Hedy Pagremanski Paints Endangered Lower East Side Landmarks

If you’ve walked on Grand Street, near Suffolk Street, on a recent Sunday morning, you have probably seen painter Hedy Pagremanski hard at work. She’s on a mission to document what’s left of the historic Lower East Side before it fades away.

Her latest painting depicts 400-402 Grand St., right across the street from her perch in front of the soon-to-open Comfort Diner. The twin tenements are scheduled to be demolished sometime before next March for the Essex Crossing development project. This past weekend, Hedy told us she’s hoping her next painting will be Beth Hamadresh Hagadol, the synagogue at 60 Norfolk St. that is in very bad shape.

This is no novice painter. Hedy Pagremanski has been documenting old New York for many years. Her painting of Yonah Shimmel is in the permanent collection of the Museum of the City of New York.