Under the leadership of its founding editor Abraham Cahan, the Forward not only served as the Jewish immigrant community’s most significant news source but also granted the community a voice. Starting in 1902, Cahan invited readers to send their stories and responses to topical questions such as ‘May a women wear rouge?’ and ‘Can a socialist go to synagogue for Rosh Hashanah?’ The newspaper’s most popular section was an advice column titled ‘The Bintel Brief.’ Readers posed questions to the editors on lighthearted and serious themes. One struggling reader, who was losing his job, wrote the paper wondering whether he should keep a portion of his income or give it to his blind father in Russia. The editors advised him to give the money to his ailing father as the reader, a young man, remained employable. The Forward was a lifeline for new immigrants to America - a companion in navigating a whole new world.

The Forward building, built in 1912 at the corner of East Broadway and Canal, exemplified the newspaper’s importance. Towering over the common tenement buildings of the Lower East Side, it announced the Forward's dominance in the realm of Jewish American community. And it wears its politics on its sleeve, boasting reliefs of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels chiseled into the facade where more traditional buildings might feature classical figures. Even today, amidst a dramatically different Lower East Side, the Forward building continues to be one of the tallest buildings in the neighborhood and arguably one of the most beautiful.

Changing immigration policies, World War II, assimilation and other factors caused a decline in Yiddish speakers - both in America and globally. The Forward's readership suffered as a result. In 1983, the paper responded to its readers' needs by creating an English-language supplement. And they continue to adapt to new standards of readership and publication today. Just as the newspaper was forced to adapt, so did the headquarter building. In 1974, with falling readership, the newspaper sold it to the Lau family, who transformed the bottom floors into a Chinese church and the top floors into a bible factory. The building's striking rooftop neon sign, which displayed the English name of the paper on one side and the Yiddish on the other, was dismantled.

The Garden Cafeteria, located just around the corner from the Forward's headquarters, was like the public manifestation of the newspaper's popular pages. Everyone hung out at the Garden Cafe - neighborhood intellectuals, rabble-rousing socialists, downtrodden immigrants, and the curious Forward reporters. It was the epicenter of Lower East Side culture. Just like the Forward headquarters, the Garden Cafe fell out of popularity as the neighborhood changed and it eventually became a Chinese restaurant. In the early 2000s, it was discovered that the Garden Cafe's original neon sign was still intact underneath newer businesses' signage. The Museum at Eldridge Street preserved the sign - it now hangs as a permanent exhibit, honoring the important role of the Garden Cafeteria in Jewish public life.

In 2004, developers Ronald Castellano and Christopher Hayes took over the building and converted it into luxury apartments. A one-bedroom apartment recently sold for 1.545 million dollars, and Oscar-winning actress Tatum O’Neal once owned an apartment in the building. Amenities include a 24-hour doorman, roof deck and a refrigerator in the lobby to store perishable deliveries. Fortunately, the facade is a landmark and therefore cannot be altered. Ironically for a luxury apartment building, the facade boasts decorative busts of Socialist leaders Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. They gaze down on today’s capitalist tenants, a silent reminder of the building's first life.

The Forward building exemplifies the last century in the Lower East Side. The neighborhood first took shape with the arrival of immigrants at the turn of the 20th century and became a bustling immigrant hub. But shifting cultural patterns and gentrification have dramatically transformed the neighborhood. Instead of Jewish delicatessens and synagogues, there are art galleries and vegan restaurants. Storefronts once laden with signs in Yiddish now house Chinese-owed businesses. There are remnants of the neighborhood's lost history and evolution, however. The Museum At Eldridge Street preserves that history and remains a touchstone for the era of massive immigration. And the Forward newspaper continues its own legacy - publishing daily about current events and Jewish culture from new headquarters downtown. Its early roots on the Lower East Side is intrinsic to its identity today, 100 years and several neighborhoods away.