John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette met, fell in love, and tragically died within a span of a decade. The two had a love story that captivated a nation…and the press. But their history and connection to New York were far greater than tabloid fodder. Behind the glamour, charm, and politics were two people, […]
In the 1930s and 1940s, Greenwich Village was one of New York City’s most vibrant centers of jazz. Small clubs lined the streets, especially along Seventh Avenue South, where musicians and audiences gathered late into the night to hear a sound that was reshaping American music. Among the artists who performed in these rooms, few […]
Historic plaques can be a wonderful way to educate the public about the remarkable history of our neighborhoods, and the incredible events, people, and movements connected to sites all around us. Village Preservation has unveiled two plaques every year at buildings of historic significance in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo since we launched […]
Your input is needed! Today we feature our latest Business of the Month — help us to select the next. Tell us which independent store you love in Greenwich Village, the East Village, or NoHo: click here to nominate your favorite. Want to help support small businesses? Share this post with friends. For centuries, socks were a hand-knitted luxury available […]
Village Preservation regularly works to recognize the many women who shaped our communities, culture, and struggles for equality. Few places in New York contain as many layers of women’s history as the area south of Union Square, where Greenwich Village and the East Village meet. Village Preservation has long advocated for landmark protections for this […]
March is Women’s History Month, and while we celebrate women’s history all year, we do so especially during this particular month when we highlight the countless women of our neighborhoods who have fought tirelessly and courageously for equality, justice, and opportunity in our nation. It is the perfect time to remember that we are continuing […]
Downtown was a short-lived end-of-the-millennium animated series centered around a group of teens and twenty-somethings living and hanging out in lower Manhattan. Only lasting for one season, the show’s thirteen episodes aired on MTV from August to November 1999. Although a cartoon, the show feels realistic, as its characters are drawn from interviews with real people, and […]
A large section of our Village Preservation Oral History Collection focuses on Preservation History, and a majority of these preservationists are women. These women didn’t just save buildings, they saved community and sense of place and purpose. Today we focus on four pioneering women whose legacies continue to protect the character of our neighborhoods. Margot […]
This March, Village Preservation presents a dynamic slate of public programs that embody two defining themes: Women’s History Month and our 2026 Semiquincentennial series, “The Revolutionary Village.” From grassroots activism and immigrant narratives, to music, architecture, and civic engagement, this month’s events explore how the people of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo have […]
One of Village Preservation’s most beloved traditions is our Annual Meeting and Village Awards, at which we celebrate our achievements of the past year and honor invaluable leaders, institutions, businesses, places, and organizations in our neighborhoods. Fondly referred to as the “Oscars of the Village,” these awards showcase the remarkable people and places that have […]
Black history in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo is not abstract. It is tied to specific buildings, specific addresses, and specific institutions that helped shape the course of American history. Two of the most powerful examples are the African Free School in Greenwich Village and the NAACP’s national headquarters at 70 Fifth Avenue. […]
At the corner of Second Avenue and East 12th Street stands a neighborhood staple, and one of New York’s rare interior landmarks. At 181-189 Second Avenue, the Village East by Angelika movie theater opened in 2021, but its history long predates that. With the help of our East Village Building Blocks webpage and the Landmarks […]
The stories of Black New Yorkers are deeply woven into the history of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo. From early community institutions and cultural leaders to activists who reshaped American society, these neighborhoods have long been places of creativity, resistance, and reform. To help make these histories visible and accessible, Village Preservation has […]
Your input is needed! Today we feature our latest Business of the Month — help us to select the next. Tell us which independent store you love in Greenwich Village, the East Village, or NoHo: click here to nominate your favorite. Want to help support small businesses? Share this post with friends. If you want to check out a vast […]
