SoHo, an acronym for South of Houston Street, is the chic district bordered by Houston Street on its north, Canal Street on its south, Broadway on the east, and the Hudson River on the west. SoHo New York conjures glamour, youth, luxury, shopping, and enterprise, all in one short name.
Before the downtown Manhattan neighborhood became an art and shopping mecca, SoHo history reveals the area started as a residential neighborhood. During the 1800s, it transformed into a commercial center that housed such institutions as Lord & Taylor and Tiffany & Co, boasting the neighborhood’s now famous cast-iron warehouse buildings and romantic cobblestone streets. By the time the 1930s arrived with a plan to run the Lower Manhattan Expressway through it, SoHo had become run-down and near-deserted.