Celebrating Black History in Local Designations
We are excited to see the Landmarks Preservation Commission publish the designation report for the Jacob Day House, Manhattan’s newest landmark, located at 50 West 13th Street. This followed a four-year long campaign led by Village Preservation for landmark designation that first uncovered the extensive history of this site and its connections to the abolitionist movement, as well as highlighting its more well known and theater history.
The report outlines the history and significance of 50 West 13th Street, a Greek revival style rowhouse constructed c. 1845. The report primarily focuses on the site’s connections to Black history and the abolition movement. It outlines the history of slavery and emancipation in New York, and the 19th Century Black community in Greenwich Village, which during the mid 1800s was New York’s largest. No. 50 West 13th Street holds strong ties to this critical time and place, as Jacob Day, a prominent Black businessman and abolitionist owned and occupied the house from 1857 until his death in 1884. As noted in the designation report, being an abolitionist was particularly risky for Black people (and to a large degree for white people as well) at the time. Day also operated a successful catering business out of the ground floor of the house, and while living here he also took in tenants, most notably was Sarah J. S. Tompkins Garnet, an educator and suffragist who was the first Black female principal in the New York City Public School system.
We are thrilled to see the report published, and encourage you to read it here. It is also on the Landmark Designation Report page in the resources section of our website. This page includes the designation reports of all sites and districts within our neighborhoods designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission and/or listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places.
Another report that includes Greenwich Village’s Black history is the designation report for the South Village Historic district — another designation Village Preservation proposed and fought years for. The report has a section called “Little Africa” describing the large Black community that was located here from the mid-to-late 19th century. Centered around Minetta Street, Minetta Lane and the no longer extant Minetta Place, it was home to the city’s largest Black community. The African-American roots of the area actually go back to the Dutch colonial era, as by 1644 free and “partially free” Blacks had begun to settle and farm the area here which lay between the Native Americans and European settlers in the southern tip of Manhattan.
Another designation that commemorates local Black history is 70 Fifth Avenue. Following a campaign led by Village Preservation, 70 Fifth Avenue was designated a New York City landmark on March 23rd, 2021.
70 Fifth was constructed in 1912-1914 and was commissioned by book publisher and philanthropist George A. Plimpton. As explained in the designation report, from 1914-1921 the building served as the headquarters of the NAACP. Their tenure in the building coincided with a pivotal period for the association. While here, the NAACP formed an anti-lynching committee and fought the revival of the Klu Klux Klan. Working at this office was W.E.B. Du Bois, a co-founder of the NAACP who also served as the association’s director of research and publicity, and as an editor of The Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races, the association’s monthly magazine.
Explore the Landmark Designation Report Section of our website to learn about more local designations. To learn more about the local black history, check our Civil Rights and Social Justice map.