August in Our Archives
August is often, or ideally, spent soaking up the sun and relaxing by the water. Considered a period of rest before the busy fall season, there are a surprising number of pieces in our archives that come from this quiet month. Our archives include historic images, neighborhood histories and oral histories. Part of our extensive collection of online resources, they focus on Greenwich Village, the East Village and NoHo, but often tell the story of the entire city. Today, we will look at some of our archives that date to Augusts of years past.
Starting in the 1960s…
In August of 1961, the Village Independent Democrats (VID), a reform democratic club, were working to reroute city buses out of Washington Square Park. Although the park was closed to traffic in 1958, it was still used as a bus turnaround into the early 60s. The VID worked with Village Residents to advocate for a propose an alternate route, closing the park to traffic for good. This battle is documented in our Village Independent Democrats Archive collection, that can be explored here.
In 1982…
On August 14th, 1982, photographer Robert Fisch documented his friends on the West Village waterfront. Born and raised in Queens, Fisch become interested in photography when the Concord SST began flying over his neighborhood in the 1970s. His photography meshed with his coming of age in the LGBT community, and he often captured the 1980s Greenwich Village of his youth. This photo is included in our Robert Fisch Collection, learn more and explore the entire collection here.
1986…
In August of 1986 the West Village Committee was hard at work fighting a proposed West Village Rezoning, that would allow the construction of high rise buildings in the far West Village. Founded as The Committee to Save the West Village, the West Village Committee was formed by Jane Jacobs and neighbors to defeat a Robert Moses urban renewal plan for the West Village. The collection includes meeting minutes, notices, correspondence, newsletters, and related articles from 1961-1997. The archive documents decades of preservation battles, the construction of the West Village Houses and more. Explore the entire collection in our Preservation/ Neighborhood History Archive.
And last, but certainly not least, in 2001…
On August 16th, 2001, Deborah Kadetsky attended a Radiohead concert at Liberty State Park in New Jersey. Snapping this photo of the New York City skyline, she documented the Twin Towers just under a month before the tragic events 9/11. She graciously donated this photo to us and it is now included in our 9/11 Memorial Photos Historic Image Archive Collection.
To see more check our Historic Image Archive and Neighborhood/Preservation History archive. We also have an ever increasing number of maps, oral histories and more, that can be explored in our resources.