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Immigration and the Village
…the talk about immigration reform in the news lately, it got us thinking here at Off the Grid about the effect of United States immigration laws on the history of…
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Roundup of posts on immigration and the Village
…tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Photo courtesy of avvo.com. Immigration is a core theme in the history of New York City, and in the…
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Celebrating Immigration in Greenwich Village
…rich immigration history by taking the map’s “Immigration Landmarks” tour. The Chinese Consulate & Mission In the late 19th century, Chinese immigrants to the United States faced rampant discrimination and…
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The NEW New York: 19th Century Immigration – Kleindeutschland: Little Germany in New York City
The NEW New York: 19th Century Immigration – Kleindeutschland: Little Germany in New York City This talk will explore a detailed history of the development of the German American community…
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The NEW New York: Immigration, 1820s to 1880s – An Overview
The NEW New York: Immigration, 1820s to 1880s – An Overview Immigration in the 19th century brought diverse cultures together, illuminated global struggles, triumphs, and movements, and made our neighborhoods…
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Celebrating the Landmarks of Immigration in the Greenwich Village Historic District
…District is so rich in immigrant history and preserved landmarks, you can celebrate both at once! The examples which follow are from our “Immigration Landmarks” tour on our Greenwich Village…
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The NEW New York: 19th Century Irish Immigration and the Revolution
The NEW New York: 19th Century Irish Immigration and the Revolution This talk will look at archbishops, saints-in-waiting, gangsters, rogues, jesters and other colorful characters. There will be a special…
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Immigration in Greenwich Village, 100 Years Since the Emergency Quota Act
…New York has again become a center for international immigration, and immigrant New Yorkers have profoundly shaped our neighborhoods. In this Jane’s Walk led by historian and tour guide Lucie…
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Immigration in the South Village
…now known as Greenwich Village. Students explore the immigrant experience through the lens of mass Italian immigration in the late 19th century, Session 2: Walking Tour Travel back in time…
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11 landmarks of immigration in Greenwich Village
Each year, immigrant history week is celebrated in late April, commemorating the day in 1907 when more immigrants came through Ellis Island than any other day in history. More than…
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Celebrating Our Neighborhoods’ Immigrant Heritage
…the story of immigration. We are proud of and celebrate our neighborhoods’ history of immigration and the legacy it has engendered. Below is a roundup of some of our stories…
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“The NEW New York” – Immigrant Heritage Learning at Village Preservation
Immigration means something different to everyone — it reminds us of our ancestors, of how the world is constantly changing, or of how, as people, we are always on the…
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When They Stemmed the Flow of Immigrants into New York City
…on immigration from eastern and southern Europe. NYC was deeply impacted until the immigration law of 1965 altered the situation, allowing immigrants from Asia and the Caribbean to enter the…
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East Village Building Blocks Tour: Little Ukraine
…to the east and 3rd Avenue to the west. Ukrainian immigration to New York coincided with other mass European immigration in the late 19th century. Another mass Ukrainian immigration occurred…
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Pioneers Converge on MacDougal Street: Dr. Robert Hogan, Rev. Henry Highland Garnet, and Sarah Smith Garnet
…Digital Collections. The Irish Emigrant Society would station representatives at the Battery (when the Battery’s Castle Clinton was the city’s immigration processing center, before Ellis Island) to meet people immediately…
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The Irish Emigrant Aid Society’s Greenwich Village Roots
…Collections. The Potato Famine of 1845 is often considered the main driver of Irish immigration to America, but large-scale Irish immigration had begun prior to that. In the 1830s about…
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2014 Year In Review: GVSHP Programs
…of immigration to Manhattan’s Lower East Side, this 3-volume book covers art, literature, food, religion, and so much more. Topics slated for discussion with this panel include the Stanton Street…
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Robert Hogan: Unsung Hero of Irish New York, and Resident of MacDougal Street
…transformed the experience of immigration from Ireland, but also played an integral role in strengthening the size and influence of the city’s Irish community. Hogan also helped organize the city’s…
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Immigrant Heritage Week: The Importance of Preserving Immigrant History in Our Neighborhoods
…immigrants in New York City. A ship of Irish immigrants arriving at Ellis Island Our neighborhoods have attracted immigrants from across the globe for centuries. Immigration and the diversity of…
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The Ukrainian National Home’s Surprising History
…single-family rowhouse to its present form was the immigration of huge numbers of Germans to New York in the mid-19th century, largely settling in today’s East Village. The area came…
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Little Ukraine in the East Village
…New York coincided with other mass European immigrations in the late 19th century. Another mass Ukrainian immigration occurred during and after World War II, as Ukrainians escaped the Nazis and…
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The Gilded Village: Where Two Thirds of the Population Lived
…workers’ wages and prompted immigration from countries not experiencing the same prosperity as the United States. The ever-expanding railroad was shrinking the country, making it easier for those settled in…
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Asian-American History in Greenwich Village and the East Village
…as a pamphlet, condemning both the Act’s immigration restrictions and its denial of citizenship to Chinese-Americans. The resolution demanded that the act make a formal distinction between recent Chinese immigrants…
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Celebrating 30 Years of Educating Students, With Big Plans for Spring!
