Umbrella House


Umbrella House is a Housing Development Fund Corporation in New York City's East Village, at 21-23 Avenue C.

History

Umbrella House was constructed in 1899, under the Old Law Tenement provisions, by architect Michael Bernstein.
In the 1980s, a group of squatters moved into the building shortly after the Tompkins Square Park Riot. The building was derelict and had a leaky roof; the squatters joked that they needed umbrellas inside, hence the origin of the nickname "Umbrella House." While the roof has since been repaired, the nickname has been maintained through the display of umbrellas on the building's facade.
Squatters were evicted during a 1995 police raid. Umbrella House residents took their case to court, where a judge ruled in their favor under the law of adverse possession and they were allowed to return to their homes.
In 2002, Umbrella House was one of eleven squatted buildings sold to their residents for one dollar per buildings, in a deal organized by the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board. UHAB assisted with conversion of the house into a Housing Development Fund Corporation; it is now officially a cooperative known as Umbrella House HDFC. It contains 18 units with approximately 32 residents.

Rooftop Garden

More recently, residents of Umbrella House have constructed a 820-square foot garden on the roof of the building. Since its inception in 2012, the garden provides fresh herbs and vegetables for the building's residents.