SoHo in the 1970s: From Industrial Ruins to an Artist’s Haven — A Story in Photos

Before the artists came, SoHo was a failing industrial neighborhood that the city had essentially written off. The blocks south of Houston Street and north of Canal — bounded by Broadway to the east and West Broadway to the west — were filled with cast-iron manufacturing buildings that had been emptying out since the 1950s. Factories relocated to New Jersey and the South. Freight elevators sat idle. Loading docks collected garbage. The city’s own planning commission had a name for the area in the 1960s: Hell’s Hundred Acres, so called because of the frequency of fires in the old, poorly maintained buildings.

By 1970, artists had already been moving in illegally for years. What happened next turned that quiet invasion into one of the most documented neighborhood transformations in American urban history.

Why Artists Came and What They Found

The buildings were the reason. SoHo’s cast-iron lofts — wide-open floors with high ceilings, large windows, and square footage that no artist could afford anywhere else in Manhattan — were exactly what painters and sculptors needed. A sculptor working in steel or a painter making canvases twelve feet wide had no use for a conventional apartment. These lofts offered space measured in thousands of square feet, often for rents that a working artist could manage, at least in the early years.

Living there was technically illegal. The buildings were zoned for manufacturing, not residential use. Artists signed leases as “commercial tenants” and then quietly moved in mattresses, hot plates, and art supplies. The city knew this was happening and largely looked away, partly because the alternative was buildings that generated no rent and no tax revenue at all.

#1 Art dealer Ivan Karp in front of the OK Harris Gallery in SoHo, 1970.

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#2 Artist Nancy Graves with maquettes of her sculpture Camels in her SoHo studio, 1970.

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#3 People walking a dog along a trash-strewn street in SoHo, 1972.

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#4 The Haughwout Building at 490 Broadway in SoHo, 1973.

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#5 The Haughwout Building at 490 Broadway in SoHo, 1973.

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#6 The Haughwout Building at 490 Broadway in SoHo, 1973.

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#7 The Haughwout Building at 490 Broadway in SoHo, 1973.

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#8 Car crossing Broome Street at Mercer Street in SoHo, 1973.

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#9 Dancers at a loft party in SoHo, 1974.

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#10 Pedestrian crossing a snow-covered street in SoHo at night, 1974.

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#11 NYPD officers standing on a sidewalk in SoHo, 1974.

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#12 Artists carrying paintings between studios and galleries in SoHo, 1974.

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#13 Chauffeur standing by a car outside the OK Harris Gallery on West Broadway, SoHo, 1974.

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#14 Al Goldstein, Richard Goldstein, and Michael Goldstein at the AJ Liebling Counter-Convention, New York, 1974.

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#15 Patti Smith performing on a SoHo rooftop, 1974.

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#16 Artist Marion Pinton in her Wooster Street studio, SoHo, 1974.

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#17 Cast-iron facade of the Haughwout Building at Broadway and Broome Street, SoHo, 1974.

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#18 David Mancuso meeting with the SoHo Artists’ Association at the Loft disco, 1974.

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#19 SoHo residents protesting against a disco and juice bar, 1974.

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#20 SoHo residents protesting against a disco and juice bar, 1974.

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#21 Television news crew preparing to cover a SoHo protest, 1974.

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#22 Men in costumes at a Halloween loft party in SoHo, 1974.

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#23 Lil Picard wrapping a participant for a performance piece at the Sculpture Now Gallery, SoHo, 1974.

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#24 Crowd of onlookers looking up at a SoHo intersection, 1970s.

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#25 Police cars with winter chains on snowy streets in SoHo, 1970s.

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#26 Storefronts at 464-468 Broome Street in SoHo, 1975.

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#27 Calvin Klein fall 1975 ready-to-wear collection at the Flamingo discotheque, SoHo, 1975.

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#28 Street mime performing at West Broadway and Prince Street, SoHo, 1975.

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#29 Gallery patrons waiting for an elevator at 420 West Broadway, SoHo, 1975.

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#30 Resident driving a Hudson car in SoHo, 1975.

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#31 Buildings on West Broadway from Canal Street to Houston Street, SoHo.

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#32 Buildings on West Broadway from Canal Street to Houston Street, SoHo.

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#33 Buildings on West Broadway from Canal Street to Houston Street, SoHo.

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#34 Exterior of the E. and H. Kast Restaurant on Spring Street, SoHo.

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#35 Fresh fish on a sidewalk stand in front of a restaurant on Spring Street, SoHo.

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#36 Joseph Beuys working on chalkboards at the Rene Ferterer Gallery, SoHo, 1975.

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#37 Couple at a party in SoHo, 1976.

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#38 Shoeshiner Jake and his dog Peepee on a SoHo street, 1976.

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#39 Truck being unloaded on Greene Street, SoHo, 1977.

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#40 View looking south along West Broadway from Spring Street, 1977.

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#41 View south across SoHo rooftops toward the World Trade Center, 1977.

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#42 Paintings being carried into an art gallery on West Broadway, SoHo, 1977.

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#43 Mayor Ed Koch walking on Wooster and Prince Streets during SoHo Artists’ Day, 1977.

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#44 People having a party on the sidewalk outside the Food restaurant during a blackout, SoHo, 1977.

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#45 Pat Oleszko performing at the Kitchen in SoHo, 1977.

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#46 View looking northeast across SoHo rooftops at Canal Street and West Broadway, 1978.

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#47 Trash fire burning on Crosby Street, SoHo, 1979.

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#48 Ivan Karp and Marilyn Karp with artists among Duane Hanson sculptures at the OK Harris Gallery, SoHo, 1970.

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