THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, JULY 19, 1998

MB RE

Streetscapes/The Jewish Daily Forward Building, 175 East Broadway

# A Capitalist Venture With a Socialist Base

The old building is
being converted into
condominiums.

By CHRISTOPHER GRAY

THE JEWISH DAILY FORWARD BUILDING, at 175 East Broadway, was built in 1912 as the Socialist paper reached new highs in circulation among its audience of Yiddish-speaking immigrants. The Forward moved out 24 years ago, succeeded by a Chinese church, but now a condominium conversion is under way.

First published in 1897, the Yiddish-language Forward was born as Jewish immigration swelled the New York sweatshops and labor unions. It had close ties to the Socialist Party, taking the name of the successful Socialist paper in Berlin. The first editor, Abraham Cahan, had to leave Russia after revolutionary activities, and it was he who molded the paper into more than just a broadside of ideology.

Cahan was convinced that to reach the working-class immigrant, he had to write of daily life, so The Forward included not just world politics but also local news, short stories and a free-for-all advice column, the Bintel Brief ("packet of letters"), with responses from both editors and readers on love, money, ethics and getting along in America.

The Forward Association, which controlled the paper, was incorporated in 1901 "for the purpose of distributing literature, social and economic science." In 1906 "the association bought the building at 175 East Broadway, between Rutgers and Jefferson Streets, across from the new Seward Park. Circulation continued to grow, and in 1910 the association bought the building at 173 East Broadway and filed a permit for a new 10-story structure on the two-lot site.

Shortly after that the directors of the association amended their corporate certificate to include operating a building but still to adhere to and propagate the principles of International Socialism."

Designed by George Boehm, the midblock Forward Building still towers over the three- to five-story houses and tenements in the area. A common story is that it was built in reaction to the capitalist symbolism of the 12-story Jarmulowsky Bank building, two blocks away at the southwest corner of Orchard and Canal Streets, but that building was begun a year after The Forward's.

The cream-and-tan exterior has the same

light tones and delicate terra cotta that Boehm used a few years later on the Chalif Dancing School, still standing at 163 West 57th Street. Above the second floor of The Forward Building, a series of relief busts depict four famous socialists, including Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Above them two oversize reclining figures in classical dress against a blue background flank a torch, an image that runs through the building's decoration.

The Forward Building was completed in 1912 — the same year the Socialist Eugene V. Debs polled 901,000 votes in the Presidential election. In that year The Evening Post

reported that Cahan's paper generated thousands of dollars of profit, all used to support working-class causes like organizing consumer strikes. Circulation was 120,000.

In 1922, Oswald Garrison Villard, editor of The Nation, called The Forward "America's most interesting daily," noting that the eight-page newspaper had generated assets of $1 million and given about $35,000 a year to labor and charity organizations.

Telephone directories list among the building's other tenants the Butchers' Union Local 509, the Jewish Socialist Verband (Organization), the Naturalization Aid League

Jewish Daily Forward Building in the 1920's, left, and newsboy selling the paper in early 1900's. Condominium conversion is now under way, right.

Forward Archives/YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

Brown Brothers

G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times

and the offices of the Workmen's Circle Cemetery.

The 1920's were the peak years for circulation, which reached 275,000, as the paper served both recent immigrants and those who had moved up and out of the Lower East Side. Shirley Zavin, who researched the building for the Landmarks Preservation Commission — which designated it a landmark in 1986 — called the paper “the giant” among New York's Yiddish dailies.

New laws in 1924 and 1929 tended to restrict Jewish immigration, and by 1939 the circulation was down to 170,000.

THE FORWARD has always retained a reputation as a literary paper, and its contributors have included the writers Isaac Bashevis Singer and Elie Wiesel and the artist and writer Art Spiegelman.

In 1963 The Forward began an English supplement, and in 1974 it sold 175 East Broadway and moved to 49 East 33d Street, where it remains. The building was purchased by the Lau family, and for many years a Chinese church has occupied part of the space. The building was designated a

landmark just as the owners proposed converting it to a hotel, but the conversion did not go ahead.

Now the building is covered with scaffolding, and the conversion will be to 39 loft-style condominiums, in an alteration designed by Alfred Wen that will include a restoration of the facade. Stephen Lau, acting as agent for his family's company, Chinese Center L.L.C., said that work would take about a year. "We thought now is the right time," he said. "We hope to have people from SoHo or Wall Street, not just Asians — it's a bit out of Chinatown."

