SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District
Borough and State: Manhattan, New York
Listed: 1973
Type of district: certified local historic district
Main Intersection: Greene and Spring Streets
SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District, New York, NY
The SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District is significant not only for its historic role in the commercial development of New York, but also for the survival of the largest concentration of full and partial cast-iron façades anywhere in the world. A majority of the buildings that incorporate full fronts of cast iron date from the decade of the 1870s, though a substantial number of complete masonry structures, as well as those combining masonry and cast iron, date from earlier and later decades.
The earliest existing buildings within the historic district date back to the first decade of the 19th century when the area was exclusively residential. By the mid-19th century, most of the early houses had either been replaced or converted for commercial purposes, though there remain today over 30 identifiable Federal period buildings within the historic district boundaries. They are far outnumbered, however, by non-residential structures dating from every decade of the second half of the 19th century plus a few belonging in the 20th.