings in the East Village suffered from high levels of neglect, as property owners did not properly maintain their buildings.<ref name="Mele 2000" />{{rp|191–194}} The city purchased many of these buildings, but was also unable to maintain them due to a lack of funds.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=37}} Following the publication of a revised Cooper Square renewal plan in 1986,{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=38}} some properties were given to the Cooper Square Mutual Housing Association as part of a 1991 agreement.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=38}}<ref>{{cite web | title=Perspectives: The Cooper Square Plan; Smoothing the Path to Redevelopment |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 | date=January 27, 1991 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/27/realestate/perspectives-the-cooper-square-plan-smoothing-the-path-to-redevelopment.html | access-date=September 1, 2019}}</ref>

In spite of the deterioration of the structures within the East Village, its music and arts scenes were doing well. By the 1970s gay dance halls and punk rock clubs had started to open in the neighborhood.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=38}} These included the [[Fillmore East]] Music Hall (later a gay private nightclub called The Saint), which was located in a movie theater at 105 Second Avenue.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=38}}<ref name="Miller 1990" />{{rp|264}} The Phyllis Anderson Theatre was converted into Second Avenue Theater, an annex of the [[CBGB]] music club, and hosted musicians and bands such as [[Bruce Springsteen]], [[Patti Smith]], and [[Talking Heads]]. The [[Pyramid Club (New York City)|Pyramid Club]], which opened in 1979 at 101 Avenue A, hosted musical acts such as [[Nirvana (band)|Nirvana]] and [[Red Hot Chili Peppers]], as well as [[drag performer]]s such as [[RuPaul]] and [[Ann Magnuson]].{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=38}} In addition, there were more than a hundred art galleries in the East Village by the mid-1980s. These included [[Patti Astor]] and Bill Stelling's [[Fun Gallery]] at 11th Street, [[Now Gallery]] on 9th Street, as well as numerous galleries on 7th Street.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=38}}

====Decline====
By 1987 the visual arts scene was in decline.<ref>{{cite web | title=Art Boom Slows In the East Village |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 | date=July 25, 1987 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/25/arts/art-boom-slows-in-the-east-village.html | access-date=October 3, 2019}}</ref> Many of these art galleries relocated to more profitable neighborhoods such as [[SoHo, Manhattan|SoHo]], or closed altogether.<ref>{{cite web |date=January 27, 1989 |title=The East Village's Art Galleries Are Alive in Soho |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/27/arts/the-east-village-s-art-galleries-are-alive-in-soho.html |work=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=October 3, 2019}}</ref>{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=38}} The arts scene had become a victim of its own success, since the popularity of the art galleries had revived the East Village's real estate market.<ref name="New York Magazine p. 48">{{cite book | title=The Fun's Over: The East Village Scene Gets Burned by Success |work=New York Magazine | publisher=New York Media, LLC | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cuQCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA48 | language=en |date=June 22, 1987 | access-date=October 3, 2019 | pages=48–55}}</ref>
[[File:East Village, New York City, 1998.jpg|thumb|250px|alt=|A wall in the East Village in 1998, featuring a mural of two men]]

One club that tried to resurrect the neighborhood's past artistic prominence was Mo Pitkins' House of Satisfaction, part-owned by comedian [[Jimmy Fallon]] before it closed in 2007.<ref>{{cite news |last=Meehan |first=Peter |title=Chopped Liver and Chilies on Avenue A |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/28/dining/reviews/28unde.html |access-date=February 5, 2013 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |date=September 28, 2005}}</ref> A [[Fordham University]] study, examining the decline of the East Village performance and art scene, stated that "the young, liberal culture that once found its place on the Manhattan side of the East River" has shifted in part to new neighborhoods like [[Williamsburg, Brooklyn|Williamsburg]] in [[Brooklyn]].<ref name="Prochnow 2011 Fall">{{cite book |ref={{SfnRef|Prochnow, Fall|2011}} |last1=Prochnow |first1=Alexandria Noel |date=Fall 2011 |chapter=The East Village: A Look at the Culture of an East River Neighborhood |chapter-url=http://www.eastriverhistory.webs.com/manhattan/eastvillage.htm |title=Not the Hudson: A Comprehensive Study of the East River |type=blog |publisher=[[Fordham University]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202233745/http://www.eastriverhistory.webs.com/manhattan/eastvillage.htm |archive-date=December 2, 2013 }} Originally retrieved March 5, 2013.<div style="margin-left:3em">''Not the Hudson: A Comprehensive Study of the East River'' was written and designed by fifteen second-year undergrads from [[Fordham University]]'s Honors Program during the Fall 2011 semester in a course on Trends in New York City at Fordham's Lincoln Center Honors Program under the guidance of Roger G. Panetta, PhD. The project yielded sixty essays.</div></ref> There are still some performance spaces, such as Sidewalk Cafe on 6th Street and [[Avenue A (Manhattan)|Avenue A]], where downtown acts find space to exhibit their talent, as well as the poetry clubs [[Bowery Poetry Club]] and [[Nuyorican Poets Café]].<ref name="Trigger-Magazine 2007 May 8">{{cite journal |last1=Saint George |first1=Mikal |title=Rapture Cafe: Coffee is the New Vodka |url=http://www.triggermagazine.com/archives/2007/05/rapture-cafe-coffee-is-the-new-vodka.html |type=a bygone New New City-based blog-ezine of Liberation Iannillo (born 1975) that promoted New York artists and artist related organizations. It launched November 5, 2004, and ceased around 2009 |journal=Trigger Magazine |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070516093131/http://www.triggermagazine.com/archives/2007/05/rapture-cafe-coffee-is-the-new-vodka.html |archive-date=May 16, 2007 }} Originally retrieved April 14, 2008.</ref>