An exciting feature of Village Preservation’s extensive Historic Image Archive is the ability to filter images by category, or “tag.” We have painstakingly tagged every single one of our more than 5,000 historic photographs (an ever-growing number), so that users can easily view images organized by their interests. Today, we will be using the “winter” tag […]
It’s no secret that we love Greenwich Village around here (along with the East Village and NoHo, of course!). And what’s not to love? The neighborhood is full of architectural beauty, cultural innovation, so many places where history was made… and a whole lot of integrity thanks to its landmark designations and the countless individuals […]
In celebration of Black History Month, and in recognition of the often-overlooked figures in our collective story, today we take a look at the life and work of a few of the incredible Black women who have called our neighborhood home. Whether activists, artists, or teachers, these women’s legacies have impacted the course of history […]
February is Black History Month. At Village Preservation, we celebrate it by highlighting not only the many sites of significance to the African-American community within our neighborhoods, but also the neighbors who have helped shape our history and local culture. Our series of oral histories seeks to capture their legacies and tell their stories. Today, […]
Each year, Village Preservation honors and celebrates the invaluable people, places, and organizations that make our neighborhoods some of the most interesting and exceptional in the city. In 2016, Village Preservation (then GVSHP) gathered at The New School for our 26th Annual Village Awards. Ten years later, New York City has changed but the legacy of […]
As the United States celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding in 1776, Village Preservation’s “Revolutionary Village” initiative asks us to consider revolution not as a single historical moment, but as an ongoing process rooted in ideas, dissent, and the persistent reimagining of democracy. Few figures embody that tradition more powerfully than Thomas Paine, born […]
Village Preservation recently released a revamped and updated version of our Greenwich Village Historic District Virtual Maps. Originally created in 2019 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Greenwich Village Historic District, the map includes Then & Now Photographs of the entire district, and a number of thematic tours of sites around the neighborhood. In honor of Black History Month […]
The lack of affordable housing is a complex problem. And every complex problem, as the saying goes, has an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. In this instance, free market fundamentalism has long provided one such answer — the notion that invisible economic forces will solve affordable housing crises, if we only step aside, […]
Electric Lady Studios exists because Jimi Hendrix refused to rush inspiration. In 1968, frustrated by expensive studio time and rigid schedules, Hendrix purchased the failing Generation Club at 52 West 8th Street in Greenwich Village. His vision was radical and simple: a place where musicians could work without watching the clock, that felt alive. Working […]
Elizabeth Blackwell (February 3, 1821–May 31, 1910) was the first woman in the United States to receive a medical degree and was a pioneering figure whose work reshaped both medicine and the social history of our neighborhoods. Over the years, Village Preservation has returned again and again to Blackwell’s story, tracing her footsteps through Greenwich […]
Sixth Avenue cuts through Greenwich Village from north to south. While Fifth Avenue may be more posh, and Hudson Street more homey, Sixth Avenue, too, is home to so many sites that are core to our neighborhood: Jefferson Market Library and Garden, the Waverly Diner, and Father Demo Square, among other locations. And of course, […]
February 2026 brings a rich slate of programs that knit together the stories of local history, national identity, community struggle, and cultural achievement. Several offerings are part of Village Preservation’s Semiquincentennial series, the Revolutionary Village, which honors the broader narrative of America’s first 250 years and how our neighborhoods helped shape them. For Black History […]
Deborah Glick has proudly served Greenwich Village in the New York State Assembly for three and a half decades. When elected in 1990, she became the first openly gay member of the legislature, and continued to break ground throughout her career, including leading the fight for marriage equality in the state. Shortly before she announced […]
Born into one of America’s wealthiest and most high-profile families, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875-1942) was the fourth of seven children of Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1843-1899) and Alice Claypoole Gwynne Vanderbilt (1845-1934). Societal expectations dictated that she should remain within the gilded comfort of Fifth Avenue mansions and splendor in which she was born. Yet as […]