…work with the GO Project each summer. In 2010 we published “A Journey for Carmela” for K-2nd grade students to learn about immigration in the South Village From A Journey…
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Immigrant Heritage Day – Taking a Walk to the Immigrant East Village
Immigration history in New York City is long, storied and full of notable events and movements which are personal and political. The City of New York is the ultimate city…
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Neighborhood History
…1870-1900 2.4 Immigration in the Village 3. The Twentieth Century 3.1 Bohemia, 1900-1929 3.2 Art in the Village, 1930s 3.3 The “Beat Movement” and Happenings, 1950s-1960s 3.4 The Historic Preservation…
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The Many Illustrious Arrests of Anarchist Emma Goldman
…of Goldman’s Mugshots The Immigration Act of 1903, also known as the Anarchist Exclusion Act, was passed by Congress on March 3, 1903. This law tightened immigration rules and added…
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Sullivan-Thompson Historic Historic District Gets Its Landmark Street Signs
…lasted from before the Civil War until just before World War I. This period coincided with waves of immigration transforming the area, and the building of countless tenements of all…
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Walking East 3rd Street: Tenement Synagogues & Jewish Life
…include the expansion of the subway further into Brooklyn, and the Immigration Act of 1924, which effectively drove Jewish immigration to a full halt. 65 E. 3rd Street, 2012. During…
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Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day
…Immigration, 1820s to 1880s – An Overview Immigration in the 19th century brought diverse cultures together, illuminated global struggles, triumphs, and movements, and made our neighborhoods what they are today….
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Politicians, Playwrights, and Parades: The Irish legacy of the East Village and Greenwich Village
…and lesbians, artists, punks – Irish immigration in the mid-19th century profoundly shaped both neighborhoods. Irish Americans and Irish immigrants played a critical role in building immigrant and artistic traditions…
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2011 Annual Meeting
…the neighborhood and today, it continues its ministry to those most in need. Over its many years in service, Judson has sponsored arts initiatives, advocated for health issues, provided immigration…
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Chinese American Activists Fight for Their Rights in Our Neighborhoods
…from receiving bail in habeas corpus proceedings. At its first meeting, the Chinese Equal Rights League passed a resolution, published as a pamphlet, condemning both the Act’s immigration restrictions and…
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Mabel Ping-Hua Lee and the Fight for Chinese American and Women’s Rights
…obtaining United States citizenship and therefore denied their voting rights. Furthermore, just four years after the 19th Amendment passed, Congress passed the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act, which strengthened restrictions on Chinese…
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The Greenwich Village church that threw a presidential election
…burned down in 1855. It was quickly rebuilt, but by April 1902 it burned down again, both times faithfully recreating the original 1840s design. In the subsequent years, as immigration…
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East 12th Street’s “Ghost Church”: From Pathbreaking House of Worship to NYU Dorm
…New York. This jarring juxtaposition results from a confluence of powerful New York forces, including religion, immigration, real estate, and the expanding appetite of one large institution, New York University,…
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Filomena: the thirteen-year-old martyred virgin once celebrated in the South Village
…Italian nation. The story of how the feast came about, and why it was unceremoniously ended, tells us a lot about the history of immigration, religion, and myth-making that has…
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Greenwich Village: Immigrant Mecca
…of the newcomer from foreign lands, as there are many key landmarks to the history of immigration to be found in our own communities. One great way to explore that…
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Explore Local Korean American Restaurants!
