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Press Conference to Save 186 Spring Street: Press Release and pictures
…of one of the trailblazing residents of 186 Spring Street. “186 Spring Street is more than brick and mortar; it is a living testament to the heart and soul of…
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A Call for Consistency: LPC and 186 Spring Street
…hearing on 186 Spring Street. I find the letter to be puzzling and hope that you will reconsider your decision. If the issue regarding the designation of 186 Spring Street…
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LGBT History and 186 Spring Street
In light of demolition plans that GVSHP uncovered for the Federal row house at 186 Spring Street, we recently discovered an incredible bit of history about the building. If surviving…
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Revealing LGBTQ+ History on Spring Street
…a years-long campaign by Village Preservation. 186 Spring Street Though now also situated within the Sullivan-Thompson Historic District, this lot to the east of 190 Spring Street unfortunately suffered a…
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Historic Senate Vote Had Roots in Village House
…see more at http://www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/preservation/186_spring/186-spring-08-23-12.htm. While the LGBT rights movement has made tremendous progress in the decades since 186 Spring Street was a nexus of such groundbreaking activity, the history and…
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Historic Court Decision Had Roots in Village House
…Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club is named in his honor. Press conference in 2012 seeking to save 186 Spring Street — see more at http://www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/preservation/186_spring/186-spring-08-23-12.htm. While the LGBT rights movement…
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Landmarks Preservation Commission Celebrates Gay Pride, Doesn’t Designate Gay Landmarks
…Rally to save 186 Spring Street. In fact, the LPC has a rather poor record when it comes to landmarking sites whose primary significance is LGBT history. In truth, the…
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Today in 1860: Lincoln and the Village
…Lincoln Portrait, 1860 (courtesy of the Library of Congress). Below: Mathew Brady, 1865 (courtesy of NYU’s Archives and Public History website) The portrait of Lincoln served a key role in…
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The 1863 Draft Riots and Abigail Hopper Gibbons
Abigail Hopper Gibbons, whose family’s home at 339 West 29th Street was attacked during the 1863 Draft Riots. As Off the Grid chronicled last year, today is the anniversary of…
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LGBT History: Not Just West Village Bars
…they were targeted by an arson fire and subsequently were forced to cut back on functions. They officially disbanded in 1981. 186 Spring Street Residence 186…
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Where Once There Was History, A Hole in the Ground
…Spring Street, between Thompson and Sullivan Streets, in the South Village. Like the nearby 54 MacDougal Street, 186 Spring Street had some interesting recent pop cultural history — for many…
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Documenting the Fight
Jim Owles, a resident of 186 Spring Street was the first openly-gay candidate for public office in New York City, here in front of a campaign banner in 1973. Image…
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Dr. Bruce Voeller: Gay Rights and Public Health Pioneer
…their home in the 1970s and early 1980s at 186 Spring Street, in what Kantrowitz described as a “gay commune” (a building which Village Preservation sought to save from demolition…
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Lincoln and Memorial Day
…American Civil War between 1861 and 1865. Greenwich Village witnessed memorable moments from the Civil War years including the Great Union Meeting in Union Square on April 20, 1861, the…
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The Mexican First Lady and a Jewish Anarcho-Feminist Walk Into An East Village Tenement…
…Mexican congress from 1864 to 1867. It was at this time, in 1864, that Juarez’s wife also fled Mexico, and came to live in the United States during the remainder…
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LGBT History in All Corners: the South Village
…They officially disbanded in 1981. 186 Spring Street Residence !86 Spring Street. In the era immediately following the Stonewall riots, 186 Spring Street was home to a number of important…
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Solving Mysteries in Historic Photos
…the Union but before Iowa did, and from July 1863 to July 1865, when there were 35 states and stars after West Virginia broke away from Virginia during the Civil…
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#SouthOfUnionSquare: 813 Broadway and the Report of the Citizens’ Association of New York Upon the Sanitary Conditions of the City
…a Citizens’ Association Report, 1868 Cover of the Report of the Citizens’ Association of New York Upon the Sanitary Conditions of the City of New York, 1865. The Association was…
