Dear Friend,

Village Preservation’s mission is to document, celebrate, and preserve the special architectural and cultural heritage of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo. That means everything from protecting historic buildings and parks to supporting small businesses and local cultural, educational, and community institutions. It means sharing and honoring a history made up of trailblazers and innovators; immigrants and outsiders; artists and artisans; thinkers and doers.

It’s a history and a heritage that’s irreplaceable, timeless, and more relevant now than ever. But it’s also vulnerable, under extreme pressure, and too easily overlooked or erased.

That’s why we’re here — to ensure that spirit, and this place, continues.

But we can’t do it without you. Your generosity  makes everything we do possible — more than 80% of our support comes from individuals like you.

As we turn the page on 2022 and begin a new year, I hope you’ll consider a gift to keep Village Preservation and our work strong in 2023. 

Sincerely,
Andrew Berman
Executive Director

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What Village Preservation Does

• Secured landmark designation of over 1,250 buildings, including a dozen historic districts and district extensions, and scores of individual landmarks, across Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo 
• Won zoning protections for nearly 100 blocks of our neighborhoods, from the Hudson River to Avenue D
• Monitor every one of over 6,500 buildings lots in our neighborhoods every day for demolition, alteration, and new construction applications, and every one of over 3,500 landmarked properties for applications for changes 
• Help support hundreds of local small businesses and cultural and community institutions with our Village Awards, Business of the Month Programs, and other small business promotion programs. 
• Conduct hundreds of public programs celebrating and sharing the history of our neighborhoods
• Create a myriad of online resources, accessed by over a million people annually, about the history and architecture of our neighborhoods, from virtual tours to image archives, oral histories to our blog, and more
• Serve tens of thousands of young people from across NYC, regardless of ability to pay, in our first-of-its-kind Children’s Education Program. 
• Advocate for action by city agencies to address landmark, zoning, and building violations in our neighborhoods
• Track, share, and review scores of applications for proposed changes to landmarked buildings in our neighborhoods every year, so the public can be informed and participate in the decision-making process
• Push for groundbreaking landmark designations that honor civil rights histories, including LGBTQ+, African American, and women’s, and offer resources and programming that emphasize our neighborhoods’ diverse histories and special role in social justice and politically and culturally progressive movements
• Place nearly two dozen plaques marking historically significant sites across Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo 

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In 2022, we:

• Won landmark designation for Julius Bar after a 10-year campaign
• Secured a “Seven to Save” designation for our effort to landmark the unprotected area of Greenwich Village and the East Village South of Union Square, naming it one of the seven most important and endangered historic sites in New York State by the Preservation League of NY State 
• Called out city agencies for failing to adequately protect landmarked properties like 14 Gay Street, and building a coalition among groups and elected officials from across the city to demand reform 
• Produced analyses refuting the argument driving public policy that increasing large-scale luxury housing development increases housing affordability 
• Unveiled three new plaques honoring the Beats at the former home of Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs at 206 East 7th Street; the former headquarters of the NAACP and The Crisis Magazine at 70 Fifth Avenue; and Julius’ Bar at 159 West 10th Street 
• Staged Village Voices 2022, a weeks-long multi-site, multi-media public exhibition celebrating historic change-makers and trailblazers of our neighborhoods 
• Led the successful fight to prevent the State from adopting a measure that would allow supertall towers in residential neighborhoods throughout NYC
• Spearheaded the victorious effort to prevent proposed budget cuts to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which would have reduced enforcement, oversight, and new designations
• Served a record-breaking number of students in our Children’s Education program, 90% of whom were from high-needs schools and participated for free or at a reduced cost 
• Expanded and revised our very popular Civil Rights and Social Justice Map 
• Co-produced the Crisis and Adaptation report analyzing retail trends and challenges in the East Village, and grew our Business of the Month, Welcome to the Neighborhood, and Small Business/Big History Programs to support dozens of small businesses throughout our neighborhoods
• Released three new oral histories, with West Village writer and humorist Calvin Trillin, Westbeth artist Christina Maile, and East Village photographer Alex Harsley
• Honored seven amazing awardees, from Razom for Ukraine to Zinc Jazz Bar to Pageant Print Shop, with our Annual Village Awards
• Conducted over 75 programs about the rich history and present of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo

Top photo: Washington Square Park Conservancy