PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release — October 15, 2024

New York — Disabled groups, preservation organizations, elected officials, and doctors, staff, patients, and alumni of the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary (NYEEI) held a press conference outside the hospital today at Second Avenue and 13th Street calling for the city to landmark the hospital’s historic building. The future of the building and the hospital have been in doubt since various merger, closure, and reorganization plans have been announced by Mount Sinai Health System. Those gathered called for preservation of the hospital, the oldest specialized hospital in the Western Hemisphere, and its historic building, the ribbon cutting for which was ceremonially performed by Hellen Keller. Speakers urged the City of New York to finally designate this building, constructed in stages between 1856 and 1903, as the city’s first landmark honoring disabled history, a request first made two-and-a-half years ago. The hospital has played an enormously important role in disabled history, with its founders known as “the fathers of American Ophthalmology.” It also played an important role in African American history, having provided an opportunity for the first Black eye doctor in the United States, and the first enslaved person to earn a college degree, to practice medicine as part of its commitment to equality and service to all.

In 2022, Mount Sinai planned to move essential services such as surgery and resident clinics out of NYEEI to other locations, leaving the future of the building and its services in doubt. Since then, Mount Sinai has continually changed plans for this and other nearby facilities and institutions it controls, leaving the future of the NYEEI uncertain, and sparking the campaign to preserve the hospital’s services on site and to landmark and preserve its historic main building.

Images of the press conference will be posted to flickr.com/gvshp, and video to YouTube.com/gvshp.

“It’s long overdue for the city to landmark and protect the historic and vulnerable New York Eye and Ear infirmary,” said Village Preservation Executive Director Andrew Berman. “For two and a half years, we and doctors, patients, and disabled advocates have sought to save not only the vital services the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary provides, but to ensure its important history is honored and preserved. Over more than two centuries, great strides have been made here to assist and support people with visual and hearing challenges and disabilities. Of the nearly 40,000 buildings landmarked in New York City, none have been designated for their significance to disabled history. It’s time we right that wrong and recognize the importance of what is our country’s largest minority, and designate the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary a landmark,” he added.

“The Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York (CIDNY) advocates for the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary to receive an immediate status as a historic landmark in New York City. This hospital is the leading medical institution which addresses the sensory needs for numerous New Yorkers and the metropolitan region. From Helen Keller to the consumers served at CIDNY, many New Yorkers have received crucial eye, ear, and throat care at this premiere medical center. We cannot afford to have Mount Sinai close another outstanding medical center that would put the sensory healthcare for thousands of people in jeopardy,” said Sharon McLennon Wier, Ph.D., MSEd., CRC, LMHC, Executive Director for CIDNY.

“This structure, a part of which was dedicated by the great Helen Keller, stands not only as a monument of great architecture but also as a testament to the dedication of so many doctors, nurses, medical students, and staff who through the last two centuries built on the foundation of creating a world-renowned, unique and comprehensive one-stop center to treat people with sensory disabilities,” said Mike Schweinsburg, President of the 504 Democratic Club. “To demolish or alter this edifice would not only do great harm to the streetscape of New York City, but would also deliver a great blow to the many thousands of patients who have and will rely on The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary to mitigate vision and hearing loss so successfully,” he concluded.

“The future of New York Eye and Ear Infirmary is uncertain. We may not be able to practice in this location much longer. Landmarking this building will preserve the physical legacy of all the amazing work which has been done here. Patients will not forget. Doctors will not forget. Staff will not forget. We urge the LPC to proceed with landmarking this historic building. By doing so, you will recognize so many people who have been blessed by this wonderful institution,” said Dr. Paul Lee, MD, President of the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary Alumni Association, President of Save NYEEI, and Associate Professor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

“Landmark designation for a building is an important way to preserve history, educate our communities, and cherish unique architecture and cultural heritage. As the oldest specialized hospital in the western hemisphere, New York City’s first hospital-based hearing aid dispensary, and the home to one of the first surgeries to restore sight in this nation, the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary has contributed to innovative and life-changing care for people living with disabilities and should be landmarked. I join with the community in urging the Landmarks Preservation Commission to designate this beautiful and unique building filled with cultural legacy, disability rights milestones, and historical advancements to the Black community,” said Council Member Carlina Rivera (D-02).

“We join with our colleagues at Village Preservation in calling for landmark designation of the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary,” said Caitlin Meives, Director of Preservation at the Preservation League of NYS. “Designation of this important building would help document and honor the stories of Black Americans and Americans with disabilities, groups whose histories deserve to be recognized in the places the City chooses to landmark.”

“The architectural and cultural resources of the Lower East Side have been overlooked for far too long. That the stately building at East 13th Street and Second Avenue has not already been designated a landmark is beyond comprehension, considering its architectural, cultural and institutional significance as an iconic model of public care. It is long past time to correct this injustice before the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary is forever lost to our neighborhood, and to the world,” said Laura Sewell, Executive Director, East Village Community Coalition.

“With the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary still in danger, we see yet again that the East Village/Lower East Side’s community services are being hollowed out for real estate profit making. The Infirmary not only serves as a premier healthcare facility, but also includes a wonderful historic building with a remarkable place in the history of medicine. This structure needs to be designated a New York City landmark without delay, otherwise it’ll be lost like so many other of our community’s historic resources,” said Deborah Wye, Vice President, Lower East Side Preservation Initiative.

“The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary must be landmarked,” said Assembly Member Harvey Epstein. “Serving tens of thousands of people annually, its location in the heart of the East Side and the mix of services at a single site make these services more easily accessible to New Yorkers who rely on them — many of whom have disabilities. Dating back to 1820, this building is home to the oldest specialized hospital in the Western Hemisphere and is a critical landmark for the disability community. Additionally, it is where Dr. McDonogh, the first African American ophthalmologist, practiced. We must ensure its landmarking to preserve this important hospital and its role in our city’s history.”

For more information about the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary and the campaign to landmark it, see here.

Village Preservation has led successful campaigns for groundbreaking landmark designation of other sites representing civil rights and underrepresented histories. This includes landmark designation of the Stonewall Inn, NYC’s first ever LGBTQ+ landmark, and of 70 Fifth Avenue, the former headquarters of the NAACP, the nation’s oldest and largest Black civil rights organization. Village Preservation is also leading campaigns to landmark the city’s first (and endangered) Spanish-language church, Our Lady of Guadalupe, various women’s history sites, and 50 West 13th Street, an historic abolitionist site. More information on these and other efforts can be found here. 

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