Julius Kaster's 1886 46 East 7th Street

 

photo by Anthony Bellov

Unlike some architects, Julius Kastner did not necessarily specialize.  Instead, his works ranged from warehouses to upscale apartment buildings, and from commercial structures to tenements.  In 1886, developer Jacob H. Miller demolished the vintage house at 46 East 7th Street and commissioned Kastner to design a replacement tenement building on the site.  

The former structure was one of the elegant private homes erected in the early part of the century.  By the Civil War, however, the neighborhood had changed as thousands of immigrants flooded the district.  Tenement buildings like this one would relieve the resultant housing problem.  Five stories tall, it was faced with red brick and trimmed in sandstone and terra cotta.  Kastner created a potpourri of currently popular styles.  Renaissance Revival appeared in the ornate terra cotta plaques and bandcourses; while the neo-Grec style was reflected in the stone lintels, connected to one another by stone bands.  The two-step stoop was flanked by beefy cast iron newels and railings, while handsome Aesthetic style fencing protected the areaways.

Called a "double-flat," 46 East 7th Street had two apartments per floor.  Among the early tenants were a German-born woman, who was struggling to make an income.  She placed an advertisement in The Sun in September 16, 1892 that read, "A young lady as cashier in a cafe saloon, Walter, 46 East 7th st., ground floor, left," and seven days later advertised, "A young German lady gives piano lessons at home."  She tried another tack in October, when a new ad read: "A young German widow wants place as housekeeper. 46 East 7th st. ground floor left.  Walter."

Four years later, another female tenant was creatively looking for work.  She placed two advertisements in the New York Herald on Christmas Eve 1896.  The first read, "Respectable young lady as housekeeper. Mrs. Schach, 46 East 7th st., ground floor," and the second read, "Lady manicure wishes more customers, home or out.  Mrs. Schach 46 East 7th, ground floor."

The Cook family lived here in 1909.  On July 5 that year, 18-year-old Florence Cook went to Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx with two other teen girls.  The Sun reported that they were "crossing [Eastern Boulevard] on their way home...when they heard an automobile horn close upon them.  The other two jumped aside, but Miss Cook was thrown several feet."  The driver sped off but Florence's astute friends were able to remember the license plate number.

Florence was taken to Fordham Hospital with a fractured skull.  She died there two days later without having regained consciousness.  On July 10, The New York Times reported that the hit-and-run driver, "a merchant, now living in Troy," had been tracked down.

Isaac Swimer, his wife and their 12-year-old daughter, lived here as early as 1913.  A marine engineer, Swimer had served in the Spanish-American War.  On April 23, 1913, he was robbed by three holdup men at Sixth Avenue and 14th Street.  They took a ring valued at $150 (nearly $5,000 in 2025).  The three men were arrested, but the Grand Jury refused to indict them "upon their plea that the ring had been taken as a gambling debt in a crap game," reported The New York Times.

Swimer regained his ring, but he was soon back in court over the incident.  The New York Times said, "Later he was fined $10 for beating one of the witnesses who had testified against him."  Because of the holdup, Swimer began carrying a revolver for his protection.

Things were looking well for the family and Swimer opened his own machine shop at 501 East Houston Street early in 1914.  On March 19, he went to Fensterheim's Turkish Baths on Third Street.  He was wearing the ring that was involved in the earlier robbery and another one valued at $60 (about $1,960 today).  He fell asleep in the "cot room" and awakened to discover his rings had been taken from his fingers.  The New York Times reported, "Swimer glared angrily at the two men who had been sleeping at either side of him and asserted that he would have back his rings."

Swimer sent another patron, Arthur Cohen, to report the theft as "he kept his eyes on his nearest neighbors, Sam Connors, alias 'Whitey,' alias 'Spunky'...and Louis Baumgarten."  The newspaper said that both men "had unsavory reputations in the neighborhood."  Cohen returned with a detective but when Swimer could not produce proof of their guilt, the policeman could not pursue the charge and left.

With the officer gone, according to other patrons, Connors "announced that Swimer would never have another chance to 'squeal.'"  The detective had just reached the ground floor when he heard shots coming from above and "a dozen men, most of them clad only in bath towels and sheets, piled pell-mell downstairs."  He returned upstairs to find Swimer "flourishing a revolver."  Swimer said to the officer, "I couldn't help it.  I had to do it."

Swimer had shot Connors through the left temple and Baumgarten just above the heart.  Both were unconscious.  Connors died a few hours later and the following day Baumgarten had little hopes of survival.  Despite the statements by witnesses, Swimer was held in The Tombs charged with homicide.

On August 16, 1924, Herman Tubb, who lived at 247-09 Jamaica Avenue in Queens, walked out of his house to discover that his $500 Chevrolet sedan was gone.  Police found it at Jamaica Avenue and 178th Street being driven by Charles Hammasher, who lived at 46 East 7th Street.  He was charged with grand larceny.

The original stoop ironwork survived in 1941.  image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The Lower East Side was the epicenter of Socialist and Communist activities in the first half of the 20th century.  Residents Mike Holvowitz, Ann Segen, and Sophie Semchyn voted for the Communist Party in the 1936 general election (and their names were quickly documented by the Congressional Special Committee on Un-American Activities).

By the Depression years, the first floor apartments were converted to business.  In the 1970s, the film company Parnasses Productions and Contract Aftercare, an abuse treatment center, were located in the building.

Among the residents by the early 1980s was sculptor Michi Raphael.  Born in 1925, she studied with Bruno Luccesi and Manuel Pasquel.  In reporting on her exhibition at the Lowe-Levinson Art Gallery in Miami Beach, The Miami News noted on December 17, 1980, "The artist sculpts most of her works in bronze and stainless steel."

Michi Raphael's La Valse.  image via mutualart.com

At some point in the second half of the 20th century, the brawny stoop ironwork was replaced with modern, much less charismatic railings.  Otherwise, Julius Kastner's 1886 design is essentially intact.

photograph by Anthony Bellov

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post