Celebrating #Landmarks60, Part IV
The New York City Landmarks Law was signed on April 19, 1965 by Mayor Robert Wagner. Since then, about 38,000 NYC properties have been protected under the law.
To mark that occasion, we created a StoryMap showing a timeline of all landmark designations in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo, from 1965 to 2025. Many of the landmarks that were designated in 2015 and before were highlighted as part of our celebration of Landmarks50, the 50th anniversary of the law in 2015.
But much has changed in the ten years since then — twenty-five individual landmarks and one historic district have been designated in our neighborhoods, nearly all of which Village Preservation proposed for landmark designation and fought to protect. Here’s a few more of them, particularly just some of those focused on civil rights history:
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center, 208 West 13th Street
Designated on June 18, 2019 in conjunction with several other properties with strong ties to the LGBTQ+ community, the LGBT Center has been a focal point for the gay community since 1984. We first proposed the LGBT Center for landmark designation in 2014 and were thrilled that it was finally recognized for its importance.
Originally a public school, the building has a fascinating history. Read more about the LGBTQ+ Center here.
The Caffe Cino, 31 Cornelia Street
Also designated on June 18, 2019, in conjunction with several other properties with strong ties to the LGBTQ+ community, 31 Cornelia Street was the home of Caffe Cino from 1958-1968. During this period Caffe Cino was the birthplace of countless theatrical careers and movements, and the origin of off-off-Broadway theater. Founder Joe Cino created a community that came together in this space to create theater and an open space for LGBTQ+ writers, performers, and patrons at a time when gay theater was considered illicit and unacceptable. Village Preservation originally proposed and secured landmark designation of Caffe Cino as part of our proposed South Village Historic District, the first phase of which (including this site) was approved in 2010. This building was then also individually landmarked nine years later in 2019, though it was already protected and recognized for its LGBTQ+ significance in the 2010 designation.
Read more about Caffe Cino here.
Educational Building, 70 Fifth Avenue
70 Fifth Avenue was the site of a staggering array of political organizing and social activism, frequently intertwined with the world of publishing, as was common in the area. This striking 12-story Beaux Arts style office building was constructed in 1912 by architect Charles Alonzo Rich for the noted publisher and philanthropist George A. Plimpton.
From 1914 until the mid-1920s, 70 Fifth Avenue housed the headquarters of the oldest and largest national African-American civil rights organization, the NAACP. While headquartered here, the NAACP waged remarkable, historic campaigns. Other organizations headquartered here included the American Union Against Militarism; the National Civil Liberties Bureau (which became the American Civil Liberties Union); the Citizen’s National Committee for Sacco-Vanzetti; the American Federation of Teachers; the American Friends of Spanish Democracy; the Press Writers Union; and the League for the Abolition of Capital Punishment.
Read more about 70 Fifth Avenue here.
The Julius’ Bar Building, 186 Waverly Place
We worked for over ten years to landmark this important site of LGBT history. Julius’ is the city’s oldest gay bar and one of the city’s oldest continuously operating bars. Three years before the Stonewall Riots (which occurred around the corner) and based upon the “sit-ins” against segregation at Southern lunch counters, the Julius’ Sip-In was one of the very first planned actions of civil disobedience for LGBTQ+ rights, protesting discriminatory laws and regulations that criminalized gay bars and other spaces which catered to the LGBTQ+ community.
Read more about Julius’s history and our ten-year campaign to honor it here.
Twenty-five new individual landmarks and one historic district might seem like a lot, but landmarking has slowed dramatically in our city in recent years — especially in our neighborhoods. Read our report analyzing all New York City landmark designations from 1965 to the present here , and go here to urge the City to once again vigorously take up landmark designations. You can also and learn about all of our advocacy campaign work here.
Explore our map highlighting the first 60 years of landmarking.