image via apartments.com
On June 17, 1873, the "brick house in front and small brick building in rear" at 5 Spring Street were auctioned. Their sale would doom the two buildings, which, like nearly all the vintage structures in the neighborhood, were falling victim to the drastically changing demographics in what a century later would be called Nolita.
On month later, architect William Jose filed plans for a 25-foot-wide, "five-story brown stone store and tenement" for developer F. Herlein. His Italianate design was was typical of the ubiquitous tenement buildings being erected throughout the Lower East Side. Sheet metal lintels with molded cornices sat atop the upper floor windows and an arched pediment crowned with a Greek-inspired antefix sat atop the building's pressed metal terminal cornice.
photograph by Ted Leather
What was not typical was the cast iron storefront. Between two entrances--one accessing the upper floors and the other the store--was a triple arcade. The paneled piers between the windows contributed to a handsome presence, but restricted the ability to display wares. The lack of a vast show window did not deter Joseph Hugo to open his bakery in the space.
The 1873 storefront survived in 1940. via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
No. 5 Spring Street filled with blue collar and middle-class tenants. Living here in 1877 were three clerks, two carpenters, a shoemaker, a hatter, a laborer, a cigarmaker, a butcher, a maker of awnings, two widows, and an ostler (or stable worker).
Many of the tenants were Irish-born, like Michael J. Riley, who worked as a letter carrier, and his wife and five children. One afternoon in October 1884 he delivered mail to a Bond Street machine shop. He placed a package of 125 letters on the counter. They were addressed to Bond Street businesses that had already closed for the day. The New York Herald explained, "In such cases the mail is taken back to the station and stamped with an explanation of its non-delivery." Riley, perhaps distracted, "picked up his pouch and went out of the shop, leaving the package."
On October 8, the New York Herald reported that Michael Riley had been arrested, "on a charge of unlawfully detaining the mails." Riley stressed that he "forgot all about it." Perhaps coming to his defense, the article concluded, "Riley had a sunstroke last summer."
Sam Erwin Ryan, born in 1858, was described by the New York Herald as "one of the oldest Irish comedians on the American stage." The widowed entertained died here on November 15, 1891 at the age of 63. In reporting his death, the New York Herald remarked, "He had been forty years on the stage, and had been a conspicuous actor in his day."
Unthinkable today, working class parents often sent their small children on errands, even at night. On Saturday night January 9, 1897, Detectives Summers and Lynch noticed five-year-old Lee Collins, whose family lived at 5 Spring Street, "walking along that thoroughfare...with a can." They asked the boy where he was going and he said he was off to get some beer.
The policeman followed him to Henry Barr's saloon at 14 Spring Street, "and saw the bartender, Clement Kirschner, sell him a pint of beer." Although Kirschner was arrested, Lee Collins' parents were not accused of any wrongdoing (and apparently Lee Collins went on his way home unaccompanied with the pail of beer). When the bartender faced Magistrate Deuel in the Centre Street Police Court, he received "a severe lecture." Deuel "told him he ought to be ashamed of himself to sell beer to a child" and placed his bail at $1,000 (a stunning $40,000 in 2026 terms).
The Commerford family lived here in 1898. The New York Journal and Advertiser said that Patrick Commerford "is accustomed to putting a little whiskey in his black coffee at breakfast." On September 4, however, there was no whiskey in the apartment, so Maggie Commerford was sent to the apartment of her aunt, Kate White, at 239 Mulberry Street to get some. The New York Journal and Advertiser said Maggie was three-and-a-half years old. The New York Herald placed her age at nine. Either way, the newspapers' reporting on the events that followed, however, were consistent.
Maggie went to her aunt's home and, according to Kate White, she filled Maggie's pint bottle with whiskey "and told the little girl to carry it home to her father," as reported by the New York Herald. On the way, "Little Maggie evidently became thirsty," said the newspaper. The girl drank the entire pint bottle of whiskey. The New York Herald said she "was picked up from the sidewalk in Mulberry street yesterday in an unconscious state and carried to St. Vincent's Hospital."
Maggie told officials, "It felt just like I had played too much 'ring-around-a-rosy.'" And asked why she drank it, she replied, "Oh, I just tasted it, and it seemed to taste good, and I tasted it all up." Mrs. Commerford took the girl home and Patrick Commerford was arrested.
