NoHo, for North of Houston Street (as contrasted with SoHo, South of Houston Street) is a landmarked, primarily residential upper-class neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is bounded by Broadway to the west and the Bowery to the East, and on East 9th Street in the north to East Houston Street in the south.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission has declared most of the 125-building area a historic district, divided into the NoHo Historic District and the NoHo East Historic District, created in 2003.
In 1748, Jacob Sperry, a physician from Switzerland, created the city's first botanical garden near the current intersection of Lafayette Street and Astor Place. At the time, it was located about 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the developed portion of the city and served as a vacation stop for people from present-day downtown.
By 1804, John Jacob Astor bought the site from Sperry and leased it to Joseph Delacroix. Delacroix built a country resort named Vauxhall Gardens on the site; the gardens had previously been located further downtown, in Tribeca.
NoHo soon became an enclave for well-to-do families. Because of rapid development on Bond, Bleecker, and Great Jones Streets, it was not affordable to build houses on these streets. These streets were among the city's most elite at the time and contained such personalities as "aristocratic" Mayor Philip Hone.
Therefore, in 1826, after Delacroix's lease expired. Astor carved out an upper-class neighborhood from the site with Lafayette Street bisecting eastern gardens from western homes. The street was christened by the Marquis de Lafayette in July 1825.
Wealthy New Yorkers, including Astor and other members of the family, built mansions along this central thoroughfare. Astor built the Astor Library in the eastern portion of the neighborhood as a donation to the city. Alexander Jackson Davis designed eye-catching row houses called LaGrange Terrace (now Colonnade Row) for speculative builder Seth Geer.
Geer built the houses for the development in 1833. The area became a fashionable, upper-class residential district, and when Lafayette Street was opened in the 1820s, it quickly became one of the most fashionable streets in New York. This location made the Gardens accessible to the residents of nearby Broadway and the Bowery.
The houses once contained such notable residents as the Astor family and the Vanderbilt family, in addition to authors Washington Irving, Charles Dickens, and William Makepeace Thackeray; U.S. President John Tyler was married in these houses.
In the summer of 1838, the garden's owners opened a saloon for the staging of vaudeville comic operas. Later theater managers expanded the offerings to appeal to a wider range of patrons. By 1850, the rowdier crowds of the Bowery had mostly scared of the upper classes, and fewer people came to the Vauxhall Gardens. The theater buildings were demolished in 1855, and the gardens closed for the last time in 1859.
Even so, wealthy New Yorkers lived here through the end of the 19th century. Editor and poet William Cullen Bryant and inventor and entrepreneur Isaac Singer lived in the neighborhood in the 1880s. By the 20th century, however, warehouses and manufacturing firms moved in, the elite moved to places such as Murray Hill, and the area fell into disrepair.
By the 1880s, the neighborhood became mainly a manufacturing district, especially around the relatively full Bond Street. Terracotta and brick "loft" buildings were among the new buildings being constructed in this time, and construction of such buildings continued into the 1890s, in the Greek Revival architectural style in homage to the mansions that formerly occupied the area.
The demolition of upper-class buildings continued, and by 1902, the southernmost five mansions on Colonnade Row were demolished for the Wanamaker's Department Store Annex. Most of the mansions on Bond Street, though, lasted through the 1930s.
After World War II, manufacturing companies moved out of New York City and to the suburbs. By the 1950s, these spaces were rented to artists and small theater companies. The artists had to go through extensive litigation to live and work in these areas. By 1960, there were more artist residents than businesses in these loft spaces.
Among the famous artist residents at the time were Robert Mapplethorpe, who bought a loft in NoHo; Chuck Close, who lived next to him; and street artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol. The neighborhood was revitalized beginning in the late 1960s and 1970s. The art movement of the 1970s and the preservation movements of the 1990s and 2000s also helped to revitalize the area.
The NoHo Historic District was expanded in 2008. Additionally, another district in the neighborhood, the NoHo East Historic District, was created in 2003. The designations followed a considerable effort by and strong support from numerous local community and preservation groups, including the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and Historic Districts Council, and together, they form a contiguous area of landmarked buildings over 21 city blocks.
