Soho/Our Tour
From The Peopling of NYC
 These "ship weight" cobblestones originated in Belgium over 100 years ago. |
 Cobblestones in SoHo. |
 Cobblestone pavements are found all over SOHO, and are a part of the neighborhood's rich history. |
A walk through the historic cobble streets of SoHo overwhelms one with a feeling of conflict between the old and the new. Everywhere one looks, the clashing forces struggling for preservation and those forcing modernization through a seemingly endless influx of capital shout out. These shouts make for an electrical charisma of the neighborhood, one that decade after decade drew new and fascinating groups to make it their home. More recently, the neighborhood has become a hot-spot for tourism.
 The Wall Street Bull in front of a trendy restaurant. |
 New and high class stores, like Coach, are replacing the many artists and galleries that have made SoHo their homes since the 1960s. |
 An example of art sculptures in SoHo. |
 Art galleries are still prominent among the streets but are slowly leaving and moving to nearby Chelsea. |
 As more middle and upper class families replace the artists in the area, stores replace the once prevailing galleries. |
 Advertising for the new shops hang from the cast-iron buildings. |
 Local artists have started getting licenses to become street vendors, selling their art work instead of putting them in art galleries. |
 A rare bluestone sidewalk. |
Upon acclimating to Soho's fast pace and atmosphere, the walker-by begins to gaze at the neighborhood's marvelous cast-iron archetecture. It is to protect this architectual relic that the city has zoned Soho as a historical district. These buildings have strong skeletons that hold the weight of the building form the interior. Therefore, their fronts allow for huge windows, which have become useful for today's storefronts.
 This Cheney and Hewlett Building was given this prestigious award from Giuliani and New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1994 for its cast-iron architecture. |
 Because of its strength, cast-iron became the material of choice to construct fire escapes. Fire escapes were mandated in 1911 by the city after the tragedy at the Triangle Shirt Waist factory. |
 An example of cast-iron architecture |
 With its beautiful architecture, upscale stores and trendy locale, SoHo is always crowded with shoppers. |
 Corinthian columns add an aesthetic appeal to the shopping district as adornments to storefronts and galleries. |
 Evidence of remnants of SoHo's past. |
 Before SoHo was known for its upscale stores, it was also home to engraving businesses and printing presses. |
 Example of stores that were started by immigrant entrepreneurs. |
 Skyscrapers are not as characteristic of SoHo's geography because of height limitations instated by the City of New York. |
 Juliana, Vadim, and Jasmine enjoying Professor Napoli's walking tour. |
These windows into the past reveal Soho as it was from 1825 and throughout the 1850's - a factory district. Its organization into such is by no means accidental. It was a logical extention of the demographic environment of the surrounding neighborhoods. This environment largely consisted of two two immigrant groups: Irish and Italians. The cheap labor from the surrounding tennements and boarding houses allowed for ornate factories to be built in this prime location. Its proximal location to Downtown Manhattan, where the immigrants were largely concentrated, allowed for walking to work, a characteristic that was absolutely crucial for any poor immigrant worker during the early 1800s. Benefiting from being in the right place at the right time, SoHo to evolved into an industrial district.
Factory owners were ruthlessly economical, exploiting the cast iron structures for every square-inch of workable space. Thus, the large basements underneath the buildings were considered prime working space and were packed with hardworking immigrant laborers. Walking by buildings where this basement work was once practiced, one steps on circular pieces of glass embedded in the floor. These were once translucent windows, providing light for the tired masses in the basements.
 These sidewalk floors have tinted glass inserted into them. This glass used to be the only source of sunlight for people living in the basements of the buildings. |
 After the invention of electricity, these floor windows were no longer needed, but they still remain as a remnant of the past. |
 The ground glass is found throughout much of SOHO. |
 Tinted glass on the sidewalk of SOHO's streets. |