Landmarks60: Mapping Designations South of Union Square

The New York City Landmarks Law was signed into law on April 19, 1965, by Mayor Robert Wagner. Since then, about 38,000 properties around New York City have been protected under the law. In 2015, Village Preservation celebrated the 50th anniversary of this law by highlighting sites through or Landmarks50 blog series. To celebrate the 60th Anniversary, we created the new Landmarks60 map, and started a Landmarks60 blog series.  

The new map operates as a timeline, showing designations in our neighborhood chronologically. One of its feature is that users can select a particular time and only see designations for that period. To celebrate Landmarks60, I set the map to only show designations since 2015 and explored all the designations since our previous Landmarks50 blog series. 

All designations in our neighborhood since 2015. Click HERE to view the landmarks timeline map.

Since 2015 several sites around our neighborhoods have been designated either as individual landmarks (colored red on the map) or as historic districts (in yellow on the map). A cluster of these designations are individual landmarks just South of Union Square. These sites were proposed for landmark designation and advocated for by Village Preservation as part of a larger proposal for a South of Union Square Historic District. Rather than designate the entire district, the city opted to individually designate 10 buildings in the area, a fraction of the nearly 200 buildings proposed as part of the larger district. 

827-831 Broadway

The first of these buildings to be landmarked were 827-831 Broadway. These cast-iron loft buildings were constructed in 1866, and hold a key place in the history of modern art. They served as the homes and studios of art world figures including Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Jules Olitsky, Paul Jenkins, Larry Poons, Herbert Ferber, and William S. Rubin. The buildings were slated for demolition in 2016 when Village Preservation waged a successful campaign to have them landmarked and protected. They were landmarked on October 31st, 2017. 

817, 826, 830, 832, 836, 840 and 841 Broadway

On June 11th, 2019, seven more South of Union Square buildings were designated as individual landmarks. These designations included the entire blockfront between 12th and 13th Streets on the east side of Broadway. The oldest of these buildings, No. 836 Broadway, pictured below, dates to 1876, and helped lead the neighborhood’s transformation from low-scale 19th-century residential and mixed-use district to commercial store-and-loft-buildings that characterized the neighborhood by the turn of the 20th century. 

840 Broadway, also landmarked in June 2019 and next door to 836 Broadway, is a fine example of one of these South of Union Square early 20th century loft buildings. This 12-story Renaissance Revival store-and-loft building was designed by Robert Maynicke in 1899-1901 and built for garment industry tenants, and is now residences.

Education Building, 70 Fifth Avenue

Two years later, and two blocks north, another proposed South of Union Square building was landmarked. No. 70 Fifth Avenue was constructed for philanthropist and publisher George A. Plimpton in 1912-1914. This 12-story office-and-loft building was designed by architect Charles Alonzo Rich in the Beaux-Arts style. From 1914-1923, it held the national office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

You can explore all the landmarked buildings South of Union Square through our Landmarks60 Timeline map. While these sites have been landmarked, they are only a fraction of the historic buildings found South of Union Square. Village Preservation has been advocating to protect these properties with our campaign for historic district designation. You can help by sending a letter to city officials calling for the enactment of such protections HERE, and by supporting Village Preservation HERE. You can find out more about the campaign to protect this area HERE. You can also explore our South of Union Square Interactive Map + Tours, with the stories behind more than 200 buildings and more than forty tours covering subjects from Women’s History to Writers and Authors, Great Artists to the Civil War, and more.