On January 27, 2021, we submitted crucial information to support our application for landmarking 61 Fourth Avenue to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. What we documented was not merely architecture, but a place where some of the most influential artistic and cultural voices of the 20th century lived and worked (see our TikTok here). Our letter […]
Within the rapidly changing city, it’s refreshing to find spaces that nod to the eclectic, creative, and vibrant culture that our neighborhoods represent. This essence is captured in many local vintage and consignment shops. Through unique curatorial styles, fashion eras, and business ethos, these shops create a gorgeous patchwork that tells the story of our […]
From 14th Street to Houston Street, river to river, the streets and avenues of our neighborhoods ooze with a rich, unique lore found nowhere else in the city. At its center lies Fifth Avenue, dividing Manhattan’s east and west sides. Like many Manhattan streets, Fifth Avenue grew out of the original 1811 Commissioner’s Plan grid. […]
Fred W. McDarrah did not photograph history from a distance. He stood inside it. Shoulder to shoulder with musicians, poets, organizers, and strangers who believed the street could still change the world. His photographs are not nostalgia. They are evidence. McDarrah’s lens followed the pulse of Greenwich Village and the East Village through the 1950s […]
Your input is needed! Today we feature our latest Business of the Month — help us to select the next. Tell us which independent store you love in Greenwich Village, the East Village, or NoHo: click here to nominate your favorite. Want to help support small businesses? Share this post with friends.3 You should visit Morocco. It offers a remarkable […]
This is one of a series of blog posts which highlights our new Village Independent Democrats collection in our Preservation History Archive. The Village Independent Democrats (VID) are a reform democratic club founded in 1956. In 2023, the club donated their archives to Village Preservation. In early 2024 we released the first part of those digitized archives covering 1955-69, and later that year […]
On January 16, 1826, a resolution was introduced to the Common Council (predecessor to today’s City Council) that would re-appropriate an old potter’s field into the Washington Military Parade Ground. This was a pivotal step in transforming the landscape into today’s Washington Square Park, which it officially became in 1827. Washington Square Park has been […]
Washington Square Park has been one our most beloved public spaces for generations. From potters field to parade ground to one of the most iconic public spaces in the world, its symbolism and utilization are unrivaled since its transformation to parkland was approved on January 16, 1826. This history comes alive in the images preserved […]
While July 4, 1776 is considered our country’s official birthday, the war for independence from Great Britain spans nearly a decade, from 1775 to 1783. January 14 is Ratification Day, commemorating the day in 1784 when the Treaty of Paris was formally ratified and the Revolutionary War officially came to an end. This anniversary offers […]
The start of a new mayoral administration is often a moment of great anticipation, especially when it brings the possibility of meaningful policy shifts. In a detailed letter dated January 1, 2026, Village Preservation extended congratulations to Mayor Zohran Mamdani on his inauguration and laid out a comprehensive set of priorities the historic preservation organization […]
Protest has long been woven into the fabric of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo. From Washington Square to Tompkins Square and along countless main thoroughfares, side streets, and parks, our public spaces have served as a forum for dissent and debate. Village Preservation’s Historic Image Archive captures this legacy with remarkable clarity. Through […]
We are looking forward to working with recently inaugurated Mayor Mamdani and his administration, which we hope will repudiate the misguided and failed development and preservation policies pursued by the Adams Administration. We hope, for one, that Mayor Mamdani will offer a break from his predecessor’s record-breaking aversion to new landmark designations. Landmark designations under […]
A folk singer, social justice activist, and leading figure of the counterculture movement that inspired generations, Joan Baez is undeniably a Greenwich Village icon. Born January 9, 1941, on Staten Island, Joan came of age amid political, social, and civil unrest that would go on to define her life and career. Both sides of Joan […]
Unlike the regimented grid of most of Manhattan, Greenwich Village’s streets meet at irregular angles and follow unique paths. Already a somewhat developed neighborhood by the time of the 1811 commissioner’s street grid plan, the Village’s geography is built upon the roads created from its days of early colonial settlement. The neighborhood’s street names also […]