…after the Immigration Reform Act of 1965, which lifted the restrictions on immigrants from Asia, Latin America, and other places outside of Northern and Western Europe that were enacted in…
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Emma Lazarus and the Poem on Lady Liberty’s Pedestal
…Europe, as well as helping immigrants. Lazarus proclaimed herself a Jewish poet, expressing her views on Judaism and immigration through verse, essays, and the 1882 published collection Song of a…
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Celebrating the Origins of the South Village
…its longest-standing small businesses, and so many layers of immigration, local migration, and cultural history. We can trace these stories through the structures and streetscapes that are now thankfully protected…
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Politicians, Playwrights, and Parades: The Irish legacy of the East Village and Greenwich Village
…and lesbians, artists, punks – Irish immigration in the mid-19th century profoundly shaped both neighborhoods. Irish Americans and Irish immigrants played a critical role in building immigrant and artistic traditions…
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The Irish Bridget: Celebrating Immigrant Heritage & History Month
The Irish Bridget: Celebrating Immigrant Heritage & History Month Who was the Irish Bridget? What relevance does her story have to the history of Irish immigration to America? Margaret Lynch-Brennan…
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Our Lady of Greenwich Village
Our Lady of Greenwich Village A discussion of Irish Catholic immigration to Greenwich Village with authors Dermot McEvoy and John Strausbaugh Authors Dermot McEvoy (Our Lady of Greenwich Village, Terrible…
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A Young Italian Immigrant Who Almost Didn’t Make It Into America
…Image Archive. The sixteen images, all of which date from the early 20th century when Italian immigration to our city was at its height, are from the center’s Our Lady…
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Why Isn’t This Landmarked?: The Hebrew Technical Institute, 9th and Stuyvesant Streets
…landmarked. On December 1, 1917, the Evening Post wrote: “The tide of Jewish immigration to this country had begun in 1883, following the first of the Russian massacres, and the…
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Sullivan-Thompson, a District of Immigrants
…stated by the LPC research staff in their presentation before the Commissioners’ vote, “The architecture in the proposed district reflects the waves of immigration that transformed this neighborhood and much…
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Children’s Education
…three curricula: Greenwich Village Past and Present focuses on the area around Washington Square Park from pre-European settlement to the early 19th Century. (1st-5th grade) Immigration in the South Village…
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Children’s Education by GVSHP
…neighborhood changes over time. The second program, Immigration in the South Village, teaches students about immigrant life and how large-scale immigration led to new building forms in New York City, from…
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Irish Parade Riots
…both Irish and American. Much of mainstream America was not ready to embrace the Irish Catholic immigrants as Americans, however. Increasing immigration heightened tensions between the newcomers and so-called native-born…
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Our Irish Heritage
The history of Greenwich Village is a history of immigration. Although the St. Patrick’s Day Parade as we know it follows an uptown route along 5th Avenue, the original Irish…
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Kleindeutschland Roundup
…stemming from large-scale Jewish immigration to the area, and the stigma during and after World War I attached to German identity. Remnants of Kleindeutschland can still been seen today in…
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Lost Neighborhoods of New York: Goulash Row
New York is renowned for its vibrant immigrant history, and the many diverse neighborhoods born out of years of heavy immigration in the 19th and early 20th-centuries. But for all…
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New Historic Images Show Italian Immigrant Life in the South Village
…The Saint Raphael Society for the Protection of Italian Immigrants interceded for her with the Labor Department’s Immigration Board, and she was allowed to depart the island March 24, 1911….
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Immigrant Heritage Week
…the buildings and areas and speak with some of the people featured on the tour. GVSHP has written extensively on how immigration has shaped our neighborhoods. Read about the Sullivan-Thompson Historic District-…
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Viewers Choice: Top 5 Village Preservation Program Videos of 2018
…Dr. Tara Rider, presenting on Irish immigration and experiences in New York. This program was held in a partnership with the Merchant’s House Museum. Irish scholar Tara Rider is also…
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Welcome to March! Celebrate Irish Heritage and Women’s History with Village Preservation Programs
…waves of Irish immigration to New York beginning in the 17th-18th century and the ways in which they shaped our city’s history. One central idea throughout Ryder’s talk is the…
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Why Isn’t This Landmarked?: San Isidoro y San Leandro Western Orthodox Catholic Church of the Hispanic Mozarabic Rite
…in America with the immigration of the Eastern Europeans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The see of the Russian Orthodox Church in America was moved from Alaska…
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The Irish Immigrant Community of the Far West Village
…greatly affected its development, the Far West Village. A drawing of Irish immigrants arriving in New York City. The beginnings of what would become a huge wave of Irish immigration…
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13 places in Greenwich Village where the course of history was changed
…booming years of the industrial revolution and mass immigration which followed the Civil War. In Greenwich Village, the Ninth Avenue Elevated ran along Greenwich Street, now considered a quiet picturesque…
