Rivington is a street in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, in general running from the Bowery east to Pitt Street. In 2010 it exists in three separate pieces, a one-block stretch between Bowery and Chrystie, a main section from Forsyth east to Pitt, and a small piece remaining at Columbia. It was originally laid out as one continuous street from the Bowery to the East River, but over the decades, the construction of Sara Roosevelt Park, Samuel Gompers Houses and Baruch Houses have served to truncate it somewhat. In the colonial era, James Rivington(1724-1802) published a loyalist Tory journal from 1773-1775, the New York Gazetteer; nonetheless, he was an associate of James de Lancey, Jr., and a number of streets in the Lower East Side honor his allies in this neighborhood.
That the Lower East Side is a former enclave for Jewish immigrants from eastern Europe is well-known. The western end of Rivington was, apparently, home to many Romanian Jewish immigrants, as this building at 58-60 between Eldridge and Allen, was formerly the Adath Jashurun synagogue built by immigrants from Iasi, Romania, designed in 1903 by famed architect Emery Roth, later famed for grand residential buildings. Since 1973 it has been a residential building itself, though thankfully the exterior is relatively unaltered.
What does it say on the tablets?
ForgottenFan Matthew Kirshner: If you were wondering what it says on the two tablets above the doorway at 58-60 Rivington (the former Adath Jeshurun synagogue), those are the ten commandments, from right to left.
Evidence of Rivington’s Romanian past can also be found at 95 Rivington, between Orchard and Ludlow. This 1840 townhouse has been much altered over the years but its former life as the Talmud Torah synagogue is obvious over the front entrance.
Economy Candy at 108, just west of Essex, has been there since 1937 and has been owned and operated by the Cohen family since the beginning. The smallish, cramped store is a wonderworld for candy aficionadoes, with all the well known brands and others from around the globe you have never heard of. Your webmaster is in here a couple of times a year to stock up on candy fruit slices and chocolate covered pretzels. (The sweet-sour mix on the former and the sweet-salt mix on the latter is at the optimum level for my preference in each case.) It’s only my superhuman resistance level that keeps me from going in more often.
A now-rare colorful painted wall-dog ad for Schapiro’s Kosher Winery. The vintner was founded in 1899 and originally specialized in thick, fruit juice-like product but has broadened its approach over the decades. The wines can be purchased at the Essex Street Market, between Rivington and Delancey, though this warehouse no longer houses the vintner, now based in Monticello, NY.
Botanica San Lazaro, #127 and Rivington Guitars, #125. Botanica are purveyors of religious paraphernalia and hexerei such as candles, statuary, amulets, and herbs thought to aid healing (thus the plant reference incipit in the name; some are Christian, some santeria, some mixtures of the religions of the Caribbean. This store carries the name of Lazarus, the youth Christ raised from the dead in the Gospels, an act presaging His own Resurrection. I shot this in early 2009, and Rivington Guitars has since moved its operations to the East Village, though it has retained the name.
The massive medieval-styled castle at the SE corner of Rivington and Suffolk is the former Public School 160, now the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center:
The Clemente Soto Velez Cultural & Educational Center Inc. is a Puerto Rican/Latino cultural institution that has demonstrated a broad-minded cultural vision and a collaborative philosophy. While CSV’s mission is focused on the cultivation, presentation, and preservation of Puerto Rican and Latino culture, it is equally determined to operate in a multi-cultural and inclusive manner, housing and promoting artists and performance events that fully reflect the cultural diversity of the Lower East Side and the city as a whole.
When I passed by it was undergoing a concerted stab at blasting the graffiti off the exterior, though that appears to be a daunting effort.
ABC No Rio: a large artist’s collective on Rivington Street, well known for decades for political activism and its drive to be a community social center, combining art, music, poetry and intense activism on many political and economic issues affecting local residents. They have been one of the major centers for the performance of spoken word/poetry slams and host a regular weekend matinee show of indie punk thrash metal music, amongst many other activities…The front of the building, whose ownership has been in dispute all along, is decorated with salvaged metal parts and murals depicting moments of nihilistic despair, somewhat ironic because the general aims of the organization are very optimistic – art studio access for everyone, fair and affordable housing and educational outreach to the unfortunate. [NY Daily Photo]
Underwear, #155. Perfect name if they wanted to make it a nightclub, no? Instead a wine bar called Belly occupies the ground floor.
