A New Newsletter for a New Year

The new year brings with it plenty of fresh opportunities to explore and enjoy. For Village Preservation, that includes the latest issue of our semi-annual newsletter, jam-packed with new content, and a brand new design for our longstanding publication.

Within the space of 20 pages, the Winter 2025 newsletter gives readers the chance to explore the past half year’s worth of noteworthy accomplishments by our organization to protect the history of the neighborhoods we serve, the latest developments by the City and others that may impact those preservation efforts, and the many new resources added to our website or in our communities to help the public understand and appreciate our rich local history. The newsletter offers a wide-ranging look at topics affecting preservation in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo, including:

• The landmark designation of 50 West 13th Street (our cover story), protecting its legacy of civil rights history as the home of one of 19th-century New York’s leading Black businessmen and abolitionists, and theatrical history as the site of one of our most important Off-Off Broadway theaters.
• The possibility of a new 60-story tower on public land in the Gansevoort Market State and National Register Historic District, and of the loss of Greenwich Village’s beloved Tony Dapolito Recreation Center, landmarked in 2010 but closed and badly neglected by the City in more recent years.
• Our research into the generations of groundbreaking artists in South of Union Square, highlighting the cultural legacy we’re working to save in our campaign to get this part of Manhattan designated a historic district.

• The fight to preserve the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary in the East Village, the oldest specialized hospital in the Western Hemisphere and potentially New York’s first designated landmark honoring the history of people with disabilities.
• The true impact of Mayor Adams’ “City of Yes” plan for housing development on our neighborhoods, which could result in taller luxury condos in our part of Manhattan but little or no new affordable housing.
• Our study of six decades of landmarking in New York City, showing how recent Mayoral administrations — and especially the current one — have allowed the decline of designations across the five boroughs, leading to the loss or compromise of many historic structures.

In briefer articles, we also spotlight our new and exciting resources: additions to our historic image archive, digitization of the archives of the Village Independent Democrats, and new oral histories; new maps for the bicentennial of Fifth Avenue and the 25th anniversary of the NoHo Historic District; our latest historic plaque, honoring labor champion and first female U.S. cabinet secretary Frances Perkins; and our installation of a large-scale display commemorating writer James Baldwin’s 100th birthday, in the ground-floor window at 70 Fifth Avenue at 13th Street (a site we also helped achieve landmark designation).

You can see the latest newsletter for yourself online, or look for print copies coming soon to libraries, lobbies, and other spots across Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo. All our previous newsletters are available here. If you’d like to help distribute copies in a favored location, please let us know at info@villagepreservation.org.