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Adaptive Reuse and Two Centuries of History on Glorious Display at 632 on Hudson
…as part of the development of the area. But by at least 1855 No. 632 was operating as a boarding house, as waves of immigration began to wash over the…
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The backstory on backhouses: How NYC’s hidden rear residences came to be
…these were rare, and by far the majority of tenements were not constructed until after the Civil War when immigration to New York City increased exponentially. In this case, based upon…
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15 things you didn’t know about the East Village
…via Village Preservation Waves of immigration to the East Village over 200 years have helped give many churches a multi-faceted and ever-changing kaleidoscope of ethnic identities. For example, St. Ann’s Church at…
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Archive Exploration Made Easy On Our New Website
…what you’re interested in. Many of our subjects are cross-listed; for example, Andrew & Romana Raffetto, owners of Raffetto’s Fresh Pasta can be found under “local business,” “immigration,” “South Village,”…
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(Even More) Artists, Theaters, and Advocates for Civil Rights and Social Justice in Our Neighborhoods
…as immigration changed the neighborhood’s demographics, the church merged with other Presbyterian congregations to remain afloat. Inviting different faiths to rent out space, as well as offering it to various…
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The Village Presbyterian Church Helps Gives Birth to an Off-Broadway Spanish Revolution
…subsequent years, as immigration changed the neighborhood’s demographics, the church merged with other Presbyterian congregations to remain afloat. Inviting different faiths to rent out space, as well as offering it…
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23 LGBT landmarks of the East Village and Noho
…witty rejoinders, such as his response to an American immigration official questioning if he was “a practicing homosexual,” to which he is said to have replied “I don’t need to…
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The social and cultural Puerto Rican history of the East Village
…interventions in Latin America, apartheid in South Africa, and immigration. Much about the area has changed since the project began almost 35 years ago. The buildings are no longer abandoned,…
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Beyond the Village and Back: The Brotherhood Synagogue, 28 Gramercy Park South
…Street, ca. 1903. In the 20th century, as immigration changed the neighborhood’s demographics, the church merged with other Presbyterian congregations to remain afloat. In the 1950s, it would eventually share…
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CITY VOTES UNANIMOUSLY TO LANDMARKFINAL PHASE OF GVSHP’S PROPOSED SOUTH VILLAGE HISTORIC DISTRICT!
…of immigration to this country. The designation of the Sullivan Thompson Historic District brings to over 1,250 the number of buildings GVSHP has helped get landmarked since 2003, including ten…
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When Four “Els” Ran Overhead On Our Streets
…to expand rapidly northward during those booming years of the industrial revolution and mass immigration which followed the Civil War. They also allowed quicker transit above the increasingly congested Lower…
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Development dispute over P.S. 64 in the East Village continues, two decades later
…P.S. 64 was losing population, as was the surrounding neighborhood. Urban renewal, stricter immigration laws, and finally disinvestment and abandonment resulted in a hollowing out of the neighborhood, burnt out…
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The Legacy of Italian-American Entertainment Venues in the South Village
…mosaic of different traditions.” This includes other theaters, also on the Bowery, that hosted theater in Yiddish, German, English, and Italian. “In a period of immigration for the most part…
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The First Library for Women, in Greenwich Village
…a direction. But for working-class and poor women, the stay-at-home model was not an option. This group expanded exponentially during the mid- and late-19th century with the waves of immigration…
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Remembering the worst disaster in NYC maritime history: The sinking of the General Slocum ferry
…was also around the time that Jewish immigration to New York City was peaking. Within a decade or so, nearly all of Kleindeutschland was occupied by Jewish residents; some from…
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400 Years of Hispanic History in Our Neighborhoods
…Bittman Rivas in 1974, the name became official when the city-sanctioned Loisaida Avenue as another name for Avenue C in 1987. By 2000, a surge in immigration and higher birthrates…
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How an East Village building went from gangster hangout to Andy Warhol’s Electric Circus
…most well-heeled residents. But what we today call the East Village did not stay fashionable for long. Massive immigration in the mid-19th century, especially from revolution-wracked Germany, meant by 1850…
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How the Elevated Train and the Streetcar Both Began In Greenwich Village
…revolution and mass immigration which followed the Civil War. It also allowed quicker transit above the increasingly congested Lower Manhattan streets, filled with horses, carts, streetcars, and people. In Greenwich…
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A Tour of Jewish Historic Sites South of Union Square
…Founder’s Hall dormitory at 120 East 12th Street was built in 1847 as part of the 12th Street Baptist Church. With the rapidly shifting currents of immigration sweeping through the…
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The South Village’s Italian Heritage
…and residents. While it is often assumed that Carmine Street’s name relates to the neighborhood’s Italian-American history, in fact the name substantially pre-dates the Italian immigration to the area, and…
