141 East 3rd Street

Samuel Ageloff, a Russian-Jewish immigrant who built houses in Coney Island and Bensonhurst, put up this twelve-story tower on the corner of Avenue A and East 3rd Street in 1929. CityRealty credits the design to Shampan and Shampan, who drew a twin for him on East 4th Street.

He meant it as the first luxury building in a very poor neighborhood. The crash that October sent the buyers elsewhere, and the tower filled with people leaving the tenements around it. Above the door a terracotta frieze shows lions on chains pulling men in Near Eastern dress.

His daughter Sylvia Ageloff was Ramon Mercader's lover when he gained entry to Leon Trotsky's house in Coyoacan in 1940. Judge Edward Weinfeld lived on the tenth floor, in two apartments joined into one, and the 1940 census already has him here. The building went co-op at the end of the 1980s under a non-eviction plan.

Apartment 11C is a one-bedroom, listed with a co-op maintenance of $1,990 a month that includes taxes.