Exploring New York's SoHo

by Alfred Pommer, Eleanor Winters

SoHo, short for South of Houston," is one of New York's trendiest neighborhoods. Innovative restaurants and fashion-forward shops line Broome and Spring Streets, and artists reside above in modern lofts. But it is also part of the SoHo Cast-Iron Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places. Its beautiful old buildings hold stories of the neighborhood's fascinating history, urban decline and regeneration. It was once the center of New York's show business world and its most infamous red-light district. The richest and poorest Manhattanites walked these John Jacob Astor, Harry Houdini, Aaron Burr and P.T. Barnum. Local authors Alfred Pommer and Eleanor Winters reveal these and other stories of an ever-changing SoHo."

144 pages, Paperback

First published September 25, 2012

Reviews

[Evan]

I run a NYC walking tour business, primarily focused on the Greenwich Village and SoHo and Tribeca neighborhoods (freewheelingreenwich.com), so I'm always trying to read up on my NYC history, and I wanted to see if there were any important landmarks that I wouldn't want to miss on my NYC SoHo & Tribeca Hidden Art & Architecture tour.

Overall, this was a good book, but I felt like a lot of it leaned more things that happened long ago, rather than what was happening in the neighborhood today. He definitely included A LOT of important SoHo landmarks, and all of the stops that were in my tour were included in his book. Nevertheless, there was a lot of history, which I guess was good for the book, but would probably be too much for the guests on my tour.

It was a good read, and although I usually walk from the north to south, unlike his book which seems to go from south to north, it's a good breakdown of the NYC neighborhood of SoHo. I do wish the book included Tribeca as well because there's so many important historical buildings in that area, which serves as the second half of my tour.