SoHo's cast-iron district, with its expanse of buildings on Greene Street--the largest concentration of cast-iron façade structures in the world. Building façades were constructed of interchangeable, prefabricated parts that were shipped to the site and assembled. Many of the structures were built in the mid-to-late nineteenth century as stores and lofts for dry goods merchants and manufacturing businesses.
Mass-produced parts with paintable surfaces could be cast in decorative designs in a variety of architectural styles--Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne, Romanesque, and Renaissance Revival. A common type of cast-iron front features a basic grid of large rectangular windows framed by columns and pilasters.
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