===Gentrification, preservation, and present day===
In the late 20th and early 21st centuries the East Village became [[Gentrification|gentrified]] as a result of real-estate price increases following the success of the arts scene.{{sfn|Brazee et al.|2012|p=39}}<ref name="New York Magazine p. 48" /> In the 1970s, rents were extremely low and the neighborhood was considered one of the least desirable places in Manhattan to live in.<ref name="The New York Times 1984" /> However, as early as 1983, the ''Times'' reported that because of the influx of artists, many longtime establishments and immigrants were being forced to leave the East Village due to rising rents.<ref>{{cite web |title=New Prosperity Brings Discord to the East Village |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |date=December 19, 1983 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/19/nyregion/new-prosperity-brings-discord-to-the-east-village.html |access-date=October 3, 2019}}</ref> By the following year, young professionals constituted a large portion of the neighborhood's demographics.<ref name="The New York Times 1984">{{cite web |title=The Gentrification of the East Village |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |date=September 2, 1984 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/09/02/realestate/the-gentrification-of-the-east-village.html |access-date=October 3, 2019}}</ref> Even so, crimes remained prevalent and there were often drug deals being held openly in Tompkins Square Park.<ref name="NYTs 1985 Oct 6">{{cite news |ref={{SfnRef|''New York Times'', October 6,|1985}} |last1=New York Times, The |author-link1=The New York Times |last2=Lyons |first2=Richard Daniel (1928–2013) |date=October 6, 1985 |title=If You're Thinking of Living In:" (series) "The East Village |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/06/realestate/if-you-re-thinking-of-living-in-the-east-village.html |type=online |access-date=October 3, 2019}} ({{cite book |title=''permalink'' |work=The New York Times |url=https://nyti.ms/3MhW2Op |url-access=subscription |via=[[TimesMachine]]}}) {{ProQuest|425550537}} (online; US Newsstream).</ref>

Tensions over gentrification resulted in the 1988 [[Tompkins Square Park riot (1988)|Tompkins Square Park riot]], which occurred following opposition to a proposed curfew that had targeted the park's homeless. The aftermath of the riot slowed down the gentrification process somewhat as real estate prices declined.<ref>{{cite web |title=Prices Decline as Gentrification Ebbs |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |date=September 29, 1991 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/29/realestate/prices-decline-as-gentrification-ebbs.html |access-date=October 3, 2019}}</ref> By the end of the 20th century, however, real estate prices had resumed their rapid rise. About half of the East Village's stores had opened within the decade since the riot, while vacancy rates in that period had dropped from 20% to 3%, indicating that many of the longtime merchants had been pushed out.<ref>{{cite web |title=A New Spell for Alphabet City; Gentrification Led to the Unrest at Tompkins Square 10 Years Ago. Did the Protesters Win That Battle but Lose the War? |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |date=August 9, 1998 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/09/nyregion/new-spell-for-alphabet-city-gentrification-led-unrest-tompkins-square-10-years.html |access-date=October 3, 2019}}</ref>