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Underground Railroad Church Once Located in Greenwich Village Led Abolitionist Cause
…consistently found new ways to fight the system of slavery and support the city’s black communities. During the Draft Riots of 1863, the church’s fourth minister, the avid abolitionist, educator,…
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History Repeats Itself – Significant Site in South Village to be Demolished
…entire building. Provincetown Playhouse after demolition Today, almost three years later yet another site in the South Village is threatened with demolition, 186 Spring Street, which you can read about…
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A First for Recognizing LGBT History in the South Village
…meriting landmark designation. 186 Spring Street As GVSHP members and readers of Off the Grid know, we have not been sparing in our criticisms of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission…
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The Fight to Recognize LGBT Civil Rights History in Our Neighborhoods
…at all. Two examples: the post-Stonewall center of LGBT and AIDS activism 186 Spring Street and the Provincetown Playhouse and Apartments at 133-139 MacDougal Street (which were of course significant…
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Gay Activist Alliance Headquarters Bombed
…organizing around lesbian and gay rights. Just a few blocks away stood 186 Spring Street, an 1824 rowhouse which housed a “gay commune” of sorts where many important figures of…
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A Preservation Agenda For Landmarking’s 50th Birthday
…hands, as the case potentially carries tremendous precedence in terms of how public land must be treated and protected. 200 year old house at 186 Spring Street; the city refused…
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Thaddeus Hyatt: Trailblazing Greenwich Village Abolitionist and Inventor
…for him. Brown Brothers #4, 21″ Hyatt Light ca.1860. Thaddeus Hyatt’s patent basement extension, 1867. Advertisement for Hyatt’s Vault Lights circa 1880. Through his work with the National Kansas Committee, Hyatt became a…
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14 historic sites of the abolitionist movement in Greenwich Village
…were opened in 17 states and the District of Columbia. On August 13, 1866, a New York branch opened at 142 Bleecker Street (at LaGuardia Place). By October 1869, the…
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From the Archives … The Old Pear Tree
…first set were printed from 1841/2 to 1866, until David Valentine’s death, and again from 1868-1870 under successive City clerks. The second series were printed by Henry Collins Brown, founder…
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Hudson Square Rezoning and the South Village
…186 Spring Street, all have been destroyed in recent years due to lack of landmark protections. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and a broad array of community and…
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Beyond the Village and Back: Harlem’s St. James Presbyterian Church
…1868 to at least 1869. Then, from 1870 to 1873, he resided at 185 Bleecker Street, where the Freedmen’s Bank was also located. Garnet later moved to 102 West 3rd…
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Organizing for Irish Independence #SouthOfUnionSquare
…Griffith Thomas. The building was known as Fenian Hall beginning in 1865, when the Irish-American Fenian Brotherhood located here. From this spot, they organized around the cause of Irish independence….
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The Gilded Village: Shopping in the Neighborhood #SouthOfUnionSquare
…the 1830s to the late 1860s, this area, along with the areas around Washington, Union, Stuyvesant, and Gramercy Squares (the area South of Union Square basically fell between Washington and…
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Celebrating Flag Day!
…our neighborhood, city, and country’s history: 1863-1865 The flag in this image of Bleecker and Carmine Street actually helped us solve the mystery of when and where this picture was…
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East Village vs. West — Which is Really the Narrowest House in NYC?
…it might not be obvious now, the two buildings were built together between 1863 and 1865 and were once identical houses. No. 41 likely looked much like its neighbor to…
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Beyond the Village and Back: NY Foundling Hospital
…1869 to save the lives of babies being abandoned on the streets of New York, the Foundling currently serves over 30,000 people each year in New York City, Rockland County,…
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East Village vs. West — Which Is Really the Narrowest House in NYC?
…St. Mark’s Place. Though it might not be obvious now, the two buildings were built together between 1863 and 1865 and were once identical houses. No. 41 likely looked much like…
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East Village vs. West — Which Is Really the Narrowest House in NYC?
