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Is Gay Street really ‘gay’?
…only 13 when the first published reference to “Gay Street” appeared, making this highly unlikely. Gay Street looking north. So while Gay Street is one of the Village’s most charming…
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What’s in a name? Gay Street
Southward view of Gay Street via Wiki Commons Gay Street is one of the most charming and picturesque streets in Greenwich Village, an icon of the historic neighborhood’s anachronistic character. But…
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14-18 Gay Street and 14 Christopher Street, c. 1940 tax photo (l. to r., left); 16-18 Gay Street and 14 Christopher Street, c. 1969 Greenwich Village Historic District designation photo (l. to r., middle); and 16-18 Gay Street and 14 Christopher Street, c. 1969 Greenwich Village Historic District designation photo (l. to r., right)
For more information on the application to the Landmarks Preservation Commission associated with this image, click here….
Posted June 2, 2020
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City Fails to Protect Public Safety, Landmarks at 14-18 Gay Street/16-20 Christopher Streets
Hundreds joined us for a rally on Gay Street in November 2022 to protest illegal work at 14 Gay Street that led to the building’s demolition. We demanded reform to…
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Hundreds Join Protest at 14 Gay Street, Demand Reforms from City
…neighboring 16 Gay Street, and to protect public safety, 14 Gay Street must be dismantled. Village Preservation condemned the city’s lack of oversight and the owner and his contractors’ illegal,…
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This Monday, Nov. 14: Join Our Press Conference and Protest over Demolition of 200-Year-Old Landmark at 14 Gay Street
…house at 14 Gay Street, following what we have been told is dangerous, unpermitted work on the site that compromised its structural integrity. The house at 14 Gay Street was…
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(l. to r.) 12, 14, 16 Gay Street
14 Gay Street was landmarked as part of the Greenwich Village Historic District in 1969, and made famous by author Ruth McKenna, who lived in the basement apartment and described…
Posted April 12, 2023
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(l. to r.) 10-18 Gay Street
14 Gay Street was landmarked as part of the Greenwich Village Historic District in 1969, and made famous by author Ruth McKenna, who lived in the basement apartment and described…
Posted April 12, 2023
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14 Gay Street
…order to demolish a nearly 200-year-old landmarked house at 14 Gay Street, following dangerous, unpermitted work on the site that compromised its structural integrity. Learn more here. Please note: All…
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Continuing to Fight for 14 Gay Street and Adjoining Endangered Buildings
…action to punish the owner who undermined the landmarked 200-year-old house at 14 Gay Street, prevent harm from befalling his five other adjoining properties, ensure 14 Gay is completely preserved…
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LPC Application
16 Gay Street
CB2 hearing: 12/15/2021 – see below to register for the Zoom meeting. To submit written testimony of any length in advance of the hearing, click HERE. LPC hearing: 1/25/2022 – LAID OVER…
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LPC Application
14 Gay Street
CB2 hearing: 01/14/2021 – Applicant did not attend CB2 hearing: TBD – see below to register for the Zoom meeting LPC hearing: TBD – see below for instruction on participating…
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(l. to r.) 14, 16, 18 Gay Street, c. 1940 tax photo
For more information on the application to the Landmarks Preservation Commission associated with this image, click here….
