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 streets: 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.