…obvious now, the two buildings were built together between 1863 and 1865 and were once identical houses. No. 41 likely looked much like its neighbor to the west, with Second Empire…
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Standing the Test of Time: Father’s Heart Church
…of spirituality and service has been consistent through the years. The Father’s Heart Church was constructed between 1867 and 1868 as the Methodist Episcopal Chapel by the New York City…
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The Animal Rights Movement’s Origins (and still-visible legacy) in Greenwich Village
On the 19th of April in 1860, the New York state legislature passed a bill punishing an act, or omission of an act, that caused pain to animals “unjustifiably.” It…
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May 30th – the original Memorial Day
…1868, to honor those who died in the Civil War. Flowers were placed on the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers in Arlington National Cemetery. In 1873, New York…
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Village Firehouses Past and Present
…built in 1852, before there even was an organized Fire Department of New York. On July 31, 1865, the city created the Metropolitan Fire Department (MFD) and opened its first…
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The Animal Rights Movement’s Origins (and still-visible legacy) in Greenwich Village
On the 19th of April in 1860, the New York state legislature passed a bill punishing an act, or omission of an act, that caused pain to animals “unjustifiably.” It…
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More Evidence of Historic Cemetery Under Endangered Church
…be the western wall of the long-vanished cemetery. The same wall, from the 11th Street side. The rears of the 1st Avenue buildings, built in 1867, are behind. While we…
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On This Day: New York City Draft Riots
Draft rioters clash with military troops on First Avenue between 11 and 14 Streets. On July 13, 1863 began several days of violence in New York City known as the…
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Saving the South Village — ‘Seven to Save’
…of the historic buildings have already been lost to development, such as the Tunnel Garage and 186 Spring Street. This area contains historically significant buildings including St. Anthony of Padua Church, the oldest extant…
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Hudson Square Rezoning and the South Village
…the historic buildings have already been lost to development, such as the Tunnel Garage and 186 Spring Street. This area contains historically significant buildings including St. Anthony of Padua, the oldest extant Italian-American Church…
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June is Gay Pride Month
…Remember the Losses: In our recent past we’ve lost people and places we should never forget. Read more about 186 Spring Street, a nearly 200 year old house the City…
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“Rare Cancer Seen In 41 Homosexuals”
…the AIDS epidemic was the house at 186 Spring Street where Dr. Bruce Voeller lived. Voeller, who specialized in sexual health and research, got the name of the disease changed…
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South Village at Stake in Hudson Square Rezoning Vote
…ahead with full landmarking of the proposed South Village Historic District. 9 Minetta Street The Provincetown Playhouse & Apartments 186 Spring Street Sullivan Street Playhouse Tunnel Garage …
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Stonewall Inn: State and National Register Pioneer
…Oscar Wilde Bookshop, St. Vincent’s Hospital, and 186 Spring Street, and are fighting hard to preserve what is left! See a list of important LGBT sites here or the map below….
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Thirteen Years Ago, An Idea: Landmark the South Village
…such as the Provincetown Playhouse and 186 Spring Street, were lost, and many non-contextual buildings replaced historic buildings such as the Sullivan Street Playhouse. Fortunately, we were able to stop further destruction by…
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The Legacy of the Stonewall Riots
…We have lost many historic historic sites that played important roles in LGBT history, including the Oscar Wilde Bookshop, St. Vincent’s Hospital, and 186 Spring Street, and are fighting hard to…
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Map It! Manhattan Street
Manhattan Street in 1861. Major & Knapp Engraving, Manufacturing & Lithographic Co. Published in 1864. Source: New York Public Library Last month reader Mike commented on our Lewis Street post…
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Happy Birthday Abraham Lincoln!
…day in 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born in Hodgenville, Kentucky. Serving as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861, until his assassination in 1865, Lincoln most famously…
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Research Resources for East Village Building Blocks
…this day. New York City started to require permits for new buildings in 1866, so determining the date of construction for buildings constructed prior to that date means relying on…
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Pineapples, Pinecones, and Acorns, Oh My – in the Greenwich Village Historic District
…and 49 Charles Street “This row of four late Italianate townhouses was built of brownstone in 1869 with similar bracketed cornices, handsome doorways and stoops. No. 49, the corner house…
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Walking East 7th Street: Tompkins Market and Armory
…Draft Riots of 1863 which erupted among Irish immigrants and African Americans over the first federal draft. Draft Riots of 1863 The 69th regiment, a.k.a. the “Irish Brigade” gained fame…
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Great Writers and the Greenwich Village Historic District
…1867. A leading Whig and Republican, he served New York as Speaker of the State Assembly, then as Lieutenant Governor, and finally as Congressman (1865- 67), at which time he…
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A Doctor That Was In The House: Elizabeth Blackwell
…source, the hospital moved in 1861 to 126 Second Avenue (present-day 128 Second Avenue) where Blackwell would also establish the first women’s medical college. In 1861 to help in the…
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The Hospital for Special Surgery, Born in the East Village
…orthopedic surgery, actually began in a row house in the increasingly immigrant-filled East Village more than 150 years ago. In 1863 in the middle of the Civil War, Dr. James…
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How to Build a Building Without an Architect
…in “A History of Housing in New York City,” in 1860 a superintendent of buildings was established within the Fire Department to enforce structural safety laws; in 1866 the state…
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Walking East 7th Street: Elizabeth Blackwell’s New York Dispensary
…ideas that suggested health was a product of individual piety. While New York suffered cholera epidemics in 1832, 1849,1854 and 1866, by 1866 the number of deaths was greatly reduced….
