The New York block where Irving Berlin wrote God Bless America and George M. Cohan wrote Give My Regards to Broadway is up for sale.

Five four-storey brownstone buildings in the area known as Tin Pan Alley are on offer for $44 million US, with a real estate website recommending all the old buildings be torn down to make way for a high rise.

Tin Pan Alley is the name given to an area on West 28th Street that once housed a concentration of music publishers and songwriters.

The name Tin Pan Alley dates to about 1885, when "song pluggers" played piano and sang up and down the street to promote the sale of sheet music.

Formats changed with the advent of radio and the phonograph, but the area was associated with music until the 1950s.

George Gershwin, Hoagy Carmichael, Scott Joplin, Cole Porter and Fats Waller have all worked and written songs on the street.

One of the buildings up for sale, 55 W. 28th St., was also the home of Mother Earth, the magazine started in 1906 by anarchist Emma Goldman.

Historical preservationists, including the New York blog Lost City, have decried the sale as a loss of New York heritage.

"These buildings are incredibly significant to the development of New York City. They helped launch the careers of songwriters and musicians who are still popular today," said Historic Districts Council executive director Simeon Bankoff.

Among the songs written on Tin Pan Alley:

• The Band Played On, 1895.
• A Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight, 1896.
• Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home, 1902.
• In The Good Old Summertime, 1902.
• Shine On Harvest Moon, 1908.
• Take Me Out To The Ballgame, 1908.
• Let Me Call You Sweetheart, 1910.
• Swanee, 1919.
• Sweet Georgia Brown, 1925.
• Ain't She Sweet, 1927.
• Happy Days Are Here Again, 1930.

With files from the Associated Press