Unusual and Unexpected NYC Landmarks

Village Preservation recently published a report analyzing NYC landmark designations from 1965 to the present. In this first-of-its-kind intensive study of all 38,000 properties landmarked in New York City since the establishment of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, VP’s Executive Director Andrew Berman analyzed trends by mayoral administration – read the full report here.

In order to achieve this, we needed to first review information about every single landmark designation by year, which was no easy feat! The data came directly from NYC Open Data, which is available to the public, but its output is not easily digestible without some serious sorting, simplifying, and organizing.

We took the raw data and meticulously rearranged it into a readable format, which appears in the report. As far as we know, it is the only such published accessible repository with basic information about every NYC landmark designation. This spreadsheet is a tool that we hope will aid researchers in pursuing all sorts of questions and answers about the landmarking process in New York City. One outcome that I have particularly enjoyed is discovering some of the more unusual landmarks present in all five boroughs.

Since the establishment of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1965, more than 38,000 properties have received landmark designation status. Most of these are contained within 157 historic districts, and the total number of protected buildings and sites also includes nearly 1,500 individual landmarks, 123 interior landmarks, and 12 scenic landmarks. By far, the most common designations are buildings: houses, skyscrapers, and everything in between.

But in a city as diverse as New York, buildings are not our only historical features. Several bridges have been designated, as have subway stations, amusement park rides, statues and sculptures, fences, lampposts, even two living trees. Read on to learn about some of the more unexpected designations in each borough, including one in our very own East Village.

Brooklyn

The Parachute Jump on Coney Island, designated on May 23, 1989

“Inspired by the growing popularity of civilian parachuting and towers constructed to teach the military correct technique, Commander James H. Strong’s Parachute Jump was erected for the 1939-40 New York’s World’s Fair in Flushing Meadow. As detailed by Elwyn E. Seelye & Company, the 170-ton tower stands 262 feet tall, a height exceeded at the fair only by that of the famous Trylon. It was considered to be an engineering feat. The mechanisms within the tapered steel structure permitted fair visitors to ride to the top and safely descend, two-by-two, perched on a seat beneath a parachute. The exhilarating ride provided the couple with an unsurpassed view of the fairgrounds. After the closing of the fair, the Parachute Jump was purchased by the Tilyou brothers and moved to their Steeplechase Park, Coney Island’s most famous and longest enduring amusement park.”

Queens

Pepsi-Cola Sign in Long Island City, designated on April 12, 2016

“One of the best known features of the New York City waterfront, the Pepsi-Cola Sign has become an iconic piece of the urban landscape, representing commercial advertising and American industry. The Pepsi-Cola Sign was constructed in 1940 and erected on the roof of the Pepsi-Cola bottling facility in Long Island City. Contemporary accounts attribute the sign to the General Outdoor Advertising Company, one of the largest advertising companies of its time. At the time of its construction, the Pepsi-Cola Sign was the longest electric sign in New York State. Situated on the edge of the East River, the sign was clearly visible from Manhattan’s East Side and the recently completed FDR (then-East River) Drive. The sign’s design closely reflects the company’s 1939 trademark logo with red neon tubing incorporated around the edges of the letters.”

The Bronx

Baird (now Astor) Court, New York Zoological Park (Bronx Zoo), designated on June 20, 2000

“Baird (now Astor) Court, New York Zoological Park, is a portion of the Bronx Zoo, consisting of the raised, landscaped terraces named Astor Court, the North and West Stairs leading up to the Court, and its six detached, brick and limestone neo-classical style buildings around the central Sea Lion pool. Financed by the City of New York and the New York Zoological Society (now called the Wildlife Conservation Society), it is located in the north central Bronx, in the vicinity of East Fordham Road and Southern Boulevard, close to the Zoo’s north entrance. Like the “Court of Honor” at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, which helped popularize the “City Beautiful” Movement, the plan is symmetrical and longitudinal, terminating at one end with a monumental domed Elephant House. With a master plan prepared by the architects Heins & La Farge, and landscaping by Harold A. Caparn, the Zoo featured natural woodlands fashioned into animal habitats, as well as exhibition structures based on contemporary zoological practice in Europe.”

Staten Island

Aakawaxung Munahanung (Island Protected from the Wind) Archaeological Site, designated on June 22, 2021

“Located in Tottenville at the southern-most point of Staten Island, the Aakawaxung Munahanung (Island Protected from the Wind) Archaeological Site contains the region’s best known cultural complex and documents Indigenous Peoples’ life beginning about 8,000 years ago and continuing through the Colonial period. The landmark site includes approximately 20 acres of highly archaeologically sensitive land located within the city’s Conference House Park. Its designation recognizes the history of Indigenous Peoples’ occupation of the site and protects its below-ground archaeological resources.”

Manhattan

New York Marble Cemetery, designated on March 4, 1969

“This obscure and dignified cemetery, once located in a fashionable neighborhood, is largely surrounded by houses and tenements today. It is entered through iron gates protecting both ends of a long passage between Nos. 41 and 43 Second Avenue. Established in 1832, it was used as a place of interment by some of New York’s oldest families. On the east portion of the wall surrounding the cemetery, there was an inscription testifying that it was a “place of interment for gentlemen.” In this cemetery there are no monuments or individual tombstones, only the walls with greensward and trees in between and squares of marble of uniform size, set in the walls, bearing the names of the owners and the vault numbers. The north and south walls have marble tablets affixed to them in tiers of three on which are inscribed the names of one hundred and fifty-six original vault owners.”

You can review the full spreadsheet of landmark designations here, and check out all of the designation reports for landmarks within Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo here.