On August 2, 1962, a group of concerned citizens protested in front of Pennsylvania Station, the McKim, Mead, and White Beaux Art structure in pink granite that spanned two full city blocks. The impending demolition of this historic structure was opposed by leading architects, artists, and critics, including Philip Johnson, Aline Saarinen, and Villagers Eleanor […]
It’s the dog days of summer here in New York City, so here at Off the Grid we thought we would share some “cool” images from the GVSHP archive.
One of the most frequent questions we get at GVSHP is where to find historic photographs. We have focused on this topic before here at Off the Grid, but the newly created online gallery at the New York City Municipal Archives is such an excellent resource, we thought it deserved another look.
The Atlantic Cities featured an article called “A Brief History of NYU Land Battles” on its site this past Tuesday, before the City Council Land Use Committee voted nearly unanimously to approve a slightly modified version of NYU’s massive proposed Village expansion plan. The article details the history of four different university developments the Greenwich […]
As Off the Grid chronicled last year, today is the anniversary of New York City’s draft riots, five days of rioting, looting, burning, and wanton violence that erupted after the Federal government instituted the Draft Act of 1863, the first instance of compulsory service in the federal military services. The riots began on July 13, […]
This week, the Fourth of July holiday has us here at Off the Grid thinking about the connections the Village has to the Revolutionary War. While the Village remained a pastoral suburb of the city proper during the war, there are some reminders of the fight for independence in the neighborhood.
Off the Grid recently reported on how St. Mark’s Bookshop, the beloved independent bookshop in the East Village that won a GVSHP Village Award in 2007, was able to successfully renegotiate their lease after falling sales left the store struggling to make ends meet. Now that St. Mark’s has a new lease, they are getting […]
Two years ago today, the Greenwich Village Historic District Extension II, or what GVSHP terms the South Village Phase I District, was designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. It seems that come this time in June, many new landmark districts are born.
On Thursday, June 7, GVSHP presented its 32nd Annual Meeting and 2012 Village Awards. The 2012 Awardees and a full recap are all featured on Off The Grid. Be sure to read all about it. Not able to join us? You can check out pictures and a portion of the presentation from the event below […]
Last evening, 400 guests celebrated the accomplishments of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and eight Village businesses, people, and organizations at GVSHP’s Annual Meeting at The New School’s Tishman Auditorium.
Completed in the spring of this year, the spectacular renovation of the small park at the corner of Bleecker and West 11th streets was the result of a true community effort. The renovation would not have become a reality without the advocacy and action of Village resident Clifford Ross, the receptiveness of the Parks Department, […]
Fourth generation Lower East Side resident Eric Ferrara has always been interested in the history of his community. In 2003, he made his commitment to researching, documenting, and preserving the history of the neighborhood official by founding what is now the Lower East Side History Project. The project will be presented with a 2012 Village […]
Arturo’s, best known for its delicious coal-oven pizza, first opened on MacDougal Street in 1957 before moving to its current location on Houston and Thompson Streets in the early sixties. Their delicious food and family atmosphere have made it a popular destination in the Italian South Village for many years. Please join us as we […]
Foods of New York Tours was unofficially launched in 1998 by Todd Lefkovic, a New Jersey native who started coming to the Village in 1977. What began as a sideline job for Todd giving food tours of the Village to New Yorkers on Saturday afternoons has grown to become a successful business with seventeen employees […]
Educator, psychologist, and reformer Elisabeth Irwin founded the Little Red School House, an experimental curriculum within PS 61 in the Village, ninety years ago. While the school has grown over the years—it now offers a pre-kindergarten through High School education — it continues its progressive curriculum of social justice, active citizenship, and community service. The […]
The many community gardens of New York City were developed as the City tore down abandoned buildings in some of the worst neighborhoods and the community worked together to reclaim these blighted spaces. While the history of the 6th Street and Avenue B Garden closely follows this narrative, the current efforts of the garden to […]
It is hard to imagine East 10th and Stuyvesant Streets today without thinking about neighborhood resident and activist Marilyn Appleberg. Marilyn has worked tirelessly as an advocate for the blocks since she moved to the neighborhood in 1969. In recognition of her service, Marilyn will be presented with a 2012 Village Award, which will be […]
Recently, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and American Express announced 40 preservation projects in the running for grants through their annual Partners in Preservation program. This program seeks to increase the public’s awareness of the importance of historic preservation, and this year it’s focusing on preservation in New York City. From April 26 through […]
On Thursday, June 7th, eight Village businesses, people, and institutions will be presented a Village Award by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.We received hundreds of nominations, and the winners are ….