In 1938, a small basement nightclub opened at 1–2 Sheridan Square and challenged how New York City understood nightlife, race, and public space. Café Society was the city’s first racially integrated nightclub, welcoming Black and white audiences into the same room and placing Black and white performers on the same stage. This was not common […]
One of New York City’s most iconic landmarks is the Flatiron building. Located just north of our neighborhood on 23rd Street, its relatively rare triangular plot is formed by the intersection of the orthogonal street grid at Fifth Avenue with the diagonal of Broadway. But in Greenwich Village, the meandering, irregular street grid creates a number of similarly odd-shaped lots engendering triangular, or “flatiron” […]
At the dawn of the 20th century, Greenwich Village was a densely populated immigrant neighborhood, a mix of mainly Italian, Jewish, Irish, German, Spanish, and Chinese newcomers who together faced overcrowding, unsanitary housing, and exploitative landlord practices. Social worker Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch founded Greenwich House in 1902 at 26 Jones Street to tackle these systemic […]
Through her existence, action, and reflection, Sarah Schulman (b. July 28, 1958) has deeply impacted the fabric of New York City’s bohemian, LGBTQ+, and artistic communities. A native Villager, she was born on 10th Street and has lived on 9th Street for over 40 years. Her deep understanding of our neighborhoods, prowess as a writer, […]
While many today take the right to vote for granted, that simply wasn’t the case for most of American history. Women, Indigenous people, Blacks, Asians, Jews, Quakers, Catholics, and non-landowning white Protestant males were not always guaranteed this right. In early American history, some states did allow women to vote, but this right was taken […]
Every so often, a researcher has the joy of stumbling upon a detail so small, so quiet, that it almost feels like a secret whispered across time. At Village Preservation, we’ve grown used to finding delight in the margins, footnotes, and parenthetical asides of the landmark designation reports for sites that have been selected for […]
On October 30th, 1912, a little girl named Sarah celebrated her eighth birthday in a Federal-style row house at the corner of Avenue D and East 3rd Street. She was the third of five daughters of Cecilia and Morris Brenner, German-Jewish immigrants who had arrived in New York City in 1901, and her childhood on […]
This blog post was originally published on November 17, 2023, and is a favorite of ours from among the more than 200 we publish every year. To stay current on all our posts, follow us on X or Facebook, or subscribe to our blog feed via email here. He was one of the most significant, prolific, and versatile artists […]
New York City is home to what is arguably the most diverse and vibrant cultural scene anywhere in the world. Within that vast intellectual, artistic, and expressive mosaic there lies a hidden gem—a group where creativity, conversation, and camaraderie come together over an hot cup of America’s favorite caffeinated beverage. That gem is the Coffee […]
In our series Beyond the Village and Back, we take a look at some great landmarks throughout New York City outside of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo, celebrate their special histories, and reveal their (sometimes hidden) connections to the Village. You can also explore via our Beyond the Village and Back: Manhattan South […]
On July 16, 1951, the best-selling novel, The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger (January 1, 1919 – January 27, 2010), was released. It’s a coming-of-age story that follows the depressed and increasingly dejected sixteen-year-old Holden Caulfield in his aimless escapades around Manhattan. An aspiring lost soul, Holden spends an unchaperoned weekend wandering the […]
Village Preservation recently released a revamped and updated version of our Greenwich Village Historic District Virtual Map + Tours. Originally created in 2019 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Greenwich Village Historic District, the map includes Then & Now photographs of the entire district and nearly two-dozen thematic tours. Among these is a tour […]
Village Preservation kicked off its campaign to honor, document, and seek landmark designation for the South Village and its remarkable immigrant and artistic histories in December of 2006 and completed the effort in December of 2016 with designation of the third and final phase of our proposed South Village Historic District, the largest expansion of landmark protections in the neighborhood since […]
In honor of South Village Month, we are turning to the Sullivan-Thompson Historic District designation report to explore what this neighborhood was like before it was known as part of the South Village. The area south of Washington Square Park and West Fourth Street and east of Seventh Avenue, now often referred to as the […]
