…the 1963 Demolition of Penn Station Preservation Before Penn Station’s Demolition Interior, Pennsylvania Station In addition to writing about the lost station, the GVSHP Image Archive has many pictures from…
Read MorePreservation before the Demolition of Penn Station: A Panel Discussion 2013 Program Series: Fifty Years since the Demolition of Penn Station Fifty years ago, New York suffered one of its…
Read More7th Avenue & 32nd Street facade of Penn Station, undergoing demolition from the Village Preservation (GVSHP) Image Archive, Ca. 1963. On August 2, 1962 a protest took place that reverberated…
Read MorePreservation after the Demolition of Penn Station: A Panel Discussion 2013 Program Series: Fifty Years since the Demolition of Penn Station Fifty years ago, New York suffered one of its…
Read MoreLast night, GVSHP and our co-sponsor, New York Preservation Archive Project, hosted a panel discussion on the subject of the preservation movement following the demolition of the old Penn Station….
Read MoreJane Jacobs (second from left) protesting in front of Penn Station This month was the 60th anniversary of the protests against the planned demolition of Pennsylvania Station, led by preservationists,…
Read MoreArchitect Philip Johnson and Aline Saarinen, among many others, march in protest of the impending demolition of Penn Station. Common lore has it that the demolition of Penn Station fifty…
Read More…and ‘Save Penn Station.’ (Photo by Walter Daran/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) On August 2, 1962, a group of concerned citizens protested in front of Pennsylvania Station, the McKim, Mead, and White…
Read More…York decision supported the city’s relatively new landmarks law, and saved Grand Central Terminal from the wrecking ball. Coming just fifteen years after the demolition of Penn Station, it was…
Read MoreA “tile caption” at the IND West 4th Street station, via GeneralPunger/WikiMedia Riding the A train from Upper Manhattan to Greenwich Village means passing a lot of stations named after…
Read More…converge at the Second Avenue station. While the Second Avenue station was completed in 1936, neither of these lines were ever built, but remnants of them exist within the station. …
Read More…a part. Our oral history with Penny was launched with the Village Preservation program “Penny Arcade Herself, Celebrating Her Village Preservation Oral History.” Penny Arcade, also known as “Queen of…
Read MoreLast week, amid the news of an added connection between the Broadway-Lafayette and Bleecker Street subway stations, we offered you the history of the Bleecker Street station, which is listed…
Read More…ground between the Broadway-Lafayette and Bleecker Street stations, capped by an extra MetroCard swipe.” The new honeycomb color-changing lights of the revamped Bleecker Street station. This decades-old inconvenience ends today. …
Read More…yet, though. Penny Arcade with Patti Smith and Jackie Curtis in the East Village Penny Arcade On the Road Penny became involved with the Playhouse of the Ridiculous and traveled…
Read More…could find no better destination than our March 2022 Business of the Month, Stevdan Stationers (473 6th Avenue @ 12th Street), your neighborhood source for stationery, fine and every day…
Read More…exterior of the gas station was featured in a 1983 Pee-Wee Herman skit where the station became his lemonade stand. Many gas stations sprouted up along 7th Avenue South in…
Read More…here. Bleecker Street Station Located one station downtown from Astor Place station, the Bleecker Street stop shares many features with its uptown sibling: an original 1904 IRT station with bright…
Read MorePenny Jones has been creating puppets since the 1950s. Image courtesy of Penny Jones & Co. Puppets. We here at Off the Grid have often explored the history of the…
Read More…columns which delineate the corner bays. Cooper Station Post Office (built 1943) The Cooper Station Post Office was listed on the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places…
Read MorePenn Station being demolished, 33rd Street & 7th Avenue, ca. 1963. From Village Preservation’s Historic Image Archive, photograph by Carole Teller. By the time the demolition of McKim, Mead &…
Read More…Station: A Symbol of What Can Happen if Historic Sites Aren’t Protected Pennsylvania Station The origins of the New York City Landmarks Law are often attributed to the loss of…
Read More…the differences between state and local landmarks. The Demolition of Penn Station: A Symbol of What Can Happen if Historic Sites Aren’t Protected Pennsylvania Station The origins of the New…
Read MorePenny Arcade Penny Arcade has been living the bohemian life in New York City, and making art about it, on and off for more than four decades. She says she…
Read More…Penny Arcade and Lenny Kaye recount their memories of the Village, from Penny’s wonderment as she first set eyes on it as a sixteen-year-old, to Lenny’s description of walking through…
Read MoreSubstation 235 at Greenwich Avenue and Horatio Street in 1933. Image via NYPL. The familiar view above, taken in 1933, looks north on Greenwich Avenue (at Horatio Street) toward 14th…
Read MorePenny Arcade Herself, Celebrating her Village Preservation Oral History Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. Since first climbing out of her bedroom window at age 14…