Posted February 1, 2021
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The Origins of Greenwich Village Historic District Street Names: Part 1
…to have streets named for both his first and last names. 1793-94 Gilbert Stuart portrait of Horatio Gates Gay Street We cannot conclusively determine the origin of Gay Street. Most…
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June is Gay Pride Month
…has also proposed for landmark designation. Find out if Gay Street is really ‘gay’. Remember How Far We’ve Come: In recent years the LPC has been quite resistant to landmarking…
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The 10 most charming spots in the Greenwich Village Historic District
…and while fenced off, the grounds are regularly open to the public for its enjoyment. Gay Street via Wiki Commons Tiny one block long Gay Street attracts as many visitors for its delightfully…
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The Supposed Streets of Little Africa
…a landowner through whose property the street was cut, and the 45th mayor of New York City. Richard Varick (1753–1831), painting from the New-York Historical Society Gay Street The name…
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Accomplishments
…in New York State by the Preservation League of NY State. We also called out city agencies for failing to adequately protect landmarked properties like 14 Gay Street, and building a…
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LGBTQ History: Around Christopher Street
…Stonewall Inn, the Gay Liberation Monument, and the Gay Street photo-op all within a few steps of each other. However, there are also a number of less appreciated sites within…
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A New Archive for GVHD50: Retaking the 1969 Designation Photos
…on Charles Street and Gay Street were individually photographed, while the buildings of West 8th Street were photographed in multiple sections. 43 Charles Street 3-5 West 8th Street Walking through…
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Village Preservation in the Press
…Brooklyn, TimeOut New York, November 28 Middle Collegiate Church, preservationists on different sides on saving damaged facade, Village Sun, November 20 Demolition of historic Gay Street building prompts public outcry,…
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Our Epic Greenwich Village and East Village Watch-List
… Carlito’s Way – 17 Gay Street, Greenwich Village (Hulu) Ten years after they made “Scarface,” Al Pacino and director Brian De Palma returned with “Carlito’s Way,” another large-canvas portrait…
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14 Christopher Street
APPROVED with modifications 10/29/2019 CB2 hearing: 10/17/2019 LPC hearing: 10/29/2019 Greenwich Village Historic District Between Gay Street and Waverly Place —- APPLICATION INFORMATION —- 1) From the CB2 agenda: Application is…
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14 Christopher Street
APPROVED 09/22/2015 CB2 hearing: 07/20/2015 LPC hearing: 09/22/2015 Greenwich Village Historic District Corner of Christopher and Gay Streets —- APPLICATION INFORMATION —- 1) From the LPC agenda: A loft building…
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Facing Broad Opposition, Landmarks Balks at Plan for Massive Excavation and Alterations at 131 and 131 1/2 Charles Street
…pointing out concerns about the danger of the proposed excavation — especially in light of recent destruction of the landmarked 14 Gay Street and 351-55 West 14th Street/44-54 Ninth Avenue…
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24-30 Christopher Street
APPROVED on 03/17/2015 CB2 hearing: 02/12/2015 LPC hearing: 03/17/2015 Greenwich Village Historic District Between Waverly Place and Gay Street Image courtesy of Google Street View —- APPLICATION INFORMATION —- 1)…
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8 Christopher Street
APPROVED in part with modifications and denied in part on 02/07/2012 at LPC hearing Greenwich Village Historic District Between Gay Street & Greenwich Avenue APPLICATION: A brick residence built in…
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22 Christopher Street
WITHDRAWN 11/14/2019 (to be reviewed at staff level) CB2 hearing: 11/14/2019 LPC hearing: TBD Greenwich Village Historic District Between Gay Street and Waverly Place —- APPLICATION INFORMATION —- 1) From…
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Archive Update: Photographing the Federal-era Houses of Lower Manhattan
…extension of the Greenwich Village Historic District. Photographed by Susan De Vries, 1996 14 Gay Street In November 2022, demolition permits were filed for the landmarked 200-year-old house at 14…
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Black History Month in the Village: African-American & LGBT Historic Sites
…was unveiled on October 7, 2015. Gay Street Gay Street Gay Street is often mistakenly thought to have been named for Sidney Howard Gay, editor of…
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Christopher Park: A Small Space with a Long History
…Inn was a refuge for gay street youth. When police raided the Inn the night of June 27, angry protesters filled Christopher Street and the surrounding roads; police pursued the…
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It Happened Here: 80’s Music Videos, Part Deux
