Soviet Lower East Side

Last week’s New York Observer featured Michael Calderone’s “Live With Marx And Like It: Lower East Side Gets Ritzy; Hottest Conversion Is Forward,” about the Forward Building on the Lower East Side. The building’s façade features portraits of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles, making it yet another Soviet-esque landmark in Manhattan.

The building dates from 1912 and sits at 175 East Broadway facing Seward Park. Its name derives from its original owners, the Jewish Daily Forward. It is now being converted into apartments.

Peculiarly, Trotsky also shows up in this week's Observer, in Geoffrey Wheatcroft's "From Trotsky to Midcult: In Search of Dwight Macdonald." The Lower East Side used to be home to Café Trotsky, but it closed in December.

(Photo: Barry Lewis for the New York Observer)