We’ve just added two great new items to our Neighborhood and Preservation History Archive — one detailing the story behind a decades-long preservation effort that led to the landmarking of over 100 early 19th-century Federal Era rowhouses throughout Lower Manhattan, and one containing local media going back as far as 1939. 

Our new Roots of Federal Rowhouse Preservation Effort archive collection contains an in-depth interview and conversation with three key players in launching a decades-long effort to document and preserve hundreds of surviving Federal Era (1790-1835) rowhouses in Lower Manhattan, which laid the foundation for Village Preservation securing landmark designation for well over a hundred of them. Beginning with staffers at the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission in the 1980s, the effort really coalesced in the 1990s with an alignment of factors ranging from grant funding to young preservationists looking for a new project to take on. Hear from these three preservation veterans how the effort really came together, and laid the foundation for one of the most consequential preservation campaigns in NYC history, and one of Village Preservation’s greatest accomplishments. 

Village Preservation now maintains original bound copies of local newspapers including The Villager, East Villager, Gay City News, Downtown Express, Chelsea Now, and others dating to as early as 1939. These publications, offering unique insights into local history, people, and events, are available upon request for research or other purposes.