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An East Village Story — From German Church, to Synagogue, to Landmark
…and Second Avenues was built up with houses. In 1865, New York City purchased the lot at 340 East 14th Street for Engine Company No. 5. In 1866, the First…
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“When was my building built?”, and other tricky research questions
…created in the 1865, and from that year forward, DOB has kept a record of all new buildings, alterations to existing buildings, demolitions, and other changes to sites. A fairly-reliable…
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Beyond the Village and Back: Harlem’s Mother A.M.E. Zion Church
…congregation worshipped here from 1864-1904. In 1864, Varick’s church (renamed the Zion African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church) relocated to a former Dutch Reform Church at the northeast corner of West…
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Dr. Rebecca Cole, African-American Female Medical Pioneer Who Changed Lives On Bleecker Street
…Illustrated Newspaper.” Source: Library of Congress In 1867, Rebecca J. Cole became only the second African American woman to receive a medical degree in the United States. (Another Rebecca, Rebecca…
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The First Library for Women, in Greenwich Village
…in 1860, it was set up to serve working-class women and was originally located in the University Building (since demolished) of New York University, which used to be located on…
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“When was my building built?,” and other tricky research questions
…look at the building’s file at the Department of Buildings. The Manhattan Department of Buildings was created in the 1865, and from that year forward, DOB has kept a record…
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Beyond the Village and Back: 1083 Fifth Avenue Mansion and Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Harlem
…23rd Street and Park Avenue building from approximately 1863-1901 Before moving to 1083 Fifth Avenue, NAD had several previous locations. From 1865 to approximately 1901, it was located at 23rd…
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Irish American Heritage Permeates #SouthOfUnionSquare
…north of Washington Square. The building was designed in 1868-1869 by architect John Kellum, known for his work in the new medium of cast-iron. Kellum incorporated into the design a…
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When was my building built? and other tricky research questions
…The Manhattan Department of Buildings was created in the 1865, and from that year forward, DOB has kept a record of all new buildings, alterations to existing buildings, demolitions, and…
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How Greenwich Village and the East Village Launched the 19th Century Hebrew Free School Movement
…that story is the history of Hebrew Free Schools. A movement which began in Philadelphia in 1848, it did not spread to New York until 1864, when Christian missionaries began…
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Abolitionist History in Greenwich Village
…Black abolitionist, minister, educator and orator lived at several different addresses within the Village: 183 Bleecker Street from 1868 to at least 1869; and 185 Bleecker Street, from 1870 and…
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Victoria Woodhull, the Original ‘Nasty Woman’
…for the better. In 1868 the sisters did just that, moving to a house at 17 Great Jones Street (later demolished with the extension of Lafayette Street). The 1869 New…
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The Greenwich Village Home Where Lincoln’s Assassination Might Have Been Averted
…Civil War, was shot by actor John Wilkes Booth at the Ford Theater in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865, finally succumbing to his wounds the next morning on April…
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Uncovering Mysteries in East Village Building Blocks
…1863. 1871 tax records for Nos. 33, 35 & 37 First Avenue. The 1871 tax record for 84 East 2nd Street is illegible as photocopied. We looked through the Real…
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Spring House Tour Benefit Surprises and Delights
…home to the Simon family, headed by Richard Simon, co-founder of the publishing house Simon & Schuster, and father of famed singer and song writer Carly Simon. 1860 Mason’s Row…
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What’s In A Name?: Stewart House, 70 East 10th Street
…peruse the store’s wares. It was estimated by a journalist in 1853 that Stewart’s yearly business was about $7 million. In 1862, Stewart moved his business to a new purpose-built…
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The Freedman’s Bank in the South Village
Freedman’s Bank in Little Africa as shown in the GVSHP Civil Rights and Social Justice Map. On March 3, 1865, The Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company, commonly referred to as…
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Why Isn’t This Landmarked: Former McCreery’s Dry Goods Store, 801 Broadway/67 East 11th Street
…its designation for many years. James McCreery & Co. Dry Goods opened its doors in 1869. Mr. James McCreery, an Irish immigrant, was employed by Ubsdell, Pierson & Lake, a…
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Is there a Doctor in the Village? Yes, and Her Name Was Elizabeth Blackwell
…In 1865 the trustees first applied for a charter to become a medical college, and in 1868, The Woman’s Medical College of the New York Infirmary began, with fifteen students…
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Beyond The Village and Back: Temple Emanu-El, Reform Movement Builder and Shaker
…and women to sit together in the pews for the first time. From these humble beginnings Temple Emanu-El moved to Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street in 1868, and in 1927…
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The Forgotten Graveyards of Greenwich Village and the East Village
…and sold in 1869, showing the rapid pace of change in this part of New York during the 1800s. The remains of 1,500 people buried there were removed and reinterred…
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Where Was Laura Keene’s Theatre?