Things have changed for The Forward, too. It prospers now as a weekly, with editions in English, Yiddish and Russian and a total circulation of about 45,000. Samuel Norwich, the general manager of the Forward Association, said the organization completely controlled the Yiddish and Russian editions but had 50-50 ownership of the English edition with private investors.

The bylaws of the association were changed in the 1960's, Mr. Norwich said, and "nobody's accused us of being Socialist for a long time."

1898

Parks Photo Archive

1898

Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens were incorporated with the City of New York in 1898 to form "Greater New York," the world's second largest city (after London) with a population of 3.5 million. At the time of consolidation Staten Island had fewer than three acres of public parks. Manhattan had nearly 1,300 acres, Brooklyn and Queens together 1,574 (Brooklyn having the lion's share), and the Bronx 4,058 acres. Brooklyn and Queens parks continued to be administered by the Brooklyn park commissioner. The Bronx now had its own commissioner, and the Manhattan commissioner took on responsibility for Staten Island. Together, the three commissioners formed a new board of what was now officially known as the Department of Parks of the City of New York.

Left: Hamilton Fish Park, 1902

After 1897, the Parks Department acquired small parks in crowded slum areas. From 1898 to 1902 the Outdoor Recreation League, a playground and recreation advocacy group, started playgrounds in the still undeveloped parks using temporary facilities and equipment.

24

FIGURE 3-42. Lillian Wald Houses. Site plan.

convenient route disappears when access doors to the fire stair and the main lobby are positioned adjacently.

As a result of this design, the fire exit remains predominantly unused as a secondary means of circulation at the ground level. Edenwald consequently maintains its status as one of the few projects under the aegis of the New York City Housing Authority in which the security hardware on the emergency exit doors has not been destroyed.

Interviews with Edenwald residents indicate that the securing of the stairwell entrance at the ground

level has greatly increased the security of the stair well at upper levels of the building. The stairs, avoided as unsafe in other projects, are readily used here for secondary vertical circulation and for visiting between floors (see fig. 3-45, p. 74).

Where the fire exit of a building is positioned opposite the main entrance, as in Highbridge (fig. 3-46, p. 75), the opportunity it affords to leave a building and move directly toward one's destination becomes a convenience too precious to be resisted. Tenants have often resorted to jamming the door latch on these doors to provide easy

72

HILLMAN COOPERATIVE
HOUSES

WE WANT A BETTER AMERICA. AN AMERICA THAT WILL GIVE ITS CITIZENS, FIRST OF ALL, A HIGHER AND HIGHER STANDARD OF LIVING SO THAT NO CHILD WILL CRY FOR FOOD IN THE MIDST OF PLENTY. WE WANT TO HAVE AN AMERICA WHERE THE INVENTIONS OF SCIENCE WILL BE AT THE DISPOSAL OF EVERY AMERICAN FAMILY, NOT MERELY FOR THE FEW WHO CAN AFFORD THEM; AN AMERICA THAT WILL HAVE NO SENSE OF INSECURITY AND WHICH WILL MAKE IT POSSIBLE FOR ALL GROUPS, REGARDLESS OF RACE, CREED OR COLOR, TO LIVE IN FRIENDSHIP. TO BE REAL NEIGHBORS; AN AMERICA THAT WILL CARRY ITS GREAT MISSION OF HELPING OTHER COUNTRIES TO HELP THEMSELVES.

SIDNEY HILLMAN

TO PERPETUATE THE IDEALS
FOR WHICH HE LIVED AND DIED

REPORT ON NEW YORK CITY SLUM CLEARANCE PROGRAM
UNDER TITLE 1 OF THE FEDERAL HOUSING ACT OF 1949

INTRODUCTION

Elimination of blight and provision of decent housing for all citizens is one of the most urgent problems facing New York today. We still have vast areas of slums; the result of past indifference, war shortages, growing population, reduction in infant mortality, prolongation of life, and other well-known factors.

Fuller understanding of economic and social needs has produced new tools for reconstruction. A major factor in the ultimate success of our objectives is the Title I program. The Title I program taps the financial, technical and legal resources of the local and federal governments as well as those of private

(Continued on page 5)

CORLEARS HOOK

ILGWU Cooperative Village—Corlears Hook.