Julius Boekell's 1877 238 East 6th Street

 

photograph by Anthony Bellov

Although Frederick Pflueger was a partner with his brother Christopher in the real estate development firm C. & F. Pflueger, he and his wife, Annie, often operated on their own.  That was the case in September 1876, when Frederick purchased the one-story store building at the southwest corner of Second Avenue and East 6th Street.

Pflueger hired architect Julius Boekell to design two flat-and-store buildings on the site.  The slightly smaller structure at 238 East 6th Street shared all the decorative elements of the corner building, other than its quoins.  Boekell designed the buildings in the popular neo-Grec style.  But his treatment of the openings was both striking and surprising.

Boekell forewent the paired cornice corbels and stone quoins in the corner building in designing 238 East 6th Street.  image via apartments.com

Typical of the neo-Grec style, the windows at each floor were connected by stone bands.  Their earred lintels were treated differently at each level and, unexpectedly, did not get less striking at each subsequent floor.  Those of the second floor were influenced by ancient Greece, with classical triangular pediments flanked by acroteria.  The third floor lintels were capped by peaked molded cornices with incised decorations.  The third and fourth floor lintels were only slightly less impressive, each having molded cornices and incised designs.

The Greek-inspired treatment of the second floor lintels was highly unusual in the neo-Grec style.  (Note that the original six-over-six wooden sashes survive in the hallway windows.)  photo by Anthony Bellov

Two stores flanked the entrance of 238 East 6th Street.  Although the building sat within Kleindeutschland, or Little Germany, the surnames of the early residents reflected a mix of Irish, German, French and other ethnicities.  Among the first residents were Edward Bucherer, a cabinetmaker; George Clemence, a plumber; Thomas Dougherty, who was a "shoer" in a stable; Mary A. Kiers, Mary Lehner, and Mary Shaw, all widows who made their living by sewing; clerk Christopher Lutchen; publisher John H. Phillipp; and butcher Alexander Zadig and his wife, Minnie.

Not everything was going well within the Zadig apartment.  On August 8, 1879, the New-York Tribune reported that Alexander had committed his wife "to a lunatic asylum yesterday."  Whether Minnie actually had mental problems will never be known, but a common method of discarding a problematic relative or getting control of their money was to have them committed.

A fascinating resident living here as early as 1894 was Dr. C. W. Doehring.  On July 25, that year, the New Haven Morning Journal and Courier reported that the Poppowitsch Electric Company would be moving its factory from Brooklyn to New Haven.  "Dr. Doehring, 238 East Sixth street, New York, is the architect of the new factory," said the article.  And four months later, on November 10, The New York Times reported that he had co-founded the Doehring and Van Fire-proofing Company, "to construct fire-proof work in New-York City."

The General Slocum disaster in June 1904--an excursion steamboat which burned and sank in the East River--wiped out more than 1,000 residents of the neighborhood.  The German community greatly abandoned the Lower East Side.  The neighborhood around 238 East 6th Street increasingly took on an Eastern European flavor.

In the pre-World War I years, a "Russian and Slavish" print shop, as listed in The American Printer, occupied one of the storefronts.  In 1917, the Russian language newspaper Russky Golos (The Russian Voice) was founded.  It was published from the rear of the printing shop.  

Among the newspaper's early editorials warned the world about the new regime in Russia.  Published on November 10, 1917, it said in part, 

The Bolsheviki plotters, harping on the strings of liberty and equality, crying for peace and subjugation to Germany, are not less dangerous than the Black Hundred, "the Bolsheviki from the right," who are attempting to bring Russian back under the yoke of absolutism.

In the early Depression years, the Cosmopolitan Credit Union occupied the other storefront.  Russky Golos moved its operation slightly east to 130 East 6th Street by the mid-1940s.  

The East Village neighborhood had greatly changed by the 1970s.  Baby boomers were now nearing their 30s, but had not totally abandoned their hippie lifestyles of the 1960s.  Living here in 1973 was 27-year-old Vincent Cobb.  On the afternoon of May 13 that year, two Montauk policemen were alerted by "the notes of a flute being played in the nearby woods," reported The East Hampton Star.  They arrested Cobb and three others and "seized packages of marijuana, hashish, LSD, AST and tranquilizers."

In 1977, Leonard Gruen worked "out of a small, unpolished storefront at 238 East Sixth Street," as described by The New York Times.  With assistance from his wife, Gruen used chain links and iron rods to fashion "spidery immobiles" (or window guards) that he custom-made to fit his customers.  The article said, "It's a far cry from New Orleans wrought-iron grillwork, but it seems to do the job for the wrought-up, crime-sensitive resident."  Occupying the other store at the time was the bookstore Howeria.

In the 1980s, O-Zora occupied one of the storefronts.  Run by Japanese-born Jiro Tusji and his wife, it offered Japanese wares and tools, and work clothing.

photograph by Anthony Bellov

The ground floor of Julius Boekell's 1877 structure has been totally altered.  But, happily, the upper floors, with his compelling window treatments, survive intact.

many thanks to historian Anthony Bellov for suggesting this post