Tailor Shop, nice hand lettered awning sign, at #176 between Clinton and Attorney. A couple of doors down is DM, which of course, stands for Dangerous Mathematicians, quite naturally, a ladies’ clothing shop.
Rivington’s greatest hand lettered sign, #206 east of Ridge, La Borinqueña (Puerto Rican) Meat Market.
Finally, here’s #202 at the corner of Rivington and Ridge, the girlhood home of Genya Ravan, who has been rocking for over 40 years. Here she is with one of her first hits with Goldie and the Gingerbreads in 1964:
From a few years later: Genya Ravan, Back in My Arms Again
SOURCE: Jim Naureckas’ New York Songlines
Jim Naureckas says: Rivington, though publishing a loyalist newspaper, was secretly spying for Washington at the same time–and it’s my understanding that this explains why the street bears his name.
Photographed February 2009; page completed December 15, 2010
65 comments
How did you miss the Streit’s matzo factory?
I attended PS 160 for one year — fall 1965 – 66. What did I learn? I learned what Hell is.
I recall going to elementary school at PS 160 way back in the early 1960’s. I was enrolled in what was then called the IGC program for my fifth and sixth grades; this was the only location near where I lived that offered those classes. A great place for a snack was the Streit’s (sp?) matzoh bakery across the street.
#155 – Underwear:
In the Ellis Island records appear that Lea and her daughter (14) Schenia Berlin arrived, to live with the husband / father Sam Berlin at 155 Rivington Street. Sam Berlin and his two brothers had a factory and sold fancy underwear (like corsets) . The sign underwear still appear at the front of the building. We are still trying to locate their descendants, but there is reason to believe that was their store.
Do you know what year they arrived at Ellis Island?
My Grandfather’s older brother, Isaac, worked for Sam Berlin circa 1900 at a small shop at 67 Delancey St, and Berlin appeared before the court to support Isaac’s Naturalization petition.
In the 1930s my father, Meyer Kupfersmith, had a law office at 42 Rivington Street. I still have one
of his business cards. He shared it with Mrs. Porges who was a major Tammany politician, and a man named Mischu who was a notary public. The Democratic Party was actively in the business of helping people, primarily poor immigrants, who needed assistance in coping with the law, such as pushcart peddlers who were ticketed for not having licenses, or threatened with tickets unless they paid off cops. I went back there recently, and found a trendy wine bar at #42. My father would
think he was on another planet.
(Signed) Jerry
Mr. Coopersmith: Rare to find your entry regarding your father’s law office at 42 Rivington. I spent the first nine years of my life in a roach-infested tenement at 46 Rivington from 1949 – 1959 and I attended the University Settlement for part of that time. It was all a far different place from what it is now–Howard Kim.
Mr. Kim: In my genealogical research I found, just today, clues that lead me to think that when my great-grandfather and his then-wife first came to America from Eastern Europe, their first home was at 46 Rivington. I don’t know why, nor for how long, but it is the address they gave at Ellis Island. At that time there was a community of Jews from what is now Romania, which is where they were from (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). I’m itching to learn more!
[…] Adath Jeshurun of Jassy aka the Emory Roth synagogue at 58 Rivington Street. It’s apparently now a private house, but whatever it is, it’s in a sad state. It really highlights the value of restoring […]
Does anyone know about the Balkan Record Store, which was at 42 Rivington Street?
I’m doing research on the Balkan Record Store and owner Aydin Asllan but have not come up with much. Anybody out there know anything?
I don’t know anything, but I know my husband would be super interested in your topic, it holds everything he loves, arcanity, hebraic arcanity, Balkan music, hipsterness. We once researched a Jewish retirement village in Az, begun in the 50’s, circle City. Please contact him, gjalessi@yahoo.com or me, naphiah@yahoo.com . Oh, also ny arcanity we love. Thanks!
