MANHATTAN

SoHo Neighborhood Guide

Equally famous as a haven for artists and a hub of glitz and glamor, SoHo is an utterly unique neighborhood of New York City. Its cobblestoned streets and alleyways offer an ambiance of timeless charm, home to local boutiques, restaurants, cafes, and bookstores that have been in the neighborhood for decades. Meanwhile, Broadway serves as the neighborhood’s central, grand thoroughfare, where architecturally gorgeous buildings featuring the area’s distinctive cast-iron facades house many of New York City’s flagship shops, from the brands synonymous with European luxury to hip young upstarts.

SoHo is home to longstanding art institutions like The Drawing Center and the Leslie-Lohman Gallery, as well as newer, interactive spaces like the Museum of Ice Cream. Rife with storied restaurants like Balthazar and Saint Ambroeus, favorite haunts of New York’s old guard, this neighborhood also offers an ever-evolving set of innovative culinary concepts from the city’s best chefs. SoHo’s streets are bustling year-round, as tourists and locals alike flock to the area to experience its rich artistic history, taste its famous foods, and shop in its beautiful surroundings. Still, you can always find a quiet corner cafe serving a perfect cappuccino in the fashionable yet welcoming SoHo neighborhood. 

SoHo Real Estate Stats

MEDIAN SALE PRICE

$4,500,000

MEDIAN RENTAL PRICE

$12,500

An Abbreviated History of SoHo

SoHo, like much of Manhattan, was originally home to the Lenape and Canarsee people. Europeans first arrived on the island of Manhattan in the early 1500s. In 1625 the settlement of Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan’s southern tip by representatives of the Dutch West India Company marked the beginning of a permanent European colonial presence on the island. In the mid-1600s, the first free Black settlement in Manhattan was founded in what is now SoHo, by freed slaves who built homes across a stretch of lower Manhattan. New York became an English colony in 1674, and following the Revolutionary War much of the land was used for manufacturing. By the middle of the 19th century, the neighborhood bounded by Houston and Canal Streets was filled with theaters and music halls, built in the then-novel cast-iron architectural style that SoHo would later become known for. As the more mainstream entertainment industry moved uptown, manufacturers, wholesalers, and warehouses moved in, dominating the area through World War II. As the wartime manufacturing boom waned in the 1950s, many of the warehouses and factories were left empty, drawing artists who in the 1960s moved into the neighborhood en masse, allured by its buildings’ high ceilings, natural light, and low prices. In 1963, the neighborhood officially became ‘SoHo,’ designated as such for its location South of Houston Street. 

A decade later, SoHo was deemed a Historic District by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, protecting around 500 of its cast-iron buildings. In the intervening years, neighborhood residents alongside activists like Jane Jacobs had won a battle against infamous city planner Robert Moses, who had hoped to build an expressway that would have destroyed SoHo as we know it. A 1982 law gave artists who had moved into the neighborhood in the prior decades rent protection, allowing many artists of that era to remain in the neighborhood to this day, where they now live alongside a diverse array of residents of all ages and professions. 

NEIGHBORHOOD BOUNDARIES

  • 6th Avenue to the West
  • West Houston Street to the North
  • Crosby Street to the East
  • Canal Street to the South
Spring Street Station A C E 6
Houston Street Station  1 2
Prince Street Station
N Q R W

Broadway/Lafayette Station

B D F M

 

Soho streets

Residents Love This Neighborhood Because

  • Excellent restaurants, galleries, and shopping at every turn
  • Because most buildings are former factories and warehouses, apartments are incredibly spacious and light-filled
  • Beautiful cobblestoned streets
  • Density of historically significant, photo-worthy buildings
  • Mix of quirky longstanding establishments and trendy, up-and-coming spots
  • Sense of community despite the hustle and bustle 
  • Busy by day but quiet by night
  • The official historic neighborhood designation means gorgeous old buildings won’t get torn down, so the neighborhood promises to maintain its historic charm
  • Convenient transportation options to the rest of the city 
  • Pockets of green space in two quaint mini-parks

What to expect

Cafés

+15

Hospitals

1

Community Gardens

1

Dog Runs

2

Libraries

1

Parks

2

Playgrounds

1

Restaurants

+30

Yoga Studios

7

soho architecture

SoHo Landmarks and Cultural Institutions

A NEIGHBORHOOD TOUR

Get to know the neighborhood by visiting its most notable landmarks and sites. From museums and sculptures, to parks, markets, and hidden neighborhood gems, you’ll find everything you need to know about the neighborhood’s most unique and historical attractions.

The Drawing Center

A unique gallery space centered on exhibiting the work of living artists in their own neighborhood, The Drawing Center is a gallery that brings together the SoHo community while highlighting artistic excellence in the often under-appreciated medium of drawing. Martha Beck founded the museum in 1977, as the first wave of artist migrations to SoHo was cresting, with the mission of creating a gallery for and by artists in the neighborhood. Alongside the work of famous creators like Kara Walker and Julie Mehretu, the Drawing Center hosts exhibits featuring local tattoo artists, chefs, and novelists.