Last week, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and American Express revealed 40 preservation projects up for grants through their annual Partners in Preservation program. This program seeks to increase the public’s awareness of the importance of historic preservation. This year, the program is focusing on preservation in New York City. From April 26 through […]
On Sunday, May 6, GVSHP will present its 14th Annual Village House Tour, a benefit that raises funds to support our work to educate about and advocate for the preservation of the distinctive character and irreplaceable architecture of our neighborhoods. This year, six homeowners in Greenwich Village will open their doors for the tour.
Any restoration of a historic site within our neighborhoods is exciting. But when that project is a stone’s throw away from our office space at the Neighborhood Preservation Center, we get a little giddy. Not surprisingly, we have been thrilled to watch the progress unfold on the restoration of the West Yard Arch project.
This spring, Greenwich Village business Your Neighborhood Office was named best “doorman substitute” in 2012 by New York Magazine. We hate to say I told you so, but . . . we here at GVSHP have known the folks at YNO are the “best of” for quite some time. GVSHP gave Your Neighborhood Office an […]
This Sunday, March 25, marks the 101st Anniversary of the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. The 1911 fire took the lives of 146 workers, mostly immigrant women, inspiring the young labor movement and precipitating new worker safety regulations across the country.
With St. Patrick’s Day just this past Saturday, we thought we would take a look at two seminal Irish institutions in Greenwich Village, The University Parish of St. Joseph’s and the Church of St. Veronica-In-the-Village. Both churches were built to accommodate increasing Catholic immigrant populations in the neighborhood, particularly the Irish laborers who began populating […]
Forty-four years ago today, music promoter Bill Graham opened the Fillmore East at 105 Second Avenue. This 2,600 seat venue hosted concerts from 1968 to 1971, including performances by the Allman Brothers Band, the Who, and the Doors. The venue was known for launching many seminal bands of the era, and because of its excellent […]
For historic preservationists, who often use the built environment as a major source of information about a community’s past, the hardest stories to capture are those where the physical trace no longer remains. We can find evidence of the many communities that have called the Village home over the years in the built fabric of […]
Last year, Off the Grid featured a look at some of the Village’s more specialized bookshops, including shops featuring cookbooks, comics, and mystery books. If you didn’t catch it, be sure to take a look. With so many independent bookstores to cover, this time around, we thought we would explore some of the neighborhood’s all-genre […]
Walking west along Charles Street, it is hard to imagine 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 Warren. The Warren estate survived on this site, although altered in form, until the mid-1860s. […]
A recent inquiry by a researcher looking to document the emerging folk scene in the Village had me looking through the archive of Robert Otter, a photographer who captured the Village’s vibrant and bohemian character from 1960 to 1972. I was happy to spend time looking through these photographs. Indeed, the image “Barefoot in Washington […]
Last week, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to landmark East 10th Street, from Avenue A to Avenue B. So we thought we would welcome our newest district with a quick overview. Learn more about GVSHP’s efforts to landmark this district.
In an earlier post we cleared up some common misconceptions about landmarking, one of which is the notion that landmarking “freezes a building in time.” Every Tuesday the Landmarks Preservation Commission meets to review and work with architects on major alterations to historic buildings. We find it especially gratifying to see creative conversions that satisfy […]
It is hard to imagine Bleecker Street, with its high fashion boutiques, small businesses, cafes, and food shops as farmland, but then again it is hard to visualize any part of Manhattan in its rural state. Bleecker Street’s provenance is that of the Bleecker family, prominent New York City citizens who owned farmland in the […]
Today we are thrilled to welcome Amanda Davis – our new Director of Preservation and Research – to the Village Preservation team! Among many others, Amanda’s projects will include design review for projects in our historic districts, historic buildings research for undocumented buildings, and attending public hearings and community meetings on behalf of Village Preservation. […]
61 Washington Square South, before it was demolished in 1948, was known as the House of Genius, part of the so-called genius row named for the artists and writers who made the red brick houses between West Broadway (now LaGuardia Place) and Thompson Street home for the latter half of the twentieth century. Number 61 […]
We often receive research requests here at GVSHP that ask a very particular question about a particular address in one of the Village historic districts. So when we received a request about 57 Great Jones Street, part of the NoHo Historic District Extension, we turned our questioner straight to the historic district report. But sometimes, […]
Anthony Amato, the founder and artistic director of the Amato Opera, died last Tuesday at the age of 91. Through his company, Anthony Amato created a home for opera within the Village’s larger theater scene, forging a role for the immigrant community’s contribution to the arts and culture of the neighborhood. Anthony and his wife […]
The settling in of cold weather has us here at GVSHP feeling a little nostalgic for snowfalls past. Images from the GVSHP archive of Washington Square Park covered in snow offer the perfect solution.