Village Preservation kicked off its campaign to honor, document, and seek landmark designation for the South Village and its remarkable immigrant and bohemian histories in December of 2006 and completed the effort in December of 2016 with designation of the third and final phase of our proposed South Village Historic District, the largest expansion of landmark protections in the […]
In 2016, legendary singer/songwriter and one-time Greenwich Village resident Bob Dylan received the Nobel Prize in Literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” He was unable to attend the December event in Stockholm citing pre-existing commitments, however, but did forward an acceptance speech thanking the Swedish Academy for “providing […]
Your input is needed! Today we feature our latest Business of the Month — help us to select the next. Tell us which independent store you love in Greenwich Village, the East Village, or NoHo: click here to nominate your favorite. Want to help support small businesses? Share this post with friends. How do you run a business intended to […]
The ‘holiday’ of Festivus was developed as an alternative to the commercialization of the Christmas season in the mid-1960s by author and editor Daniel O’Keefe (father of Seinfeld writer Dan O’Keefe). It gained significantly greater public attention on Seinfeld’s December 18, 1997 episode “The Strike,” in which Kramer refuses to work on Festivus and pickets his employer, […]
As we come to the end of an incredibly successful year for Village Preservation programs, its time to take a look back at some of the events that made 2025 so special. This year we had the chance to explore our neighborhoods and beyond with many fascinating building and exhibit tours. Today we will take […]
This post contains excerpts and takes inspiration from our recently revamped and re-released Edward Hopper’s Greenwich Village Tour on our Greenwich Village Historic District Virtual Map. Edward Hopper did not simply live in Greenwich Village. He rooted himself in it. He walked its crooked streets, studied its shifting light, and let the neighborhood carve itself […]
Whose woods these are I think I know.His house is in the village though;He will not see me stopping hereTo watch his woods fill up with snow. — Opening stanza to Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” Frost lived within the Greenwich Village Historic District at 107 Waverly Place in 1920. Though […]
Village Preservation recently released an updated version of our Greenwich Village Historic District Virtual Maps. Originally released in 2019, it was created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Greenwich Village Historic District (GVHD). The map includes 23 themed tours and offers a rich, navigable tapestry of the district’s architecture, history, and, crucially, its vibrant […]
Village Preservation recently released a revamped and updated version of our Greenwich Village Historic District Virtual Maps. Originally created in 2019 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Greenwich Village Historic District, the map includes Then & Now Photographs of the entire district, and a number of thematic tours of sites around the neighborhood. Today, we will […]
From the northern edge of Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to 143rd Street in Harlem, Fifth Avenue divides Manhattan. The centerfold of the Manhattan, it is nearly impossible to imagine New York without the seven-mile-long stretch. But, like many Manhattan streets, Fifth Avenue grew out of the original 1811 Commissioner’s Plan grid. Its development […]
New York City, it has been said, is a town of opinionated loudmouths. Maybe so. If that’s the case, our neighborhoods can historically claim a disproportionate number of them. And we’d argue that that’s a good thing and that some of those so-called loudmouths made our world a better place by refusing to bow to […]
A journey through the narrow, winding streets of the Greenwich Village Historic District is a trip through a living museum, an opportunity to explore an area with more than 2,000 buildings preserved across some 65 blocks. Designated in 1969, the district’s rich mix of row houses, tenements, small apartment buildings, and older Federal-, Italianate- and […]
Each December, as the Village lights up for the holidays, one corner of the neighborhood becomes especially magical. The Sullivan-Thompson Historic District Holiday Shop & Stroll, now in its third year, returns on Saturday, December 6, 2025, at 1:00 PM, offering a vibrant celebration of local history, small businesses, and the enduring spirit of the […]
The history of the AIDS crisis in New York City is often told via numbers and statistics, the hospitalizations, the tragedy of lost lives, the sweeping social changes. But the real power of history resides in personal memory. In Village Preservation’s Oral History Collection, individual voices tell the stories that aren’t always part of the […]
Village Preservation recently released an updated version of our Greenwich Village Historic District Virtual Maps and Tours. Originally released in 2019, it was created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Greenwich Village Historic District. The map includes themed tours and an updated “Then and Now” map of the district witth photos from the 1960s […]