…the morning to her parent’s house on Gay Street, which according to VH1’s Pop Up Videos had been watered down with neighbor and celebrity lawyer William Kunstler’s garden hose to…
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(Even More) Civil Rights and Social Justice Champions in Our Neighborhoods
…Street 13 Gay Street, 1969 (left) and 2019 (right). 1969 photo courtesy of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. William Moses Kunstler (July 7, 1919 – September 4, 1995), who owned,…
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In Old Greenwich Village
…– to the permanent bewilderment of nations and the perennial confusion of mankind. Now what Villager wouldn’t take pride in that??!! Onto the illustrations… Here is one of Gay Street:…
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The Importance of #GivingTuesday
…letter sent! Andrew Berman, residents, and elected officials rally to save 14 Gay Street Here’s just some of what your collective support has allowed us to do over the past…
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James Baldwin Leaves an Enduring Legacy in Greenwich Village
…Village, including a small apartment on Gay Street in 1955 with the Swiss painter Lucien Happersberger, whom he met in Paris. He lived for the longest at 81 Horatio Street,…
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How Greenwich Villager Howard Bennett fought to make Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a national holiday
…York’s history through the 19th century, the largest and most important African-American community in the city. That neighborhood centered around present-day Minetta, Thompson, Cornelia, and Gay Streets. Minetta Street, the…
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King’s Assassination Began Fifteen Year Quest for a National Holiday
…Minetta, Thompson, Cornelia and Gay Streets in the South Village. As immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe began to stream into the Village, however, the African-American community was gradually pushed…
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Mapping Civil Rights and Social Justice — A Year Later
…known as “Little Africa” — a predominantly African-American section of Greenwich Village centered around Minetta Street and Lane, Gay Street, and Thompson Street — still existed but was rapidly disappearing…
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Bertram Goodman’s Views of the Village
…to 1956. Gay Street, 1958. MCNY Bleecker Street between Seven Avenue South and Sixth Avenue, 1935. MCNY To view more of Goodman’s works depicting mid-century New York City, visit the…
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Eight Years Off the Grid
…in NYC. https://gvshp.org/blog/2011/11/14/when-was-my-building-built-and-other-tricky-research-questions/ 2012: Is Gay Street Really ‘Gay’? Spoiler Alert: the answer is no, but it’s a great story. https://gvshp.org/blog/2012/10/10/is-gay-street-really-gay/ 2013: Happy Birthday, Andy Warhol Our most popular blog post…
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Otis Kidwell Burger, Who’s Seen the Village From Suffrage to Luxury
…trip to the American South and seeing first-hand the horrors of slavery (but who is not, as is sometimes assumed, the namesake of Gay Street). As a result, Gay joined…
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Berenice Abbott’s Greenwich Village
…here. Interestingly, Abbott saw fit to photograph the currently relevant 14-16 Gay Street. 14 Gay is the subject of much controversy at the moment as it is has been demolished…
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Preserving the Past for the Future: A Journey Through the Greenwich Village Historic District
…our architectural heritage. The bend at Gay Street Village Preservation was founded in 1980, in part, to be a steward for the Greenwich Village Historic District. One of the city’s…
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William Kunstler: Armchair Liberal Turned Radical Lawyer
…hearts of Greenwich Village, where Mr. Kunstler lived and worked for decades. William Kunstler in his Greenwich Village home/office at 13 Gay Street. Photo courtesy of Getty images/Ron Galella Mr….
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Cats and the Village
…the American South and seeing first-hand the horrors of slavery (but who is not, as is sometimes assumed, the namesake of Gay Street). Her grandmother, Mary Otis Gay Willcox, was…
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Black History Month in the Village: The NAACP and Martin Luther King Jr.
…Gay Street, long known for its African American residents, and “Little Africa,” which was centered around nearby Minetta Street and Minetta Lane. Like many African-Americans living in the Village at…
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Ten Years ‘Off The Grid’
…and other tricky research questions. 2012: Is Gay Street Really ‘Gay’? 2013: Happy Birthday, Andy Warhol (which formerly held the title of our most popular post) 2014: Kitty Genovese and…
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New Historic Image Collection Documents Change and Continuity in the West Village
…Street (the likely inspiration for Edward Hopper’s Early Sunday Morning), 75 1/2 Bedford Street (the narrowest house in the Village), Gay Street, and more. Some photos date to the early…
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Giving Tuesday — Give to Save!