The 2008 extension is bounded on the west by Lafayette Street, on the east by the Bowery, on the north by East Fourth Street and on the south by Bond Street. It includes 56 buildings and a mid-block parking lot to the south and east of the existing Noho Historic District. It does not include 30 Great Jones Street, a historic building that was partially demolished in early 2008.
Most of the buildings in the extension were built between the 1860s and the early 1900s when the area had become one of the city's major commercial and manufacturing districts. By the late 1800s, larger industrial lofts in the Greek Revival style became the dominant building type.
The Merchant's House Museum, at 29 East Fourth Street, is an individual historic building located just outside the eastern boundary of the Historic District. It is also a National Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Both the inside and outside of this 1832 house have been restored to the mid-19th-century style in which merchant Seabury Tredwell and his family lived.
Despite the fragility of the structure, in April 2014 the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission approved construction of an eight-story hotel immediately next door. Preservationists including City Councilwoman Rosie Mendez, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the Historic Districts Council and the Museum itself fought the proposed hotel for years due to concern for the intact survival of the Merchant's House. The LPC approved it over the objections of engineers and architects.
The next day on that warm winter morning, a young silk moth caterpillar demon is still sleeping in his bed in his loft apartment. He wanted to take a sick day, but this week was imperative. His brother is already at the office, and he was already waiting for him. For good measure, he had his assistant call him promptly at 9 AM on his smartphone.
Next to his bed, the smartphone rings. Wrestling with his own consciousness, the young silk moth caterpillar demon manages to wake up and answers the phone.
"Zayne," the silk moth caterpillar demon groggily answers.
"Moraciel! Thank goodness you're awake at this hour!" A cheeky female voice chimed.
"Yes, Sylvia, I am awake," Moraciel confirms.
Moraciel Zayne is an 18-year-old silk moth caterpillar demon. At the young age of eight, he was tested with an IQ of 162. With this intelligence, he quickly passed not only grade school but high school in the span of three years. Not old enough to go to college, he traveled abroad with his mother and father all over the world learning about engineering. At age 13, he became the youngest student of the Demon Academy.
"Well, that's a good thing because we need you to do some more troubleshooting," Sylvia notified.
"All right, tell my brother I am on my way," Moraciel said.
"Now, I don't want you to rush yourself. He and I know for a fact you had a busy night. So please take your time, grasshopper," Samantha urged.
"I will, Sylvia. See you soon," Moraciel confirmed as he hung up the phone. He climbs out of bed, and he said to stretch; walking around the apartment, trying to wake up.
It was a very modestly decorated setting; a one-bedroom with a bathroom. It also had a medium-sized kitchen and a living room with fireplace which he rarely uses.
Usually, he follows his basic morning routine. First, he immediately goes to the bathroom to relieve himself. Afterward, he does is morning exercises which consist of yoga stretching and meditation for an hour. After his meditation, he has breakfast. Since he has a strict diet and being a silk moth caterpillar demon, he's pretty much a vegan. For breakfast, he has a fresh fruit salad with agave dressing and herbal tea with soy milk and raw sugar. While eating his breakfast, he reads the daily news on his laptop.
After breakfast, he takes a bath. For weeks now, he tried to make his own soap out of oatmeal and Aloe Vera. Pleased with the outcome of the soap, he ended up making more and gave some to his friends.
After he takes his bath, he looks at himself in the mirror and washes his face. He cleans out his ears, shines up his horns on top of his head and combs his shoulder length hair in that order.
Finally, he gets dressed. He wears a purple hooded sweatshirt and wraps a multi-colored sarong around his lower body.
Afterward, he recites a Latin prayer for protection and for good luck for the day ahead.
He grabs his purple silk satchel containing his lunch, snacks, and laptop. He heads out the door locking it behind him as he makes his way to his workplace, Zayne Enterprises; a diversified multinational conglomerate is owned and chaired by Revan Zayne, Moraciel's Mother. Zayne Enterprises is a green company and headquartered in a building called The Ebony Stronghold in Dubai.