By the early 21st century some buildings in the area were torn down and replaced by newer buildings.<ref>{{cite web |author=Jeremiah Budin |url=http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/03/25/look_at_these_nyc_storefronts_pre_and_postgentrification.php |title=Look At These NYC Storefronts Pre- and Post-Gentrification – East Village Gentrification – Curbed NY |publisher=Ny.curbed.com |date=March 25, 2014 |access-date=May 5, 2014}}</ref>
====Rezoning====
Due to the gentrification of the neighborhood, parties including the [[Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation]] (GVSHP), [[Manhattan Community Board 3]], the East Village Community Coalition, and City Councilmember [[Rosie Mendez]], began calling for a change to the area's [[zoning]] in the first decade of the 21st century. The city first released a draft in July 2006, which concerned an area bounded by East 13th Street on the north, Third Avenue on the west, Delancey Street on the south, and Avenue D on the east.<ref>[http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/evles/zoning_proposed.pdf Map of approved zoning changes from New York City Department of City Planning] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304131421/http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/evles/zoning_proposed.pdf |date=March 4, 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/evles/evles3.shtml |title=New York City Department of City Planning, East Village / Lower East Side Rezoning}}</ref> The rezoning proposal was done in response to concerns about the character and scale of some of the new buildings in the neighborhood.<ref name="Haughney 2008">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/nyregion/15zoning.html?scp=2&sq=east%20village%20rezoning&st=cse |title=High-Rises Are at Heart of Manhattan Zoning Battle |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |first=Christine |last=Haughney |date=November 15, 2008 |access-date=May 1, 2010}}</ref> Despite protests and accusations of promoting gentrification and increased property values over the area's history and need for affordable housing, the rezoning was approved in 2008.<ref name="Haughney 2008"/> Among other things, the zoning established height limits for new development throughout the affected area, modified allowable density of real estate, capped [[air rights]] transfers, eliminated the current zoning bonus for dorms and hotels, and created incentives for the creation and retention of affordable housing.<ref>{{cite web |title=East Village Rezoning |url=http://www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/preservation/ev_rezoning/ev_rezoning_main.htm |publisher=Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation |access-date=August 18, 2014 |archive-date=December 23, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141223172449/http://www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/preservation/ev_rezoning/ev_rezoning_main.htm |url-status=dead }}* {{cite web |title=Keeping in Character |url=http://www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/preservation/east_village/doc/keeping-in-character.pdf |publisher=Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation |access-date=August 22, 2014 }}</ref>

====Landmark efforts====
[[File:Extra Place from 1st Street.jpg|thumb|200px|"Extra Place", an obscure side street off of East 1st Street, just east of the Bowery]]

Local community groups such as the GVSHP are actively working to gain individual and district landmark designations for the East Village to preserve and protect the architectural and cultural identity of the neighborhood.<ref>[http://www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/preservation/east_village/east_village-main.htm "East Village"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180722234108/http://www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/preservation/east_village/east_village-main.htm |date=July 22, 2018 }} on the [[Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation]] website</ref> In early 2011 the [[New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission]] (LPC) proposed two East Village historic districts: a small district along the block of 10th Street that lies north of [[Tompkins Square Park]], and a larger district focused around lower Second Avenue.<ref>[http://www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/preservation/east_village/east_village-main.htm "East Village Preservation"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180722234108/http://www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/preservation/east_village/east_village-main.htm |date=July 22, 2018 }} on the [[Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation]] website</ref> before later being expanded.<ref>[http://www.thevillager.com/villager_426/pyramid.html "Editing the East Village"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118034930/http://thevillager.com/villager_426/pyramid.html |date=January 18, 2012 }} on the [[The Villager (Manhattan)|Villager]] website</ref> In January 2012 the East 10th Street Historic District was designated by the LPC,<ref>{{cite web |last=Berger |first=Joseph |title=Designation of Historic District in East Village Won't Stop Project |website=City Room |date=January 19, 2012 |url=http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/designation-of-historic-district-in-east-village-wont-stop-project/ |access-date=September 29, 2019}}</ref><ref name="NYCL-2492">{{harvnb|ps=.|Brazee|Most|2012}}</ref> and that October, the larger [[East Village/Lower East Side Historic District]] was also designated by the LPC.<ref name="NYCL-2491">{{harvnb|ps=.|Brazee et al.|2012}}</ref>

