Thursday, December 1, 2011

More on East Village backhouses

Tuesday's post on backhouses — via Off the Grid — piqued our curiosity about other such buildings in the neighborhood ... (A backhouse being residential structures that are separate from and located behind other buildings facing the street.)

We already had our eye on the one here that EV Grieve reader Spike mentioned... just east off Second Avenue between First and Second Street...


Apparently the entry is through 26 Second Ave. ...




Goggla pointed out that there is one off East Fifth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue... another reader lived in one at 519 E. 12th Street between Avenue A and Avenue B. There's also one at 325 E. 10th St., which you can see here.

14 comments:

Dave on 7th said...

There are lots of back houses in the East Village.
My friend lived in one 11 th st next to Veniero's
and there are two on Avenue A bet 9th & 10th.
They're remnants of pre- old law tenement New York.
A dumbbell tenement is basically a front house
and a back house connected by a central
stairwell.

Anonymous said...

A bit out of your range but there are a coupld of big ones on Orchard between Stanton and Rivington...You enter through orchard, walk through the hallway to the courtyard, and enter another big building located between Orchard and Ludlow. It's awesome!

Big Gay Ice Cream Man said...

Fascinating. I've not spotted most of the back houses cited- I need to keep my eyes peeled.

glamma said...

wow, living next to veneiros... how does that work? i would be having pastry dinners, nightly!

Anonymous said...

There's a tiny backhouse on East Sixth Street, between 1st and 2nd Aves. I think it's a one person home and it doesn't look THAT old. You can't see it from the street, and you can't see it with Google maps...but really, it IS there! Behind Calcutta or Raj Mahal.

Anonymous said...

There *used* to be a tiny house behind 324-326 E. 4th St., sob.

cw! said...

There's one right behind our place at 9th and A...entrance on A between 9th and 10th I think. Here's the google maps image: http://g.co/maps/er2r4

Mostly curious: how's the light? Seems like it'd be pretty gloomy back there, but maybe they have yard access.

Alyssa said...

My friend lived in one on 3rd Street between A and B -- not sure of the exact address, was on the south side.

Laura Goggin Photography said...

Does anyone know about the little place on the north side of 7th, btw C&D? It looks like it may have been a back house that is now missing the front building.

Dave on 7th said...

that house on 7th is a new building (about 10 yrs old or less)
and was built by a family that live in the co-op
to the west of it. The house connects to there apt in
the co- op. The family owned the lot the house was
built on.

Anonymous said...

Hey Dave on 7th - "A dumbbell tenement is basically a front house
and a back house connected by a central stairwell."
That's pure fantasy. A backhouse is a detached building at the back of a building lot. Dumbbell tenements were fully built in that shape. They typically occupy 80-90%of their lots. That didn't allow space for a backhouse.

Jill said...

Exactly, a dumbbell building is named because of the shape of the building, which was designed to comply with the new housing laws where every room has to have a window (among other things). The shape of the buildings are such that the rooms on the "inside" now have a window because they face a courtyard or a shaftway made possible by the inset shape of the dumbbell.

Dave on 7th said...

anon @ 6:06. You missed my point. I'm well aware what a dumbbell tenement is, as I live in one. And the design is structurally two seperate buildings connected by a central stairwell and hallway. I never suggested that the lot left room for a back house. I was suggesting that the design essentially connected the the equivalent of a front house and a back house together and replaced the court yard with a stairwell.
And thanks for edifying me so kindly.

Anonymous said...

Also out of the range, but there's a cute little one-story backhouse between MacDougal and Sullivan Street, south of Houston, with a nice little back yard. I used to lean out my bedroom window and dream about living in it.