From The Peopling of NYC

The beautiful cast iron buildings line the streets of SoHo.

Vesuvio Bakery is the oldest business in the neighborbood. It is a perfect example of the way things used to be.

A typical street in the city. The brown background is a sign that the Wooster Street is part of a historical district.

The Gunther Building, a famous landmark.

SoHo's geographical placement in Manhattan has directly influenced its evolution as a neighborhood. The quintessential SoHo appearance materialized in the decades after the Civil War, when industry sprung up in the area and drove the residents uptown. It’s birth as a manufacturing is a consequence of its proximity to the immigrant-dense population of Greenwich Village and Little Italy. The symbiotic relationship between the immigrants, who found employment within walking distance of their homes, and their employers, who had almost unlimited access to cheap labor, nurtured SoHo’s existence in the growing city. The cheap labor also allowed the business owners to invest in beautifully ornate cast iron facades for which SoHo is famous. The cheap labor the immigrants provided allowed for ornate designs on the cast iron buildings creating beautiful facades. This new style of construction was cheaper and more aesthetically pleasing as it allowed for large windows. The wide-open interiors of the buildings were also ideal for industrial work.

Later, the factories closed and the large empty buildings were ideal for artists' lofts. The shells left by industry were given new life by a population attracted to SoHo because it was able to find treasure in another’s trash. Rent was affordable and many artists moved in. In 1968, seeing the enormous potential in what was emerging as a Mecca for art in America, Paula Cooper opened the first art gallery in SoHo. The prime location of the gallery gave it ample resources from which to gather samples of art to exhibit. This was truly a sign of things to come, demarcating a decline in artist influence in the area and a rise in the power of the galleries. a warning sign for artists that gentrification was occurring. Since then, most artists have moved out because rents have soared. Even galleries have been hurt by the circumstances they are responsible for. Within the last five years many galleries have moved elsewhere, in pursuit of artists, who are in turn in desperate search for affordable housing. Thus, SoHo’s geographical proximity to cheap labor ultimately shaped its character centuries later.
Links
SoHo Demographical Data
Changing Tides of People
SoHo Real Estate Market

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