Things We’re Grateful For: Federal Houses

At this time of year, we’re thinking about the many things we’re grateful for, as well as the founding of our country.

Both those bring us to the many Federal-era (1790-1835) houses in the Village, NoHo, and East Village, especially those we have been able to ensure will survive well into the future due to landmark and historic district designation.

In our recently-issued report, GVSHP takes a look at the approximately one thousand buildings for which we have been able to help secure landmark designation over the last ten years.  Among them are a wonderful array of federal era houses, which fall within new historic districts in the South and East Village, NoHo, the West Village, and even the Meatpacking District.  We have also been able to help secure designation of nearly a dozen of these survivors of the earliest days of New York City’s urban development as individual landmarks.

Many are found within long, unbroken rows, while others survive in almost splendid isolation; some stand nearly unchanged from two centuries ago, while others reflect the profound changes they witnessed around them over the last two centuries.

What follows is just a sample:

These three federal houses were built in 1829.  GVSHP and the NY Landmarks Conservancy proposed them for individual landmark designation, which they received in 2003 — the first in a long string of federal era houses we were able to get landmarked over the last ten years.

This 1832 house between 2nd and 3rd Avenues was the next of the federal era houses GVSHP and the successfully NYLC jointly proposed for landmark designation; it was designated in 2004.

These five unusual federal-era houses were built in 1828, and were landmarked as part of the first phase of GVSHP’s proposed South Village Historic District, or the Greenwich Village Historic District Extension II.  The curved facade of #2 reflects the unique South Village street grid, while the colorful pastel paint jobs likely reflect 1920’s renovations.

This 1831 house is one of several federals in the NoHo Historic District Extension, designated in 2008.

This 1832 federal in the East Village Historic District (designated 2012) is one of a surprisingly large number of late 18th and early 19th century houses which still survive in the western and easternmost parts of the East Village.

These three surviving 1827 federals are located in the South Village Extension of the Greenwich Village Historic District which GVSHP proposed and fought for, designated in 2010.  Jackson Pollack lived at #46 (r.).

This house was built in 1799; located just south of the World Trade Center, it miraculously survived 9/11, Superstorm Sandy, and more than two centuries of intense change.  GVSHP and NYLC jointly proposed it for individual landmark designation in 2003, and it was landmarked in 2009.  GVSHP considers the protection of federal-era houses a special part of our mission, and thus we will propose and advocate for landmark designation of federal-era houses outside of our neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.

These three 1829 houses lie within the Far West Village Extension of the Greenwich Village Historic District GVSHP proposed and advocated for; it was designated in 2006.

This 1820 house is located within the NoHo East Historic District, which GVSHP strongly supported, designated in 2003.

These three 1834 houses are incredibly modest and charming in scale and style.  They were landmarked in 2010 as part of phase I of GVSHP’s proposed South Village Historic District, or the South Village Extension of the Greenwich Village Historic District.

See more federal houses we have helped save over the last ten years in the ‘Federal Houses’ section of GVSHP’s report “Ten Years — A Thousand Buildings Landmarked — One Hundred Blocks Rezoned.”