A look at the ongoing renovations at First Houses

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

We've fielded several queries about the extensive renovations at the city-owned First Houses on Avenue A between Second Street and Third Street, both in the residences and above the strip of retail spaces.

For starters, a little history of the eight four-story and five-story buildings with the residential entrances on the south side of Third Street between Avenue A and First Avenue. First Houses was the first publicly funded low-income housing project in the U.S., opening in December 1935 under the auspices of the just-created New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). 

Per Village Preservation: 

First Houses was originally planned to house 120 to 122 families, and all apartments had steam heat, hot water and were equipped with the modern amenities typically found in middle-class housing. Within two months of opening a rental office for the project, the Housing Authority received between 3,000 and 4,000 applications. Prospective tenants were carefully selected by a team of social workers, with preference given to the inhabitants of the worst slums and relatively small families. All but one of the families chosen were residents of the Lower East Side. 

First Houses became a NYC Landmark in 1974. 

In recent decades, the buildings have shown their age, revealing ongoing bureaucracy issues plaguing the NYCHA.

In 2011, City Limits documented many of the residents' issues here. There were stories of mice eating their way through the worn floorboards and a resident battling the NYCHA for 15 years over a persistent leak. 

Fast forward to the start of the renovations last year. According to an architect working on the $24.8-million roofing replacement and exterior restoration:

[The] project is for restorative work throughout all of the facades of buildings within the complex, including rebuilding brick parapets in kind, repointing masonry and replacing brickwork, precast coping stones and metal lintels. 

Entrance porticos will be temporarily removed to allow for the replacement or restoration of green-painted cast iron columns and railings. Work on porticos includes the replacement of portico copper roofs, copper cornices, new concrete entrance stairs, landings, and footings, and replacement of nearby concrete or asphalt pavers pathways. Roofs of all buildings will be replaced with new liquid-applied roofing membrane over new insulation. 

In addition, the construction site manager told us: "We are replacing the roof and doing masonry restoration. We've also started on the interior work, which includes drywalling and lead and asbestos removal." 

Here's a look around the complex earlier this summer...

As you may have noticed, many tenants have moved out, including the local folk hero known as The Chillmaster, known for blasting classic R&B from his open window (year-round).

Local Assemblymember Harvey Epstein told us that tenants were temporarily relocated to other complexes, including the Jacob Riis Houses and the Wald Houses, and some public housing further away from the Lower East Side. 

Epstein said that all tenants can return to the First Houses upon completion of the work, set for 2025, per the posted signage.

About the new tenant at 37 Avenue A

Photos by Stacie Joy

In recent weeks we've seen activity in one of the long-empty storefronts in the retail spaces of the city-owned First Houses on Avenue A between Second Street and Third Street.

The new tenant is the project management team behind the renovations on Avenue A at Second Street... in a space that looks restaurant ready with the kitchen hood, countertop, and stools...

They say they are doing roofing and façade-repair work and will only be in the space until the project is finished... (and if you were looking for the taco cart) ...

The storefront, 37 Avenue A, has been vacant since Angelina Cafe closed in the spring of 2019 when Rafik Bouzgarrou opened Bin 141 on the next block.

While this stretch has been considered a "vacancy hotspot," East Village Buyers moved to 39 Avenue A in April. Perhaps a cafe or restaurant could take over 37 Avenue A after the construction wraps up. 

Renovation activity at the previous home of the Essex Card Shop on Avenue A

Photos by Stacie Joy 

Updated 2/22: Thanks to the reader comments, we now know who the new tenant is — East Village Buyers, relocating here from Third Street. Find the story here.

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Renovations are underway inside the vacant storefront at 39 Avenue A between Second Street and Third Street...

Unfortunately, workers at the space said they didn't know who the new tenant would be...

Until 2020, the space was home to Essex Card Shop... which moved one block to the north.

Last summer, the Cooper Square Committee, Village Preservation and East Village Community Coalition released a report titled "Crisis and Adaptation: Storefront Trends in the East Village, 2019 – 2021," ...  which named these retail spaces in the NYCHA-owned First Houses on Avenue A between Second Street and Third Street as "vacancy hotspots." 

Report: 10 teens hospitalized after someone tossed chemical from above during party at First Houses

Police are investigating a high school party that turned ugly when someone at the First Houses reportedly tossed a chemical substance from above onto the crowd, sending at least 10 teens to the hospital for minor burns.

According to The New York Times (the story was also picked up by the Associated Press), as many as 300 teens were at the party in a rented basement room at First Houses, the public housing complex on Third Street between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Partygoers paid $10 to enter a basement room usually reserved for tenant meetings.

To the Times:

The music was blasting as the crowd, which included teenagers from an elite public high school in Brooklyn, spilled into the courtyard. Barely an hour had passed before residents of the development ... called the police at about 10 p.m.

But someone upstairs had decided to do something about it. White paint and a caustic chemical were poured from overhead, burning at least 10 of the teenagers in the courtyard, the police said on Sunday.

And...

Valerie Vail, the mother of one victim, said many partygoers were students at Brooklyn Technical High School, including her daughter, a sophomore who she said was attending her first party as a student there. The attack left the girl with burns the size of dimes and quarters on her back, chest and arms, Ms. Vail said.

She said her daughter had shown her photos of other partygoers who had large burns across their chests, necks and legs.

After the paint and chemicals rained down, some partygoers rushed the East Third Street building’s front door and attempted to force their way in, slamming their fists against the door’s glass panes, cracking one, said Michael Strachan, 60, who lives in the building.

There is an unconfirmed report that a man who lived in the building "appeared to have thrown an orange-colored drain cleaner on the crowd below." Some of the injured teens ran to a nearby deli and poured milk onto the burns.

Tenants told the Times that they do not believe the party host lived in the building.

From mice to leaks, First Houses are showing their age

City Limits has a lengthy piece in its new issue on First Houses, the first public housing complex in the United States here on East Third Street between First Avenue and Avenue A.

Things aren't going so well inside the historic location. There are stories of mice eating their way through the worn floorboards and a resident who has been battling the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) for 15 years over a persistent leak.

Per the article:

"The feeling among some residents in First Houses falls somewhere between pride and worry about the historic landmark that they call home. Lashawna Kelly, who lives in another of the eight buildings comprising First Houses, is fighting her own battles against leaks and cheap, falling doors."

Read the whole article here.