My family lived at 240 Rivington St. During the 1870s and 1880s before moving to Hells Kitchen. They where German immigrants.
Does anybody have information or pictures of 240 Rivington St. It does not exist anymore.
Hi,
Does anybody know if the building where the late great George Burns lived is still there?
Yeah, the one next to Jackie Gleason’s pad 😉
The synagogue that you say is a romanian talmud torah, is next to a large empty lot. In that lot was a huge synagogue, called the first rumanian american congregation.
Wow!
My father brought the store and had LaBorinquena hand painted on the storefront meat market , after Family business my uncle DEMAS OTERO BECAME THE OWNER and business was BOOMING !!! “DEMAS” BECAME THE BEST “PUERTORIQUENO” BUCHER IN THE LOWEREASTSIDE , MY UNCLE DEMAS WAS A VERY GENEROUS MAN to the PUBLIC , and a hard worker for his family .My UNCLE DEMAS past away inside the meat market just after closing of a heart attack….BUSINESS WAS NEVER THE SAME AGAIN…….. WHEN I GO INTO THE CITY, I GO BACK TO REVINGTON STREET TO REMANIS THE EARLY YEARS WHEN DEMAS WAS THERE SMILING AND GREETING ALL WHO PAST AND PURCHASE HIS PRODUCTS.
I also grew up on 176 Rivington st till I was 15 yrs old back in the early 1980! Did ur uncle have a goddaughter name gaby? Her dad’s name was kevin ?
It’s December 2018,
206 Rivington street N.Y. N.Y.
LaBORINQUENA MEAT MARKET PAINTED SIGN COVERED UP WITH A METAL AWNING
SO SAD … This time of the year family’s shopping for CHRISTMAS gathering NO longer exists my parents are in their 90s and remember the younger days filled with excitement .
THE OTERO AND JIMENEZ FAMILY GOD BLESS
REST IN PEACE DON DEMAS THANK YOU FOR YOUR KINDNESS ,LAUGHTER
AND LOVE OF ALMIGHTY GOD .
I USED TO LIVE AT 136 SULFOLK ST IN1964-1975 WOW HAD LOTS OF FUN WENT TO P.S.160
Does anyone know about the Balkan Record Store, which was at 42 Rivington Street?
Did you read the guy above you is asking about it?
i just had the most odd dream about Rivington Street so i woke up to google it. i used to live on Stanton between Chrystie and the Bowery in the late eighties. there was a hole in the apartment floor through which we could see our neighbors below. across the street was an abandoned building where addicts would cook their drugs over open fires they’d somehow set alight on the floors. i didn’t last long there. sometimes i don’t know how i ever made it out of nyc alive
You should have seen it in mid 70s a lot worst!!
I attended IGC in 5th and 6th grade at PS 160. I think my 6th grade teacher was Ms Nemiroff(sp)in 1966-67. There was a deli across the street. We did not have a gym in that building but we would go to Seward HS for swimming. Anyone out there in my class?
Toni:
Howard, my brother, had Mrs. Nemiroff as a SIXTH grade IGC teacher; when I was PS160, she was still Mrs. Parsons. I was in IGC-5 with Mr. Dubrowski as a teacher before moving up to IGC-6. You may have crossed paths with my brother, Howard.
I went to PS 160 in the early 50’s.if anyone went there then, please contact me. Love to talk to you. I’m 74 years old, so anyone around that age went there at the same time I did. Maybe we knew each other?
Angela! This is Paul Rovitti. I lived at 136 Rivington Street on the second floor with your grandparents, the Sicilianos! If you get this message please email me at provitti@cox.net I would love to hear from you!
My grandparents (Haber) lived at 245 Rivington St. and operated a candy store there. Have no photos.
My grandfather was also a Haber who lived on Rivington Street and had a candy store. Who was your grandfather? Mine was Ralph.
Does anybody know anything about the great 40s actor John Garfield? He grew up in the Rivington Street area but I don’t know the address of his childhood home.