Chances are you are familiar with the timeless Christmas special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which has played on television every holiday season since it first aired in 1964 on the General Electric Fantasy Hour on NBC. But what you might not know is the role Greenwich Village played in the creation of this holiday classic.
City Council Member Rosie Mendez recognized the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation in its thirtieth anniversary year by proclaiming December 2, 2010 as Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation Day in New York City. Looking back, we are still quite honored. You can read the full citation below.
Anarchist and revolutionary thinker Emma Goldman, known for her political activism, writing, and speeches, can claim East 13th as her home in the early twentieth century. Goldman was known for supporting a wide-range of controversial causes, including free speech, birth control, women’s equality, union organization, and workers’ rights. She was considered, by the Federal Bureau […]
Thanksgiving has been an unofficial tradition in the US since settlers first came here, an unofficial holiday since 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln declared a national day of giving thanks in the midst of the Civil War, and an official one beginning in 1942. Many different traditions have sprung up around this holiday, but have […]
Villager’s often point to the neighborhood’s low scale buildings and meandering, off-the-grid street pattern as one of the many factors that make the Village so special. I have to admit, I have a love/hate relationship with the Village’s off-kilter streets. But then again, I get lost with a map. Prior to 2005 (the year I […]
The New York Public Library, whose digital gallery we here at Village Preservation turn to quite frequently when looking for images to assist in our own research, recently included an article in their November newsletter entitled “Who Lived in a House Like This?” with tips on researching the social history of your home and neighborhood. […]
As GVSHP gears up for our benefit evening Much Ado About Noshing this evening with Village writer Calvin Trillin and two generations of the Russ & Daughters family, we decided to revisit our roots and explore the history of 179 East Houston Street, the building owned by the beloved appetizing store. Russ & Daughters has been […]
With GVSHP’s office located on the corner of 2nd Avenue and East 11th Street, staff are very familiar with Veselka, the Ukrainian restaurant/diner on 2nd Avenue and East 9th Street. (Besides, Veselka was a recipient of a Village Award in 2010, and we love our Village Award winners.) On Wednesday night staff enjoyed a preview […]
With today being Halloween, we thought we would take a look at … dead bodies in the Village! You can tune out the ominous laughter you may be hearing right about now, today’s post is actually about some fabulous historic cemeteries in the East and West Village.
It seems you can’t miss Murray’s Cheese, the well-known South Village shop devoted to all things cheese, these days. They were recently featured in the New York Times and the food blog Eater, all for what Villagers have known for a long time: Murray’s is a true Village treasure. The Greenwich Village Society awarded the […]
CBGB, the legendary rock club on the Bowery and Bleecker closed its doors on October 15, 2006, due to lease issues, 33 years after it opened. The last evening at CBGB’s featured a headline set by Patti Smith, an unforgettable evening outlined by one fan in a recent blog post.