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Seized During the Red Scare, This Lefty Archive from Our Neighborhood Is Now Available Online
…Jewish identity in the middle of the twentieth century under the pressures of immigration, revolution, and World War II, to the history of splits and reconfigurations in United States radical…
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New Research on 86 University Place Powers Our Push For Landmark Protections for Greenwich Village and the East Village South of Union Square
…centuries intersects in key ways with New York’s immigration history, Prohibition, and lesbian literary greats, while the building also has one of the most prominent and beautiful cornices anywhere in…
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After Four Year Campaign by Village Preservation, City Agrees to Landmark LGBT Historic Sites
…Historic Places (more about Village Preservation’s efforts to recognize and protect immigration, LGBT, African-American, and countercultural landmarks here). In 2017 Village Preservation also launched an online Civil Rights and Social Justice Map,…
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After Four Year Campaign, City Calendars LGBT Historic Sites in Greenwich Village
…about Village Preservation’s efforts to recognize and protect immigration, LGBT, African-American, and countercultural landmarks here). Read more about Village Preservation’s efforts around LGBT landmarks and history here and here. TO HELP: Urge the Landmarks Preservation…
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AFTER FIVE YEAR CAMPAIGN BY VILLAGE PRESERVATION, CITY LANDMARKS LGBT HISTORIC SITES Sites are City’s First LGBT Landmarks Since Successful 2015 Campaign to Landmark Stonewall Inn
…historic districts and on the State and National Registers of Historic Places (more about Village Preservation’s efforts to recognize and protect immigration, LGBT, African-American, and countercultural landmarks here). In 2017 Village Preservation…
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Looking East from 15 Charlton Street with the corner of Prince and MacDougal Streets in the background.
…The Saint Raphael Society for the Protection of Italian Immigrants interceded for her with the Labor Department’s Immigration Board, and she was allowed to depart the island March 24, 1911….
Posted June 2, 2020
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A Slice of East Village History is Destroyed
…York City’s shipbuilding industry to its transformation into an immigration hub to its rebirth as a haven for artists. Reflecting this history, they have housed merchants affiliated with the shipyards…
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The Villagers of Ellis Island: A Walking Tour of Ellis Island with Tom Bernardin
…In many cases, they came through Ellis Island, the long-acknowledged immigration hub of the United States. Join Tom Bernardin, former National Park Service Ellis Island ranger at pre-restoration Ellis Island…
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Jews: A People’s History of the Lower East Side
…immigration to Manhattan’s Lower East Side, this 3-volume collection covers art, literature, food, religion, and so much more. Topics slated for discussion include: the disappearing Jewish Lower East Side, the…
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When the Village was Red: Celebrating the Legacy of the Paris Commune in our Neighborhoods
…of New York’s “bohemia,” and was teeming with multicultural communities. Other waves of immigration had created ethnic enclaves downtown, including the German community of Kleindeutschland and the Irish neighborhood of Five Points. In…
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The Meat Markets of the South Village
…influence that Italian culture and immigration has had on our neighborhoods. This is especially true in the South Village, an area which in the early 1900s was a predominantly Italian neighborhood, and…
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We’re Hiring Educators for Our Children’s Education Program
…from teaching the basics about architecture and the built environment to curricula focused on immigration history in NYC and African American history. Do you know a hands-on educator who is…
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Village Preservation’s ‘Quixotic’ Brush with the Brewing Arts
…mid-1800s, when a surge in immigration transformed the portion of the Lower East Side now known as the East Village into a German-speaking enclave. The area’s new residents brought with…
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Exploring Women’s History South of Union Square
…City after her minister father passed away in 1924, Lee’s importance to the suffrage and immigration movements cannot be understated, even though it remains uncertain whether she ever became an…
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Hidden in Plain Sight: A Painted Sign Uncovers History on 13th Street
…the East Village, as the area has a rich history of Ukrainian immigration and related cultural institutions and businesses. In fact, we have a whole tour via our East Village…
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Let Them Eat Pie!
…Alicia Walter will demonstrate how three pies are made, while Historic Gastronomist Sarah Lohman and Walter discuss the history of pie in America, and how new waves of immigration played…
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The First Red Scare Comes to Town: the 1919 IWW Headquarters Raid
…historical developments leading up to the 1919 raid. Domestically, the start of the twentieth century saw a growing anti-immigration sentiment, agitation by labor movements for better working conditions, and fears…
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Hidden in Plain Sight: Named Buildings Edition
…its walls. Many are up to 200 years old or older, and have borne witness to generations of immigration, political change, and cultural evolution. If you learn how to interpret…
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The Italian Cafés of the South Village
October is Italian American History and Heritage month, and it is impossible to deny the influence that Italian culture and immigration has had on our neighborhoods. This is especially true…
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