By the turn of the century, Mary Seibert ran the bakery. The workspace and ovens were in the basement and Mary lived in an apartment above the bakery. The business was apparently successful, because Mary could afford a live-in servant.
The neighborhood was, by now, greatly filled with Italian immigrants. In 1899 Paolo Lecestra arrived from Italy, "leaving his wife, Luigia, behind until he could get money enough to buy her passage with," explained The New York Sun. He was not here very long before he found a job as a pressor in a tailor shop. Just as quickly, he fell in love with a co-worker, Rosina Ignelia.
Lecestra married Rosina in November 1899 and they moved into 5 Spring Street. In the meantime, Luigia Lecestra was also working towards her passage. On April 4, 1901, The Sun reported, "Six months ago Luigia, the first wife, scraped together enough money to come to this country." Paolo Lecestra met Luigia at the pier, "but gave her an angry reception," reported The Sun. What followed was remarkable. The article recounted:
Then he took her to his home at 5 Spring street and introduced her to Rosina, who he said was his lawful wife under the laws of the United States. Lecestra told Luigia that she might remain if she did as she was told. Her duties were to keep house for her husband and Rosina, who worked together in the tailor shop.
Luigia later described the arrangement. The Sun recounted, "Lecestra maintained wifely relations only with Rosina who is younger and prettier than Luigia," adding, "Louigia was the household drudge." The heartbroken Luigia spilled out her woeful condition in a letter to her uncle in Italy, who was an attorney. He forwarded it to the Italian Consul, which turned it over to the New York District Attorney. On April 3, 1901, Paolo Lecestra was arrested for bigamy. The New York Sun reported, "Rosina kissed him and wept when Lecestra was taken away."
The Pavone and Versa families lived here in 1906 when their mischievous sons went on a rampage. On August 29, they and three other Italian boys boarded a subway "loaded down with apples," as worded by the New-York Tribune. The article said they "amused themselves by throwing apples at everybody in the rear car." The motorman stopped the train "and blew the train whistle repeatedly." Two officers responded and the "boys resisted arrest, but were subdued." The five were "locked up charged with disorderly conduct," said the article.
Joseph Marino, who lived here in 1935, was doing well enough financially to afford an automobile. In September that year, the car was stolen and the thieves removed the license plates. Although the vehicle was not readily recovered, the plates showed up the following month as part of a grisly discovery.
On September 30, gangster Joseph "Pretty" Amberg and his chauffeur, Morris Kessler "were lined up against the wall in a Brownsville garage, after the fashion of the celebrated St. Valentine's Day massacres in Chicago, and were riddled with bullets," reported The New York Times. On October 24, the newspaper revealed, "'Pretty' Amberg's body was found early yesterday morning in a blazing automobile which had been left in front of 131 North Elliot Place, Brooklyn." The plates on the car belonged to Joseph Marine.
image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services
Joseph Bianco was discharged from the Army in October 1945. The veteran returned to New York, got a job driving a milk wagon, and moved into 5 Spring Street. His heroism ended at the end of the war.
In March 1946, five teenaged boys were arrested "as juvenile delinquents," explained The New York Times. The boys confessed in a string of tenement building burglaries and arsons. One of the fires nearly resulted in the death of a sleeping girl. In interrogating the teens, police discovered that 22-year-old Joseph Bianco was a modern day Fagan.
On March 11, 1946, The New York Times reported that he "looked defiantly yesterday in Felony Court as the prosecutor related...that Bianco trained five boys, all under 16 years old, not alone to be burglars but to set fire to three lower East Side tenement apartments to conceal their crimes." Bianco pleaded ignorance of the crimes, saying he had accepted the loot from the youths, but insisted, "I didn't know they had stolen that stuff."
When Bianco got out of prison, he remained friends with a resident of 5 Spring Street, Joseph Trulio. On December 26, 1950, The New York Times reported that the two men confessed to "holding up thirty hotels in the last two weeks, nine of them on Christmas morning." In court, Magistrate Brenner asked Bianco, "Why pick hotels?" He replied, "Hotels are easier. They have big lobbies and you can make a quick getaway."
photograph by Ted Leather
Changes in the neighborhood were reflected by Sweet and Vicious, a night club, occupying the ground floor space in the early 2000s. A renovation completed in 2016 modernized the storefront, home to The Tavern today. Although the paneled piers remain, the arched openings are either squared off or covered by signage today.
many thanks to reader Ted Leather for suggesting this post
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