April 19 is the 60th anniversary of the NYC law that first allowed buildings, neighborhoods, and historic sites to be preserved through landmark designation. Six decades later, there are 16 historic districts, over 100 individual landmarks, and eight interior landmarks in our neighborhoods — including our city’s first designated landmarks, its most recently designated landmark, and a huge array of spaces, places, and structures designated during every decade in between.

Covering over 3,500 buildings, these landmark designations include everything from the city’s largest historic district to one of its smallest houses; the homes of radical revolutionaries and deeply entrenched institutionalists; churches and children’s charities; and bathhouses, banking halls, and bars.

Now you can explore them all, and see when and how those landmark designations took place over the past 60 years, with our new interactive Landmarks Timeline Map. This first-of-its-kind resource is the latest in dozens of interactive maps we’ve created, offering new insights into the rich and diverse history of our neighborhoods, and how we’ve been able to preserve it.   

While 60 years of landmark designations is a cause for celebration, the dramatic drop in landmark designations in recent years, and especially under Mayor Adams, is a cause for alarm. Through our recent study, Village Preservation has also catalogued every landmark designation in NYC since 1965, showing how drastically the City has curtailed new landmark designations. We’re calling on City leaders to reverse this damaging trend.