Author: Anna Carl The following post was written by Anna Carl, Village Preservation’s Summer 2025 graduate-level intern. Anna was instrumental in creating our new-and-improved Greenwich Village Historic District Virtual Map and Tours. Introduction Village Preservation has just launched its new-and-improved Greenwich Village Historic District Virtual Map and Tours. The first version of this map was […]
Picking a favorite restaurant in New York City is a near-impossible task. The criteria for what constitutes a good dining experience are based on a series of entirely subjective factors, such as taste, aesthetics, location, or ambience. Few understood this better than Mimi Sheraton (February 10, 1926–April 6, 2023), the legendary food critic, writer, and […]
Your input is needed! Today we feature our latest Business of the Month — help us to select the next. Tell us which independent store you love in Greenwich Village, the East Village, or NoHo: click here to nominate your favorite. Want to help support small businesses? Share this post with friends. Most businesses don’t inspire the morbid fantasy of […]
A new show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art focuses on a unique artist who blended his indigenous heritage with the energetic art world of mid-century Manhattan. “The Magical City: George Morrison’s New York” — a title taken from the artist’s description of his longtime home — presents an overview of a career stretching from […]
Coffee culture in our neighborhoods during the early 20th century was vibrant and bustling. With numerous coffeehouses and cafes, including the famed Caffe Reggio, the caffeinated beverage was an excuse to gather socially, in addition to being a popular drink to brew at home. Unsurprisingly, the business of coffee was at the time almost exclusively […]
Chester Alan Arthur is a name not immediately known to many. To the few who do, he was the nation’s 21st president who unexpectedly rose to the highest office after the assassination of James A. Garfield and surprised many with his commitment to civil service reform. But even among this select group of cognoscenti, few […]
October is always a month of rich programming for us, with autumn in full swing with its cool crisp air and the impending excitement of the holiday season. October 2025 was no exception—in fact, it offered one of the most diverse and engaging programming lineups in recent memory. This month’s mix of lectures, tours, conversations, […]
2025 marks 100 years since Robert Rauschenberg’s birth (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008), making this the perfect time to revisit the creative energy and ingenuity he brought to Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo. Rauschenberg’s New York journey Born in Port Arthur, Texas, Rauschenberg came to New York in the early 1950s […]
40–52 East 11th Street, Greenwich Village Just off University Place, at 40–52 East 11th Street, stands a building whose story is inseparable from New York’s creative heartbeat. The Albert began in the early 1880s as one of Manhattan’s first “French flats,” designed by Henry J. Hardenbergh—the visionary architect behind The Dakota and The Plaza. These […]
Village Preservation is working with fellow local preservation organizations and parishioners to preserve the endangered, historic Most Holy Redeemer Church at 173 East 3rd Street, between Avenues A and B in the East Village. The church was once one of the city’s tallest structures. Founded in 1844 by German-speaking Redemptorist missionaries amid the growing German […]
The East and West Village are not just neighborhoods. They are thresholds. They take people who feel like they do not fit anywhere and tell them this is where misfits learn to fly. Music is the way this part of New York speaks. It does not whisper. It roars. For decades, these streets have given […]
At the turn of the last century, our neighborhood was in the midst of yet another transformative era. For decades prior, a fashionable, bourgeois class resided around Washington Square Park and lower Fifth Avenue, as grandiose red-brick Greek Revival townhomes attracted the wealthy, cementing the area’s cosmopolitan population. But with time, the neighborhood’s residents began […]
Today we welcome a new small business to our neighborhoods — help us welcome the next. Tell us which new independent store in Greenwich Village, the East Village, or NoHo you’re excited about by emailing us at info@villagepreservation.org. As advocates for local small business, we find great satisfaction in hearing of new independent establishments opening […]
In a time when much of our creative life happens online, it’s a gift to find places in our neighborhoods where you can still browse shelves, feel materials in your hands, and talk with someone behind the counter who cares deeply about their craft. The following five shops are all part of Village Preservation’s Business […]
