SoHo and NoLIta Architecture

There are plenty of beautiful people in SoHo and NoLIta, but look up beyond the turn-of-the-20th-century cast-iron "bishop's crook" lampposts, and discover some of New York’s most impressive architecture. Look down to see Belgian-brick cobblestones lining some of the streets. Along Broadway and other streets in SoHo, there are "vault lights" in the sidewalk: starting in the 1850s, these glass lenses were set into sidewalks so daylight could reach basements.

The King of Greene Street, at 72–76 Greene, between Grand and Canal Streets, is a five-story Renaissance-style 1873 building with a magnificent projecting porch of Corinthian columns and pilasters. These days it’s painted in high-gloss ivory. Over at 28–30 Greene Street is the Queen of Greene Street, a graceful 1873 cast-iron beauty that exemplifies the Second Empire style with its dormers, columns, window arches, projecting central bays, and roof.

The Haughwout Building, at 488–492 Broadway, north of Broome, is best known for what's no longer inside—the world's first commercial passenger elevator, invented by Elisha Graves Otis. The building's exterior is worth a look, though: nicknamed the "Parthenon of Cast Iron," the five-story Venetian palazzo–style structure was built in 1857 to house department-store merchant E. V. Haughwout's china, silver, and glassware store. Each window is framed by Corinthian columns and rounded arches.

Built in 1904, the Little Singer Building, at 561 Broadway, is a masterpiece of cast-iron styling, its delicate facade covered with curlicues of wrought iron. The L-shape building's second facade is around the corner on Prince Street.

Over in Little Italy/NoLIta, the magnificent old Police Headquarters building at 240 Centre Street, between Broome and Grand, might be familiar from Martin Scorsese's film Gangs of New York. The 1909 Edwardian baroque–style structure with its striking copper dome was the headquarters of the New York City Police Department until 1973. It was converted into luxury condos in 1988 but is still known today as the Police Building.

The 1885 Romanesque Revival Puck Building, at 295 Lafayette Street, on the southeast corner of Houston, is a former magazine headquarters and now home to REI's New York flagship store on the first and basement levels. There are two gilded statues of Shakespeare's Puck: one just over the door on Lafayette Street and the other on the northeast corner of the building.