Several notable buildings are designated as individual landmarks, some due to the GVSHP's efforts. These include:
* The [[First Houses]] at East 3rd Street and Avenue A, the country's first public housing development, built in 1935 and designated in 1974<ref name="NYCL-0876">{{cite web |url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/0876.pdf |title=First Houses |date=November 12, 1974 |publisher=[[New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission]] |access-date=September 28, 2019}}</ref>
* The [[Stuyvesant Polyclinic]] at 137 Second Avenue, built in 1884 and designated in 1976<ref>{{cite web |url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/0924.pdf |title=Stuyvesant Polyclinic |date=November 9, 1976 |publisher=[[New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission]] |access-date=September 28, 2019}}</ref>
* The [[Christodora House]], built in 1928 and listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1986<ref>{{Cite web |title=East 10th Street Historic District and Christodora House {{!}} Historic Districts Council's Six to Celebrate|url=https://6tocelebrate.org/site/east-10th-street-historic-district-and-christodora-house/|access-date=July 12, 2020|website=6tocelebrate.org|date=January 10, 2014 }}</ref>
* The [[Children's Aid Society]]'s [[Tompkins Square Lodging House for Boys and Industrial School]] at 296 East 8th Street, built in 1886 and designated in 2000<ref>{{cite web |url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2055.pdf |title=Children's Aid Society, Tompkins Square Lodging House for Boys and Industrial School |date=May 16, 2000 |publisher=[[New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission]] |access-date=September 28, 2019}}</ref>
* [[Public School 64]] at 350 East 10th Street, a French Renaissance Revival public school built in 1904–1906 by architect and school superintendent [[C.B.J. Snyder]], designated in 2006<ref>{{cite web |title=LPC Designation Report: Former P.S. 64 |url=http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/reports/ps64.pdf |publisher=NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission |access-date=August 18, 2014}}</ref>
* [[Webster Hall]], a Romanesque Revival concert hall and nightclub designed in 1886,<ref>{{cite web |title=Webster Hall LPC submission |url=http://www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/preservation/webster_hall/doc/WebsterHallLPCSubmission.pdf |publisher=Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation |access-date=August 18, 2014}}</ref> designated in 2008<ref>{{cite web |url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2278.pdf |title=Webster Hall and Annex |date=March 18, 2008 |publisher=[[New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission]] |access-date=September 28, 2019}}{{dead link|date=January 2020|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>
* The Children's Aid Society's [[Elizabeth Home for Girls]] at 308 East 12th Street, built in 1891–1892 and designated in 2008<ref>{{cite web |url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2274.pdf |title=Children's Aid Society, Elizabeth Home for Girls |date=March 18, 2008 |publisher=[[New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission]] |access-date=September 28, 2019}}</ref>
* The [[Wheatsworth Bakery Building]], built in 1927–1928 and designated in 2008<ref>{{cite web |url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2262.pdf |title=Wheatsworth Bakery Building |date=September 16, 2008 |publisher=[[New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission]] |access-date=September 28, 2019}}</ref>
* The [[St. Nicholas of Myra Church (Manhattan)|St. Nicholas of Myra Church]] at 288 East 10th Street, designated in 2008<ref>{{cite web |url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2312.pdf |title=Saint Nicholas of Myra Orthodox Church |date=December 16, 2008 |publisher=[[New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission]] |access-date=September 28, 2019}}</ref>
* The [[Van Tassell and Kearney Horse Auction Mart]] at 126–128 East 13th Street, a horse auction mart built in 1903–1904, designated in 2012<ref>{{cite web |url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2205.pdf |title=Van Tassell & Kearney Auction Mart |date=May 15, 2012 |publisher=[[New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission]] |access-date=September 28, 2019}}</ref>
* The [[First German Baptist Church]] (Town & Village Synagogue) at 334 East 14th Street, designated in 2014<ref>{{cite web |url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2475.pdf |title=First German Baptist Church |date=October 28, 2014 |publisher=[[New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission]] |access-date=September 28, 2019}}</ref>
<div align=center><gallery widths="175px" heights="150px">
File:First Houses in winter from west.jpg|[[First Houses]]
File:Webster Hall.jpg|[[Webster Hall]]
File:Peridance Center 128 East 13th St.jpg|128 East 13th Street
</gallery></div>
[[File:East 5th Street streetscape.jpg|thumb|250px|[[5th Street (Manhattan)|East 5th Street]] between [[Second Avenue (Manhattan)|Second Avenue]] and [[Cooper Square]] is a typical side street in the heart of the East Village]]