Hi,
My dentist use to be on Rivington, between Bowery and Chrystie, during the mid-1950s/early 60s. I remember that at the end of my visits, he would always offer me a small take-home toy (like what you get from a gum machine) that he kept in a box. If anyone remembers his name I would love to know.
And does anyone know the name of a tailor shop that use to be on Forsyth Street? I remember they had a large display window. My father would occasionally get his suits done there.
I no longer live in NY but am in the process of writing down some of my memories.
Hi,
Yesterday I asked a couple of questions, one of which I inquired about a dentist. Well, although my post seems to have been deleted I happen to recall the name I was looking for. So just in case someone else wants to know: Dentist David O. Habib was at 56 Rivington St.
For years he looked after my families dental needs.
My grandparents lived at 222 Rivington Street. My mother and here sister were born there in 1912 and 1914. Now it’s a parking/walk-through area. Any photos of the building would be much appreciated.
Hi,
156 Rivington (ABC No Rio in the photo) had a photo studio back in the 1920’s (and perhaps beyond). I know this because my grandparent’s wedding photo was taken there (it’s noted in the lower left of the photo). Wish I had a photo of the building from around that time. The building that was there until recently was the building they took the photo in because I was able to see in Google Street view from a few years ago that the building was built in 1916.
Very cool!
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This actually answered my problem, thank you!
Here in Belgium I was buying a beautiful photo of 3 children maded by ‘J. Kornweiss studio’ 155 Rivington street (1890-1910?) NY Who know something about this A. Kornweiss? Kindly regards
Guido
He was my great grandfather – can you send me an image of the photo?
I have photograph of my great-grandmother and two of her sons taken at the Kornweiss Studio at 151 Rivington St. Can you tell me anything of your great-grandfather’s studio there?
My great great grandparents were Isaac and Lucretia Van Brunt and they lived at 218 Rivington. Mid 1800’s. I came here hoping to see an old building…..
My father had a hardware store on Rivington Street in the early 60’s called Sol’s Hardware Store
If my memory dont fail , I remember going to a hardware store on Rivington street between Orchard street and Allen street with my father. Could you be talking about this hardware?
My mother grew up at 13 Pitt Street and went to Seward Park High School, which still exists. The tenement her family lived in was demolished years ago and the neighborhood has been thoroughly rebuilt and modernized.
My father, Henry Saul, attended Seward. He lived on Orchard Street.
My great-grandmother Rose Pepe lived with her son Rafael at 333 Rivington in 1925.
I lived in 48 Rivington street with my parentes in the 60’s and went to PS 20 on Essex street.
My Zayda, Jacob Stein owned the building and the company inside the building, Roumanian-American Winery, Inc. It was located at either 110 or 112 Rivington Street. I have photos of the inside of the winery as well as a couple of bottles with labels probably from the 30’s. Does anyone have knowledge or photos as to it’s history, which building it was?
I believe the Aaron Streits matzoh factory was eventually sold with the factory moving to somewhere in New Jersey. As a student at the former PS160, I spent a lot of time “grazing” along Rivington Street near the school: pickles from an actual pickle purveyor and, of course, matzoh “rejects” that were placed at an open window on Rivington Street.
I am so happy that PS160 was repurposed to become a cultural center versus being torn down. I haven’t been in this area since I left elementary school (early-1960’s); my parents were fortunate enough to be able to “move up”. My brother eventually went to Stuyvesant HS while I went to HS of Art & Design. He is now a retired nuclear engineer while I am a retired industrial/architectural designer. I must make a trip to NYC to revisit these places to see how much has changed since I was at PS160. How the world has changed!!
I’m going through some family stuff and came across my dad’s school day autobiography with his classmates notes…..it’s dated Jan 1940 and references PS 160…..Since he grew up on the lower east side, I’m guessing the school was somewhere around Rivington Street? when I did a Google search, it was putting me in Jamaica Queens, which I know he didn’t live there. He also graduated Seward Park High School
PS 160 was at 107 Suffolk St between Delaney and Rivington St. which you may have already found out. As mentioned by Warren it is now a cultural Center . The Clemente Center. https://www.newyorklatinculture.com/nyc/manhattan/downtown/lower-east-side/the-clemente/. My great grandmother (J Ryno) and her 3 sisters lived at 221 Rivington St. when she was 12 years old.