Read More…big cities function. But, many don’t realize that she hailed from Scranton, Pennsylvania, or understand how her hometown helped form her and her ideas about cities and their communities, including…
Read MoreCooper Station Post Office, 101-111 East 11th Street/93 Fourth Avenue. The two-story Cooper Station Post Office was designed by Louis A. Simon in 1936-37 for the Works Progress Administration in…
Read More…a temporary World Trade Center station in November 2003 lessened crowding and the need for new entrances at the Village stations. NYC Subway The last station to enter service on…
Read MoreWelcome to art underground, beneath the very streets of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo! We will be looking in (virtually) on nine different subway stations through photographs and…
Read MoreThe oral history with this icon of the Downtown arts scene and “Queen of the Underground” (b. 1950) covers her life in New York City since leaving home as a…
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Professional photographer Robert A. Ripps took these images of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and of Ground Zero and its surroundings in the days and weeks following…
Posted September 8, 2021
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Tribeca resident Richard Corman documented the horrific destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, from his roof at 335 Greenwich Street, and the surrounding area in the…
Posted September 8, 2021
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Professional photographer Robert A. Ripps took these images of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and of Ground Zero and its surroundings in the days and weeks following…
Posted September 8, 2021
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Professional photographer Robert A. Ripps took these images of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and of Ground Zero and its surroundings in the days and weeks following…
Posted September 8, 2021
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In the months following the destruction of the World Trade Center and on each anniversary of 9/11, crowds gathered at the West Side Highway and Christopher Street to support the…
Posted May 9, 2021
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Given that there is an advertisement for the movie “Laura” in the background, it is likely this photo dates to 1944. There are also advertisements for the re-election of Assemblymember…
Posted September 14, 2020
Read More…changes removed virtually all of the station’s original details. By the 1990s the Union Square station was yet again in need of renovation. The station’s rehab was spearheaded by architect…
Read More…Street Congregation Beth Hamedrash NYC LPC Designation Report Cooper Station Post Office, 93 Fourth Avenue Cooper Station Post Office State and National Register Report Cooper Station Post Office State…
Read More…since that fateful time of the demolition of Pennsylvania Railroad Station 50 years ago, which will focus on how each administration, and each Landmarks Preservation Commission, handled the preservation challenges…
Read More…of NYC Landmarks 50 to see more. Demolition of Penn Station 1966 source: www.nydailynews.com We have written in the past here on Off the Grid about the demolition of the…
Read More…battle extended until 1978. Opened in 1913, by the late 1950s the station was in serious decline. Following the great cultural and architectural loss of Penn Station, the LPC landmarked…
Read More…of the Astor Library. The LPC had only been created months before, in April, in response to the destruction of the original Pennsylvania Station. In fact, the demolition of this…
Read More…replacing them. 1963: American writer Jane Jacobs (L) and architect Philip Johnson (R) stand with picketing crowds outside Penn Station to protest the building’s demolition, New York City. Placards read:…
Read More…was signed into law on April 19, 1965, by Mayor Robert Wagner after much work by early preservationists, motivated in part by the demolition of the original Penn Station. Demolition…
Read More…demolished 1966 for 1 Pace Plaza © Village Preservation/Carole Teller Penn Station being demolished © Village Preservation/Carole Teller Loew’s Avenue B Theater, 62-66 Avenue B, southwest corner of 5th Street; demolished…
Read MoreOn April 19, 1965, New York City passed its landmarks law. While credit for passage of this law is often attributed to the demolition of Penn Station, the tragic loss…
Read More…at the proposed demolition of Penn Station. This organization had noteworthy voices such as Mies Van Der Rohe and Jane Jacobs on their side. The group’s leadership also included post-modern…
Read More…the demolition of Pennsylvania Station, the McKim, Mead & White masterpiece that still haunts the city’s memory. The obliteration of Penn Station was the most dramatic example of a process…
Read More…demolition of the old Penn Station, was the fight to preserve the Jefferson Market Courthouse/now Library (1876) at 6th Avenue and 10th Street, which was slated for demolition. This photo of…
Read More…the city’s more notable white elephants, fated to go the way of Penn Station and the Brokaw mansion”, in the words of well-known critic Ada Louise Huxtable in a fascinating…