Landmark efforts have included a number of losses as well. For instance, although the GVSHP and allied groups asked in 2012 that the Mary Help of Christians school, church and rectory be designated as landmarks, the site was demolished starting in 2013.<ref>{{cite web |title=Two Steps Forward, One Step Back |url=http://www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/preservation/east_village/ev-07-31-13.htm |publisher=Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation |access-date=August 18, 2014 |archive-date=September 6, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130906203131/http://www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/preservation/east_village/ev-07-31-13.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 2011, an early 19th-century Federal house at 35 Cooper Square{{snd}}one of the oldest on the Bowery and in the East Village{{snd}}was approved for demolition to make way for a college dorm.<ref>{{cite web |last=Rozdeba |first=Suzanne |title=East Village Group Tries to Save 1820s House |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |date=February 19, 2011 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/nyregion/19metjournal.html |access-date=October 3, 2019}}
* {{cite web |last=Karp |first=Walter |title=Demolition of 35 Cooper Square Approved |website=Village Voice |date=February 14, 2011 |url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2011/02/14/demolition-of-35-cooper-square-approved/ |access-date=October 3, 2019}}</ref> over requests of community groups and elected officials.<ref>{{cite web |title=35 Cooper Square/Bowery Alliance of Neighbors |url=http://www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/preservation/east_village/doc/ltr-lpc-ban-11-12-10.pdf |publisher=Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation |access-date=August 18, 2014}}</ref> Furthermore, the LPC acts on no particular schedule, leaving open indefinitely some "calendared" requests for designation.<ref>{{cite web |title=Landmarking 101: Just what is calendaring and why should I care? – Preservation – Off the Grid |website=GVSHP &#124; Preservation &#124; Off the Grid |date=August 8, 2013 |url=https://gvshp.org/blog/2013/08/08/landmarking-101-just-what-is-calendaring-and-why-should-i-care/ |access-date=September 30, 2019}}</ref> Sometimes it simply declines requests for consideration, as it did regarding an intact Italianate tenement at 143 East 13th Street.<ref>{{cite web |title=Request for Evaluation of 143 E. 13th Street, Manhattan |url=http://www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/preservation/east_village/doc/143-e13th-st-rfe.pdf |publisher=Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation |access-date=August 18, 2014}}</ref> In other cases the LPC has refused the expansion of existing historic districts, as in 2016 when it declined to add 264 East 7th Street (the former home of illustrator [[Felicia Bond]]) and four neighboring rowhouses to the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District.<ref>{{cite web |title=An Uncertain Future for East Village Rowhouses |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |date=November 25, 2016 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/25/realestate/an-uncertain-future-for-east-village-rowhouses.html |access-date=September 30, 2019}}</ref>

====2015 gas explosion====
{{Main|2015 East Village gas explosion}}

On March 26, 2015, a gas explosion occurred on [[Second Avenue (Manhattan)|Second Avenue]] after a gas line was tapped.<ref>{{cite web |last=Mejia |first=Paula |title=Long Before East Village Explosion, Gas Line Reportedly Was Tapped |website=Newsweek |date=March 29, 2015 |url=https://www.newsweek.com/long-east-village-explosion-gas-line-reportedly-was-tapped-317621 |access-date=February 21, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150330173538/http://www.newsweek.com/long-east-village-explosion-gas-line-reportedly-was-tapped-317621 |archive-date=March 30, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> The explosion and resulting fire destroyed three buildings at 119, 121 and 123 Second Avenue, between East 7th Street and [[St. Marks Place (Manhattan)|St. Marks Place]]. Two people were killed, and at least twenty-two people were injured, four critically.<ref>{{cite web |title=Two Men Remain Missing as Remnants of Explosion Are Scoured in Manhattan |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |date=March 29, 2015 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/29/nyregion/as-hopes-fade-in-search-for-2-men-workers-scour-rubble-at-east-village-blast-site.html |access-date=September 29, 2019}}</ref> Three restaurants were also destroyed in the explosion.<ref>{{cite web |title=3 Restaurants Destroyed in East Village Explosion |website=Gothamist |date=March 28, 2015 |url=https://gothamist.com/food/3-restaurants-destroyed-in-east-village-explosion |access-date=February 21, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150330150523/http://gothamist.com/2015/03/28/thursdays_east_village_explosion_to.php |archive-date=March 30, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> Landlord Maria Hrynenko and an unlicensed plumber and another employee were sentenced to prison time for their part in causing the explosion in New York State Supreme Court. Ms. Hrynenko allowed an illegal gas line to be constructed on her property.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/17/nyregion/east-village-explosion-maria-hrynenko-sentence.html |title=Landlord in Deadly East Village Explosion Sentenced to at Least 4 Years |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 17, 2020 |last1=Randle |first1=Aaron}}</ref>