Back in the late 20th century, there were no streaming services. If someone had a specific taste in film they would have to physically go to a store and rent something called a VHS. There were video rental stores across the city and everyone had their favorites. While national chains such as Blockbuster dominated total […]
Our blog series “Hidden in Plain Sight” highlights the many architectural curiosities and unique features found on buildings throughout our neighborhoods — details you might not notice on first pass, but if you’re paying attention, they tell easily overlooked and often forgotten stories. Peeking above the one-story building at the corner of Sixth Avenue and […]
Richard Morris Hunt, born on on October 31, 1827, is usually remembered for the grandiose mansions, museums, and monuments of the Gilded Age such as the Lenox Library, grand Fifth Avenue homes, the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, and the façade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But his fingerprints are also on a […]
On October 30th, 1912, a little girl named Sarah celebrated her eighth birthday in a Federal-style row house at the corner of Avenue D and East 3rd Street. She was the third of five daughters of Cecilia and Morris Brenner, German-Jewish immigrants who had arrived in New York City in 1901, and her childhood on […]
On West 9th Street, small acts of care have led to remarkable change. Thanks to the efforts of longtime Village resident and volunteer Nina Kaufelt, the humble tree bed, those rectangles of soil surrounding our street trees, has become a symbol of how beauty, attention, and collective effort can transform a neighborhood block. Tree beds, […]
On October 21, the stretch of Great Jones Street between Lafayette Street and the Bowery in NoHo was officially co-named Jean-Michel Basquiat Way to recognize the artist whose explosive creativity helped define downtown Manhattan in the 1980s. The honor highlights not only Basquiat’s extraordinary artistic legacy but also the profound connection between his life and […]
Behind every street corner, alleyway, and front stoop lies an untold story. Federal, Greek Revival, and Italianate styles dominate the neighborhood’s architecture, but how did they come to be here in the first place? Luckily, we have our comprehensive collection of landmark and historic district designation reports which provides us with the official record of […]
A multitude of NYC histories, cultures, and architectural styles converge on the corner of Second Avenue and 12th Street in the East Village. Each building that occupies a corner of this notable intersection has a distinct aesthetic and cultural importance to the neighborhood. Today, we will take a look at these four buildings, detailing the […]
Your input is needed! Today we feature our latest Business of the Month — help us to select the next. Tell us which independent store you love in Greenwich Village, the East Village, or NoHo: click here to nominate your favorite. Want to help support small businesses? Share this post with friends. Shaving cream locked behind glass to ward off […]
While many today take the right to vote for granted, that simply wasn’t the case for most of American history. Women, Indigenous people, Blacks, Asians, Jews, Quakers, Catholics, and non-landowning white Protestant males were not always guaranteed this right. In early American history, some states did allow women to vote, but this right was taken […]
Historic neighborhoods are filled with details that tell their story. Old trolley tracks peek through the asphalt, boot scrapers remind us of the city’s even more distant horse-driven past, and ghost signs give us a glimpse into the businesses that once filled our neighborhoods. Ghost signs are the faded, hand-painted advertisements found on historic buildings, […]
Once soaring 250 feet high, the steeple of the church of the Most Holy Redeemer has defined Alphabet City’s skyline for nearly 200 years. Picture this spire, the equivalent of a 20–25 story building, in the mid-1800s (as in the image above), when no other structure would have come close to reaching its height in […]
Greenwich Village and the East Village have long been a nexus for poets from across the country and for poetry of innumerable styles. As we celebrate National Black Poetry Day coming up on October 17, we honor the many Black poets who have called our neighborhoods home over the decades and shaped the literary form […]
As New York City heads toward the 2025 general election, we are making sure that historic preservation and thoughtful urban planning remain front and center in public debate. Our Elections 2025 webpage offers an invaluable civic resource. While the mayoral race tends to draw the headlines, the decisions made by City Councilmembers and Borough Presidents […]
October is Italian-American Heritage Month, a rich opportunity to reflect on the profound contributions of Italian Americans to our city and nation. Here in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo, Italian immigrants and their descendants shaped neighborhoods, built small businesses, joined civic life, and wove their stories into the fabric of New York. At […]
