Christopher D. Brazee/Landmarks Preservation Commission The Bialystoker Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation building.The city's Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously on Tuesday to preserve the Bialystoker Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, a nine-story Art Deco building on the Lower East Side at Clinton Street and East Broadway.
In 1929, when the neighborhood teemed with Jewish immigrants, the Bialystoker building was erected to provide the aged a place to receive care. It served that function from its completion in 1931 until it closed in 2011.
The stone-carved lettering above the entrance is done in a faux-Hebrew font and bears the name of the town in Poland from which its original tenants came. Two-tone masonry decorates the stepped tower that was once among the tallest structures on the area's tenement-clustered blocks.
Christopher D. Brazee/Landmarks Preservation Commission The carved lettering above the doorway is one of the building's most distinctive features.Hearings on whether to protect the building drew large, emotional crowds, with many speakers testifying to its cultural significance in the neighborhood.
“It's one of the most significant reminders of the Jewish community on the Lower East Side,†the commission's chairman, Robert B. Tierney, said in a statement. “It's as important culturally as it is architecturally.â€
The building's future use remains to be decided, although developers have expressed interest in converting it into condominiums.
