City Planning's Little Italy: Canal Street to Broome Street
A City Planning environmental study for the SoHo/NoHo plan says Mulberry Street "serves as the focal point of Little Italy, which generally extends from Canal to Broome Streets" (SoHo/NoHo FEIS, chapter 2). The same chapter calls the area mostly mixed-use, "with retail on the ground floor and residential space above in buildings generally ranging between four and seven stories", and names the Most Precious Blood Church, which "houses the shrine to San Gennaro", on Baxter Street between Canal and Hester Streets. The blocks north of Broome Street, up to East Houston Street, appear in that study as a separate place, and this site gives them their own NoLIta page. The Landmarks Preservation Commission's 2010 report on 192 Grand Street states that the "vibrant core of Little Italy remains centered on Mulberry Street and Grand Street" (LP-2412).
Designated buildings south of Broome
- Stephen Van Rensselaer House, 149 Mulberry Street: completed 1816 and "moved from 153 Mulberry Street in 1841", designated February 11, 1969 (LP-0563).
- 190 and 192 Grand Street Houses: each built about 1833, part of a row of five houses that Stephen Van Rensselaer built, which the Commission's reports say evidence indicates he put up as investment property; both designated November 16, 2010 (LP-2411, LP-2412).
- Bowery Savings Bank, 130 Bowery: an 1894 building by McKim, Mead & White with a broad side on Grand Street and another on Elizabeth Street, designated April 19, 1966 (LP-0184).
- Bowery Bank of New York Building, 124 Bowery, at the northwest corner of the Bowery and Grand Street: built 1900–02 to designs by York & Sawyer, designated June 26, 2012 (LP-2518).
- Former Police Headquarters, 240 Centre Street: designated September 26, 1978 (LP-0999), and inside the Special Little Italy District's mapped area.
Each of these is an individual landmark. Owners need a Commission permit before altering the exterior, and sometimes the interior, of such a property (LPC applications), which matters to anyone buying an apartment inside one of them and planning windows, masonry or rooftop work.
What the Special Little Italy District regulates
Zoning Resolution Article X, Chapter 9 sets out the Special Little Italy District (ZR Article X, Chapter 9). Its Area A1 is the "Mulberry Street Regional Spine". Among the district's stated purposes are "(b) to protect the scale of storefronts and character of the existing retail uses along Mulberry Street" and "(f) to discourage the demolition of noteworthy buildings which are significant to the character of the area". Buildings on the chapter's Appendix B list of Buildings of Special Significance may not have "their external architectural features altered except as set forth in Section 109-52", and no demolition permit, or alteration permit affecting the exterior, "shall be issued" outside that section. The district's rules follow its own mapped lines, which continue north of Broome Street, so the test for a building is the zoning map rather than the neighborhood name. For a buyer who pictures new windows, a new storefront or a rebuilt cornice, whether the building is on Appendix B belongs on the list of questions before contract.
Gas piping and boilers in a walk-up
For buildings in Manhattan Community District 2, the next Local Law 152 gas-piping inspections fall in calendar year 2029, January 1 through December 31 (DOB gas piping inspections). The rule exempts only one- and two-family homes and other R-3 occupancies, so a mixed-use walk-up with apartments over a store is inside it, and the lookup tools on that page show whether the law applies to a building and its deadline. Heat is the second record. Once a residential building houses six or more families, its low-pressure boiler is due for a DOB inspection every year; the exceptions are buildings of five families or fewer, boilers that heat one apartment apiece, and any boiler with an input of 100,000 BTUs or less (DOB boiler inspections). Enter the address in the DOB's Building Information System to see both.
The apartment over the store
Tenement walk-ups typically stack small apartments over ground-floor retail, share gas and plumbing risers among many units, carry wiring updated in stages over decades, and fit bathrooms into tight footprints, sometimes with windows onto an airshaft. A unit inspection looks at what those conditions leave inside the apartment: the panel, circuits and receptacles; fixtures and the visible supply and drain lines; windows; any heating or cooling equipment serving the unit; bath and kitchen ventilation; and stains on ceilings or walls that trace water from upstairs or from the building's exterior. The roof, the risers beyond the unit, the boiler room, the facade and the co-op or condo finances are building questions, answered by the filings and by the board.
Shared numbers, flood labels and trains
Little Italy falls in the city's SoHo-Little Italy-Hudson Square area, whose tax-lot figures are on the SoHo page. FEMA's flood maps label the Special Little Italy District Zone X (effective, preliminary); Zone X areas can still flood, and the same official area includes AE zones. Look up the building itself at the FEMA Flood Map Service Center. No station point in the MTA list (data.ny.gov) falls inside the district; the Canal St points for the 6, J Z, N Q and R W lines stand on Canal Street, in the same official area. Deeds and condo declarations for any lot are recorded in ACRIS.