“Interior of Laura Keene’s New Theatre, Broadway, New York,” December 13, 1856. Source: NYPL. Laura Keene, c. 1860. Source: NYPL. In remembering the 150th anniversary of the Lincoln assassination, the…
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121 Charles Street, from Yorkville to the Village
…has also been speculation that the house was built in the late 18th century. William Glass and his wife bought the property and farmhouse in 1868 and operated a dairy…
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Sharpen Your Pencils: A History of 710 East 9th Street
…over the doorway. It is also present on the 1868 Perris & Browne fire insurance map, but this is because the map-makers later updated the map to include it (a…
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Celebrating the 15th Amendment on Bleecker Street
…Street. The Mother AME Zion Church, also known as “Mother Zion”, remained on Church Street until 1864, and became a part of a network of Underground Railroad “stations.” In 1864,…
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The Modern Roller Skate, and Men Fighting for Women’s Suffrage — Introduced at the Same East Village Locale
…by James Plimpton in 1863. In the early 1860s, roller-skating had unexpectedly bloomed in popularity. Plimpton seized upon the craze and set up a skate factory to produce his new…
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A Tale of Four Schools — Program Thursday
…discussion with stakeholders of four Snyder projects: PS 31, a demolished Bronx landmark; two former Harlem schools (PS 109 at 215 East 99th and PS 186 at 521 West 145th)…
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Pioneers Converge on MacDougal Street: Dr. Robert Hogan, Rev. Henry Highland Garnet, and Sarah Smith Garnet
…Liberia, and the West Indies. He also endorsed Black Nationalism in the United States. Draft Riots on First Avenue. Photo Courtesy of NYPL Digital Collections. From 1859 to 1863, and…
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Landmarks50: 4 St. Mark’s Place
…building for the next nine years. From 1843-1863 the building was owned by oil and candle merchants Isaac C. Van Wyck and his son Cornelius. From 1863-1903 it was owned…
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‘In America, They Don’t Let You Burn’: The Legacy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
…April of 1860, a law was passed requiring a home built for eight or more families to have fireproof stairs or balconies. In 1867, the tenement house act required fire…
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Black American History Revealed at Endangered House on West 13th Street
…of Education Manuals and City Directories list Sarah Tompkins’ place of residence as 64 West 13th Street, which was the original street number for No. 50, from 1866 to 1868….
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Early Connections to the Disability Rights Movement in the East Village
…building at 97 Second Avenue, which housed the Hospital for the Relief of the Ruptured and Crippled from 1863-1870 (since demolished). Image courtesy Hospital for Special Surgery. Beginning in 1863,…
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Gone But Not Forgotten: Van Nest Place
…that the area bounded by West 4th, Bleecker, and Perry Streets was still rural until the mid-1860s. At the center of this property was the former estate of Sir Peter…
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McCreery’s Then & Now: Dry Goods to Duplexes
James McCreery & Co. Dry Goods, 1869. From the New York Bound Bookshop collection in the GVSHP archives. The middle of the 19th Century saw an influx of wealthy New…
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“Papa” Luigi Fagazy: Pillar of the South Village
…fashion. Certainly one such case was Luigi Fugazi, who lived and worked in the South Village, and served the New York City Italian community from 1869 until his death in…
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Union Square: Activism by Design
…a space where mass demonstrations, rallies and protests took place. The Union Mass Meeting in Union Square New York. April 20, 1861. Illustration from NYPL. The above illustration displays a…
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What’s Old Is New Again For a Special Building on East 12th Street
…Germany in 1851 and immigrated to the United States in 1868. He became a lawyer and later a judge who lived in a house (still extant) just around the corner…
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The Birth of Mass Transit in NYC
…in 1897 on a ceremonial run was built between 1853 and 1862. This model had a design feature that let the carriage swivel on just one pin to reverse its…
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Happy Dyngus Day!
…on 9th Street. Build in 1867, the building was originally the Metropolitan Savings Bank but was converted to a church in 1938. The church then gained landmark designation in 1966. …
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