Leslie Lohman Gallery

This gallery’s first iteration was born in 1969 when Charles Leslie and Fritz Lohman put on an exhibit of work by gay artists in their SoHo loft. Over the following decades, the two founded the Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation to collect the work of LGBTQ+ artists, saving a multitude of pieces from loss or destruction over the course of the AIDS epidemic. The museum opened in 2016, becoming the first US art museum dedicated solely to showing the work of LGBTQ+ artists, and it remains the only gallery of its kind today, as well as a space for queer community-building.

Museum of Ice Cream

Over more than 20,000 square feet across three floors, the Museum of Ice Cream is a sensory experience like no other. With family-friendly daytime exhibits for parents and children and night-time experiences for date night or a Saturday evening out with friends, this museum’s thirteen installation spaces promise a fun, invigorating few hours, not to mention an Instagram-worthy snapshot.

Spring Street Park

This triangular park is a green oasis at the edge of SoHo, especially since a 2017 redesign saw the planting of more than 40 new trees. With benches, swivel seats, and energy-efficient lighting, this park is a perfect place to sit and read, or simply people-watch. In honor of Sixth Avenue’s renaming as ‘Avenue of the Americas,’ the park is also home to a sculpture by Uruguayan sculptor Jose Luis Zorrilla de San Marin, of Uruguayan independence leader and national hero General Jose Artigas.

Judd Foundation

Artist Donald Judd was part of the first wave of artists who both lived and worked in SoHo in the 1960s. The abandoned factory he purchased and transformed into his home and studio today houses a museum honoring the legacy of his work and that of his fellow artists. The Judd Foundation is one of the founding members of the SoHo Arts Network, a web of institutions devoted to preserving SoHo’s artistic community and creative heritage. 

Jeffrey Deitch

Housed in a striking, modern building on Wooster street, this gallery has hopscotched around SoHo since its founding in the late 90s, from spaces on Grand and Canal Streets to its current home on Wooster Street. Gallery curator and collector, Jeffrey Deitch has exhibited modern art by professionals of the movement from Barbara Kruger to Keith Haring and Jeff Koons, and supported artists like Kehinde Wiley and Cecily Brown since the beginning of their careers. His gallery is a great spot to discover artists on the vanguard of new movements, as well as to see the work of established stars. 

Vesuvio Playground

Named after the longstanding neighborhood mainstay, Vesuvio Bakery on Prince Street, this half-acre park sits at the intersection of SoHo and NoLita. In addition to a playground structure, the green space also holds basketball courts, handball courts, bocce courts, a mini-pool, and sandboxes, and is always bustling with families enjoying its many amenities. 

Father Fagan Park

This wedge-shaped park is a landmark cherished by locals, and one that honors heroic SoHo residents. It is named for Father Richard Fagan, a Franciscan priest born in Rio de Janeiro in 1911, who lived at 151 Thompson Street and was a pastor at SoHo’s nearby St. Anthony of Padua Church in the 1930s. During a fire at the Church’s rectory, Father Fagan ventured back into the flames twice to successfully rescue two other pastors. A series of pear trees and bronze plaques in this park also honor three fallen firefighters from local firehouses Ladder Company 5 and Engine Company 24.

Housing Works Bookstore Cafe

With a stock entirely composed of donated books and an all-volunteer staff, this bookstore-cafe is a neighborhood favorite for browsing literature and sipping coffee as well as supporting those in need. All profits go to the Housing Works nonprofit, which since 1990 has been devoted to supporting New York’s homeless and HIV-positive populations. Housed in a historic building and hosting readings, discussions, and other events, this space is a hotbed of community activism and a great place to spend time, as a customer, a volunteer, or both. 

International Culinary Center

Offering over 2,400 recreational cooking, baking, and mixology classes, the International Culinary Center has been teaching New York Residents how to cook like professionals since 1975. More than 26,000 New Yorkers try a class each year, rendering the space a wonderful way to meet fellow community members as well as hone your cooking skills. The space also hosts events featuring international culinary stars and local chefs alike. 

Architecture In SoHo

Cast iron

Cast Iron

Renaissance

Italiante

Italianate

Federal

Federal

Notable New Yorkers

Who Have Lived in SoHo

CINDY SHERMAN

Artist

ALICIA KEYS

Singer

JEAN-MICHAEL BASQUIAT

Artist

SAMUEL L. JACKSON

Actor

DONALD JUDD

Artist

EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY

Poet, Playwright

JAMES AGEE

Journalist, Novelist, Screenwriter

TWYLA THARP

Artist

Popular Food & Drink

high end sushi

HIROHISA

73 Thompson Street

nice set table

LE COUCOU

138 Lafayette Street

seafood pasta

KING

18 King Street

bagels lox

SADELLE'S

463 West Broadway

balthazar

BALTHAZAR

80 Spring Street

burger

FANELLI'S CAFE

94 Prince Street

DOMINIQUE ANSEL BAKERY

189 Spring Street

THE DUTCH

131 Sullivan Street

All Notable New Yorker photos courtesy of Wikipedia via Wikimedia Commons. Photo of Cindy Sherman by New Zealand Government, Office of the Governor-General, CC BY 4.0; Photo of Alicia Keys by Mr_Dume, CC BY 3.0; Photo of Jean Michael Basquiat by Andy Warhol; Photo of Samuel L Jackson by Dick Thomas Johnson; Photo of Donald Judd by Robert Hughes; Photo of Edna St Vincent by Carl van Vechten; Photo of James Agee by Walker Evans; Photo of Twyla Tharp by Susan Sterner.

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