, seen here around 1887, was an entertainment venue on Broadway near Prince Street from 1823 to 1895
Early years During the colonial period, the land that is now SoHo was part of a
grant of farmland given to freed slaves of the
Dutch West Indies Company, and the site of the first free Black settlement on Manhattan island. This land was acquired in the 1660s by Augustine Hermann, and then passed to his brother-in-law, Nicholas Bayard. In the 18th century natural barriers – streams and hills – impeded the growth of the city northward into the Bayard estate, and the area maintained its rural character. Theatres followed in their wake, and Broadway between Canal and
Houston Streets became a lively theater and shopping district and the entertainment center of New York; and the side streets off of Broadway became the city's
red-light district. This dramatic shift in the nature of the neighborhood continued to drive out residents, and between 1860 and 1865 the Eighth Ward, which included the SoHo area, lost 25% of its population. After
World War II, the textile industry largely moved to the South, leaving many large buildings in the district unoccupied. In some buildings they were replaced by warehouses and printing plants, and other buildings were torn down to be replaced by gas stations, auto repair shops and parking lots and garages. By the 1950s, the area had become known as '''Hell's Hundred Acres''', Approximately 250 cast-iron buildings stand in New York City, and the majority are in SoHo. Cast iron was initially used as a decorative front over a pre-existing building. With the addition of modern, decorative facades, older industrial buildings were able to attract new commercial clients. Most of these facades were constructed during the period from 1840 to 1880. The young
historic preservation movement and
architectural critics, stung by the destruction of the original
Pennsylvania Station in 1963 and the threat to other historic structures, challenged the plans because of the threatened loss of a huge quantity of 19th-century cast-iron buildings. on Broome Street When
John V. Lindsay became
mayor of New York City in 1966, his initial reaction was to try to push the expressways through, dubbing the project the Lower Manhattan Expressway, depressing some of the proposed highway in residential areas and stressing the importance of the artery to the city. Nevertheless, through the efforts of
Jane Jacobs, Tony D'Apolito,
Margot Gayle, and other local, civic, and cultural leaders, as well as SoHo artist residents themselves, the project was derailed. the city abandoned attempts to keep the district as strictly industrial space, and in 1971, the Zoning Resolution was amended to permit Joint Live-Work Quarters for artists, and the M1-5a and M-5b districting was established to permit visual artists to live where they worked, as long as they were certified as such by the
Department of Cultural Affairs; new lofts for artists had to be smaller than , while those residing and working in larger lofts before September 1970 were permitted to remain. In 1987, non-artists residing in SoHo and NoHo were permitted to
grandfather themselves, but that was the only extension to non-artists and was a one-time agreement. The area received landmark designation as the SoHo–Cast Iron Historic District in 1973. The Loft Law protections combined with the fact that many of the artists owned their co-ops, led many of the original pioneering artists to remain, despite the popular misconception that gentrification forced them to flee. In the mid-1990s, many galleries moved to Chelsea, but several galleries remain as of 2013, including DTR Modern Galleries, William Bennett Gallery,
Martin Lawrence Galleries,
Terrain Gallery, Franklin Bowles Gallery, and Pop International Gallery. In 2005, the construction of residential buildings on empty lots in the historic district was permitted. in the
Queen Anne style SoHo's location, the appeal of lofts as living spaces, its architecture, and its reputation as a haven for artists all contributed to this change. The pattern of
gentrification is typically known as the "SoHo Effect" and has been observed elsewhere in the United States. A backwater of poor artists and small factories in the 1970s, SoHo became a popular tourist destination for people seeking fashionable clothing and exquisite architecture, and home to some of the most expensive real estate in the country. SoHo's chain outlets are clustered in the northern area of the neighborhood, along
Broadway and Prince and
Spring Streets. The sidewalks in this area are often crowded with tourists and with vendors selling jewelry, T-shirts, and other works. SoHo is known for its commercialization and eclectic mix of boutiques for shopping – although in 2010, it had twice as many chain stores as boutiques and three times as many boutiques as art galleries.
Rezoning Despite the significant change in the neighborhood's character in the previous decades, by the end of the 2010s the area's zoning still reflected its industrial heritage; any new residential development required special permits. As such, in 2019 the city began a public consultation process called "Envision SoHo/NoHo" to plan for future growth and manage change, and ultimately to bring land use rules in line with the mainly residential and commercial present-day reality of the neighborhood. A coalition of nearly two dozen housing and social organizations, led by pro-housing advocacy group
Open New York, and including the
Citizens Housing and Planning Council, the
Regional Plan Association, and
Habitat for Humanity, seized on the idea of a rezoning as a means of alleviating the
city's housing shortage. In October 2019, the coalition put forward a rezoning plan that would produce 3,400 additional housing units, nearly 700 of which would be affordable, and later that month the city officially proposed a similar plan that envisaged the creation of 3,200 new residential units and up to 800 affordable units. Observers suggested that the coalition's campaign for a residential rezoning had spurred a previously reluctant mayor to act, noting that even real estate industry groups like the
Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), the city's largest real estate trade organization, had shown no interest in a rezoning of SoHo and NoHo. A group of a half-dozen neighborhood groups, led by the
Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, put forth a "community alternative plan" which they claimed would create more affordable housing without any major new development, and a report attacking the city's plan, a claim that was challenged by the city and other civic organizations.
Carl Weisbrod, former chairman of the
New York City Planning Commission said the GVSHP's report was "misleading and disingenuous", and a spokesman for the mayor's office described the "community alternative plan" as "an exercise in magical thinking". In July 2021, the area's
community board voted to reject the proposal, although the vote was ultimately non-binding. In September 2021,
Manhattan Borough president Gale Brewer expressed concerns about the plan, particularly the potential for the plan to incentivize commercial development rather than residential, a criticism echoed by some of the housing advocates who had initially pushed for the plan. In 2022, a team of over 2,000 players constructed a recreation of Soho in the sandbox game
Minecraft, as part of the
COVID-19 Build the Earth movement. ==Demographics==