Articles

SOHO Historic Distric Expansion

Many of SOHO’s cast iron buildings were built in the post Civil War era, as store and loft buildings for the wholesale dry goods merchants and the manufacturing businesses that created a thriving commercial zone in the mid and late nineteenth century.

The City’s new expansion brings an additional 135 buildings into the SOHO Cast Iron Historic District – which was designated in 1973 and includes 500 buildings between West Houston and Canal streets and Crosby and West Broadway.

The history of this district is fascinating – while today it houses boutiques and upscale galleries, fifty years ago it was a slum known as “hell’s hundred acres.”

The Landmarks Preservation Commission has written a beautiful and thorough history of the area, which you may find here.