Anyone hear stories of any Fine’s that lived on rivington in the early 1900’s?
I know we had relatives from Russia/Poland that lived there but that’s all we know.
My Gt,Gt Uncle Max J Porges and his wife Barbara, mentioned above, owned the old Hotel Carmel on the NE corner of Rivington and Forsythe from about 1876 to 1920’s. 36 Rivington and 168 Forsythe. He was an Alderman and a Deputy Sheriff and quite a character. I am writing a small book about him and his wifefor my family and although the hotel is long gone, if anyone has any information on them or pictures, I would really appreciate it. Thanks
My grandparents, Joe and Jean Bierman lived on Rivington Street and had business there from the late 20’s to the early 70’s, starting out as a hatmaker (JB Hatters) and then operating a hardware variety store at 149 Rivington St. The Hat store and factory were at 167 Rivington St. Both my parents attended PS 160 in the mid to late 30’s and my mother went onto Seward Park High….I remember several photo shops on the block between Clinton and Suffolk, one at 156 and another at149(second floor).
My Grandfather, Isadore Weissman, owned a glat kosher butcher shop on Rivington near the corner of Bowery. He died in 1907 when my father was 2 years old. When I first visited NY in 1967, it was still there owned and operated by the man who bought it 60 years ago from then from my family. It remained a flat kosher butcher shop until around 1990 when it became a trendy furniture store. I have not been back to NY for many years, so I don’t know what it is now.
My grandfather attended PS No. 4 and Rivington and Pitt streets in 1890’s. Is the original school building still there or has it been torn down?
Hey Anthony,
I too attended PS 4 way back in the 1960’s. The school building located at 203 Rivington Street was built in 1906. It is now a residential building with 1 bedroom apartments renting in the $3,000 range… welcome to NYC!
So, it is likely that your grandfather attended the previous version of PS 4. Interestingly, I recall a teacher showing us a very old ledger book that was the school’s registry
book for its students and it showed the occupation of their parents…blacksmith, saloon keeper, etc.
This link shows an 1879 map with the earlier version of the school at the same location but much smaller and at the center of where the current building now stands.
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/88144ce0-0acc-0132-504c-58d385a7bbd0
Is the Real Kosher Sausage Co., 15 Rivington St, still functioning? Do people have any memories or stories about this business?
I lived with a couple girls named Minkie and Lisa at 18 Rivington Street as a runaway gutter urchin circa 84-85, the time of my life. Wish I knew what happened to them.
My Grandfather Rabbi Mieyer Lipscitz had a religeous store at 90 Rivington Street my family spent many a Sunday at the
store which all the family came to on Sundays, it was a gathering place. My uncle Sam Lipschitz ran the store mostly mainly
because my grandfather at an earlier age had lost a limb.There was a kitchen at the rear of the store in which one could
grab a quick something or a cup of coffee. To my memory they were one of the first stores that started to import items
from Israel. Sometimes I was given a few coins to either get myself a pickle from the stand on the corner or a sweet potato from
what was called a pushcart.Those were the days my friends.
I lived on the 3rd floor at 123 Rivington St. between 1968-1972 and attended PS 160 during that time. My grandmother would give me a grocery list and I would go to the market next door and the Buther across the street
and get all the stuff for dinner. I ate the best pickles from barrels sitting outside and bought Lox from the fish place by the pickles. I had a friend down Rivington whose parents had a wedding dress rental shop and she and I would dress up in the returns and stroll down Rivington St in our finery to a little restaurant on the corner where we would order hot tea and English muffins. I learned so much above people, food, cultures, and so much
more! I wouldn’t trade it for anything!
my grandmother owned a newsstand on the corner of Allan and Rivington street. Her name was Nettie Goldberg and ran the business with her son SAM.THEY WERE AT THAT LOCATION FROM THE MID 1940S UNTIL 1968.there was a candy store called Moes–i used to eat there every saturday morning in the 50S