…on Gay Street, allowing landmarked properties to be destroyed, and demanding stiff penalties and full reconstruction of the buildings. Unveil three new historic plaques at: The recently landmarked 70 Fifth Avenue, which…
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Join Us for Press Conference December 15 at 2 PM on the Steps of City Hall To Protest the Growing Rash of Demolitions of Landmarked Buildings Across NYC
Clockwise from top left: 14 Gay Street; the former Dangler Mansion in Bedford-Stuyvesant; 351-55 West 14th Street/44-54 Ninth Avenue in the Meatpacking District Please join us tomorrow at 2 PM…
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GVSHP Oral History: Otis Kidwell Burger
…the Editor of The Anti-Slavery Standard (who is sometimes thought to be the namesake of Gay Street). By the time she graduated from Cornell University, she and her husband moved…
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Reframing the Urban Pattern
…Gay Street. 14 Gay Street, Spencer Means, 2017 For years, violations at 14 Gay Street continued to be overlooked by the city agencies responsible for maintaining the structure of the…
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Five Hundred Years Ago, The First Ghetto Is Founded
…(now Village East Cinemas). If you liked this post, you might also like How Bohemians Got Their Name and this post about the origins of the name of Gay Street….
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The First Ghetto Is Founded, and the Reverberations are Felt Centuries Later
…(now Village East Cinemas). If you liked this post, you might also like How Bohemians Got Their Name and this post about the origins of the name of Gay Street….
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Responding to the Rising Tide of Dangerous and Unpermitted Work in Our Neighborhoods
…landmarked 1827 house at 14 Gay Street. We have demanded reform to the City’s oversight system to prevent this type of damage and destruction from taking place. So far, the…
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King’s Assassination Began Fifteen Year Quest for a National Holiday
…19th century, the Village was the center of African-American life in New York, with what was referred to as “Little Africa” centered around present-day Minetta, Thompson, Cornelia and Gay Streets…
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Haunted Village: Part BOO!
…of the Women’s House of Detention. Some of the ghosts of the women who died there are reported to lurk around the building. 12 GAY STREET This Federal townhouse was…
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Berenice Abbott’s Changing New York
…lost…. The camera alone can catch the swift surfaces of the cities today and speaks a language intelligible to all.” Berenice Abbott, 14-16 Gay Street On the eve of the…
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Otis Kidwell Burger
…and discusses her incredible family history, which includes her great-grandfather, Sidney Howard Gay, the Editor of The Anti-Slavery Standard, who is sometimes thought to be the namesake of Gay Street….
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Happy Holidays from Village Preservation — You Make Our Work Possible
…New York State by the Preservation League of NY State Called out city agencies for failing to adequately protect landmarked properties like 14 Gay Street, and building a coalition among…
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City Finally Releases Plan to Prevent Destruction of Landmarks, with Many Specifics Lacking
…buildings under the city’s oversight, such as 16-18 Gay and 16-20 Christopher Street (adjacent to the already destroyed 14 Gay Street, and under the same ownership) and 10 Fifth Avenue….
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Preservationists and Elected Officials Slam City Agencies and Administration for Allowing Demolition of Landmarks at City Hall Press Conference
…Stuyvesant), Erik Bottcher (Greenwich Village/Chelsea/Hell’s Kitchen), and Christopher Marte (Lower Manhattan). We’ve called out the city for allowing the demolition of 14 Gay Street and 351-55 West 14th Street/44-54 Ninth…
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The Attica Prison Riots and the Village
…at 13 Gay Street, defended the rights of the most controversial of clients until his death in 1995. Kunstler was famous for representing Freedom Riders, Black Panthers, and the Chicago…
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Preservation Organizations from Across New York Demand the City Take Action to Prevent Demolitions of Historic Buildings
…damage to the landmarked 10 Fifth Avenue from city-approved work (the ultimate fate of which is still to be determined), the destruction of 14 Gay Street, and the partial demolition…
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New Video Tours of African American History and Landmarks in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo
…headquarters of the NAACP and the site of its first meeting; the African American musicians of Gay Street in the 19th century and the East Village in the 20th; African…
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How Bohemians Got Their Name
…day. If you’re interested in the evolution and origin of the term ‘bohemian,’ you might also enjoy this post exploring the evolution and origin of the name of Gay Street….
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