As GVSHP announced on its blog last Thursday, we will be hosting a fundraiser in November featuring our own Greenwich Village writer Calvin Trillin, and the 98-year-old appetizing store Russ & Daughters. The event is taking place at Astor Center, the food and wine educational center connected to Astor Wines & Spirits. We thought we […]
Recent press has spotlighted a lease negotiation between St. Mark’s Bookshop, the independent bookstore on Third Avenue between 8th and 9th Streets and its lease holder, the Cooper Union. St. Mark’s Bookshop won a 2007 Village Award for providing specialized titles in a community-friendly atmosphere for over thirty years. As one of our truly special […]
As our program schedule attests, we here at GVSHP love a good renovation story. So we were delighted when our friends over at the Merchant’s House Museum sent us pictures of their de-plastered wall, part of a $598,000 structural restoration project the museum is currently working on. What’s even better than a restoration story? For […]
We love receiving research queries here at GVSHP, but never more so than when the person asking the question has something to tell us. So we were quite pleased to receive an inquiry from a curator at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, who wanted to know the history of […]
This Monday most of us will be enjoying a day off, celebrating the last unofficial (long) weekend of summer. This well-deserved holiday makes it a little hard to remember that Labor Day became a national holiday because of labor unions, who have fought for many years on behalf of working people. In the spirit of […]
This weekend, tour guide Lawrence Frommer and Fourth Arts Block executive director Tamara Greenfield led a tour of East 4th Street between the Bowery and 2nd Avenue for GVSHP. (Want to hear in advance about GVSHP’s free lecture and tour series? Sign up for our monthly event emails.) The tour provided an overview of Fourth […]
The term adaptive reuse is used by architects and preservationists to describe the process of adapting old structures for purposes other than those initially intended. Villagers are familiar with the Jefferson Market Library’s former history as a courthouse, the Public Theater on Lafayette Street whose building began its life as the Astor Library, or Westbeth, […]
Sometimes determining the provenance of a street’s name is fairly easy. It is true for Bank Street in Greenwich Village, which was named for … you guessed it … a branch of the Bank of New York, which located to the area during New York’s first yellow fever epidemic in 1799. Today we will look […]
As recent news about the painting over of the sign for the Fat Black Pussy Cat on Minetta Street can attest, historic signs add an important dimension to how we view our built environment, advertising our beloved owner-operated businesses and reminding us of some long lost, but well-remembered icons from the past. Illuminated signs seem […]
On July 13, 1863 began several days of violence in New York City known as the Draft Riots. These civil disturbances rocked New York City and revealed a deep racial and class divide that existed in New York City in 1863, one that was particularly visible in the Far West and South Village.
While Greenwich Village will always be equated with the Gay Rights Movement, particularly for its role in the series of protests at the Stonewall Inn in 1969, the East Village is also known for pushing the envelope for gay culture. And no establishment played a bigger role in that process than the Pyramid Club, located […]
View A Guide to Lesbian & Gay New York Historical Landmarks in a larger map The Village erupted in riotous celebrations this past weekend at the news of passage of marriage equality legislation, which carried over into the annual Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride March that ends in Greenwich Village. Of course the Village […]
While many of our 2011 Village Awardees are located within NYC historic districts, the Church of the Ascension holds the distinction of our only awardee this year that is listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places. The Church recently completed a painstaking and spectacular restoration of the interior of its nave, for […]
Over the many years GVSHP has presented the Village Awards, awardees have often been praised for their longevity. Though in rare cases, a newly established organization or business will stand out as a worthy recipient. Such is the case for the Le Poisson Rouge, which opened in 2008 and is thus a relative newcomer […]
McNulty’s Tea & Coffee Company at 109 Christopher Street is a part of a long tradition of Village specialty shops that hint at a time before grocery stores, when shoppers would buy bread from the bakery, meat from the butcher, and fruits and vegetables from pushcarts or small produce markets. For over 115 years, McNulty’s […]
Did you know that Manhattan’s only designated cultural district is right here in the East Village? The Fourth Arts Block (FAB) will be one of eight recipients of a 2011 Village Award, which will be presented at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation’s Annual Meeting on Monday, June 13th. FAB is being given the […]
In these modern times, it’s hard to imagine that there could be a metal foundry located on the very residential Jane Street. Well, there is, though it’s hardly a recent addition to the block. Numbers #21-25 Jane Street is home to P.E. Guerin, which has been around for 119 years (!) and is one of […]
When former South Village resident Josette Lee emailed GVSHP a picture of her Dad from the 1970’s standing in front of two pushcarts located on Bleecker Street, we became as curious as she was about when exactly such carts disappeared from the South Village.
Nat Kaufman was a Villager and a member of the Village Camera Club. This image of a man with a baby carriage at the Annual Washington Square Art won a prize sponsored by the Art Show and Camera Club. While not the biggest image collection in the GVSHP Preservation Archive and Oral History Project, the […]
When the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition asked the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation for help locating original building files for the Brown Building at 23-29 Washington Place, the site of the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in 1911, we knew exactly where to look. The New York City Department of Records (aka Municipal […]