The Forward Building: The Socialist Beacon of the Lower East Side

Why is it significant?

Look up at the commanding ten-story Beaux-Arts skyscraper of the Forward Building, rising majestically above the open greenery of Seward Park.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Look up at the commanding ten-story Beaux-Arts skyscraper of the Forward Building, rising majestically above the open greenery of Seward Park. Built in nineteen twelve from terracotta, granite, and glazed brick, this historic tower stood as the tallest building on the Lower East Side and the proud architectural headquarters of the Jewish Daily Forward, the most influential Yiddish-language newspaper in the world. High on the neoclassical facade, carved Yiddish characters and bas-relief medallions celebrate the heroes of the labor and socialist movements.

Under legendary editor Abraham Cahan, the Forward achieved a staggering daily circulation exceeding two hundred and seventy-five thousand copies in the nineteen twenties, rivaling the New York Times. The paper served as an indispensable guide for bewildered newcomers, offering union news alongside the beloved Bintel Brief or 'Bundle of Letters' column, where immigrants sought advice on everything from learning English and resolving marital disputes to navigating the unfamiliar customs of baseball and Thanksgiving. The newspaper's bustling bulletin boards outside the front entrance served as the community's town square, where crowds gathered at all hours of the day and night to read telegraph dispatches reporting on strikes, European developments, and local election tallies.

Inspect the fourth-floor terra-cotta relief medallions: they display sculpted portraits of socialist thinkers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels alongside German labor leaders Ferdinand Lassalle and Wilhelm Liebknecht, an extraordinary political display on a New York City commercial building.

In the basement beneath the sidewalk, massive printing presses once shook the ground as night-shift pressmen printed morning editions that were rushed by pushcart across the city. Delivery wagons loaded with bundles of freshly printed newspapers rattled across the cobblestones, carrying news to working-class readers across the boroughs.

Walk eastward down historic East Broadway and Henry Street to the headquarters of the Henry Street Settlement.