Read More…to the Landmarks Law, held at Penn Station. In the foreground are Alice Sachs and Ray Rubinow, both of whom protested against demolition of the original Penn Station in August…
Read More…the right, the owners recognized that they had created a distinctly new building that uniquely responded to its historic surroundings—though we can’t agree that it makes losing Penn Station any…
Read More…1971. (Clockwise from upper l.) Judson Memorial Church, the Cable Building, the Bowery Savings Bank, Washington Square Arch, Penn Station Of course it’s not uncommon for artists and innovators of…
Read More…houses the renowned Theater for the New City. COOPER STATION POST OFFICE The historic Cooper Station post office at Fourth Avenue and 11th Street (originally known as Station ‘D’) was…
Read MorePhoto via pennyarcade.tv. Penny Arcade has been living the bohemian life in New York City, and making art about it, on and off for more than four decades. She says…
Read More…Biography Project. This event is for GVSHP members only. Listen to Penny Arcade and Lenny Kaye recount their memories of the Village, from Penny’s wonderment as she first set eyes…
Read More…designation report). Cooper Station Post Office site prior to construction, NYPL Cooper Station Post Office The East Village is still woefully under-landmarked, and the loss of Nos. 112-120 East…
Read More…Commissioner for the City of New York Police Board from 1895-97. The 9th Police Precinct Station House, located at 131-137 Charles Street and pictured above, was the first station house…
Read More…to that year, the corner six-bay building was demolished for a gas station (the information on the NYPL photo card notes “the new gas station“). The photo above indicates that…
Read More…were later replaced by a ranger station, the park police station, and the first-aid station. An eastern portion of the beach pavilion is currently used to house lifeguards from the…
Read More…Penn Station. He was also raised at 118 East 10th Street in the East Village’s ‘Renwick Triangle’ in the St. Mark’s Historic District, so we consider him a bit of…
Read More…star in the American army during WWII. He was involved in a variety of preservation efforts including Penn Station and Grand Central Station. Learn more about early preservation history here….
Read More…the Christopher Street-Sheridan Square station. The next stop on our tour of subway art in the Village brings us to the 14th Street station at 8th Avenue where one of…
Read More…Charles Street and pictured below, was the first station house in the city to be built during his tenure with the police department. The station house was designated as part…
Read More…parking lot site on East 5th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues. It also involves a promise to “explore” affordable housing development opportunities on the site of the Cooper Station…
Read More…the original ceramic patterns of 1904 station mosaics—and made installations at the station’s underground level. To learn more about the history and architecture of the Astor Place station, click here….
Read More…of the Astor Place Subway Station (due to MTA film and television rules, the interior scenes were taken in the abandoned Eastbound platform within the Bowery station). The real-life station…
Read More…parking lot site on East 5th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues. It also involves a promise to “explore” affordable housing development opportunities on the site of the Cooper Station…
Read More321-323 East 5th Street in the East Village Since 1912, this site has served as a police station for the NYPD (it replaced a 19th century stable and feed store)….
Read More…W.P.A.’s efforts throughout the Village and East Village. Cooper Station Post Office (built 1937) One is the Cooper Station Post Office at 93 4th Avenue (corner of East 11th Street)….
Read More…Graffiti and advertisements, yes, but that’s not the kind of art we’re talking about. The stations themselves were built with art. The tiles may be crumbling, but the artisanship of…
Read MoreClick for larger image. Photo by GVSHP. Since 1912, this site has served as a station house for the NYPD (it replaced a 19th century stable and feed store). Originally…
Read More…served as a police station for the NYPD (it replaced a 19th century stable and feed store). Originally known as the 15th Precinct Police Station, it became the 9th Precinct…
Read More…in police custody after his arrest at the First Avenue and 14th Street L subway station. Basquiat, whose parents hailed from Haiti and Puerto Rico, was also one of the…
Read More…1965), the Astor Library had become “one of the city’s more notable white elephants, fated to go the way of Penn Station and the Brokaw mansion,” in the words of…
Read More…in the fortunes of the city’s historic heritage. Just a few short years after the loss of the original Penn Station, Papp’s vision to breathe new life into an aging…
Read More…completed in 1900 and designed by Stanford White of the firm of McKim, Mead, and White, which also designed Columbia University and Penn Station, among many other great New York…
Read More…and Robeson were unable to find a landlord willing to rent them an apartment in Greenwich Village, and he would have to travel to Penn Station or even Harlem to find…
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