As legal wrangling continues to try to prevent the closure of Beth Israel Hospital (now operated by Mount Sinai), Village Preservation has amped up its campaign, supported by doctors, staff, and patients, to save the historic New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, connected to the hospital, which is located at 13th Street and Second Avenue (the only one of the hospital’s historic buildings located south of 14th Street in our catchment area). The imminent potential closure of the hospital makes the campaign to landmark and save the building, launched in 2022, ever more urgent.

We’re pleased to report that the Preservation League of New York State has joined our call to landmark the building, as had State Senator Brad Hoylman and Assemblymember Harvey Epstein, and the Historic Districts Council, East Village Community Coalition, and the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative. We continue to urge City Councilmember Carlina Rivera to support this effort.

This striking building, most of which was built in the 1890s, housed what is the oldest specialized hospital in the Western Hemisphere, founded in 1820 by two doctors known as the “fathers of American ophthalmology.” This institution became an icon of comprehensive and accessible care for the public, attracting Helen Keller to speak at the ribbon-cutting for its final stage in 1903. In addition to providing trailblazing medical care for people with disabilities, it also gave a home to the first Black ophthalmologist in America and the first enslaved person in America to earn a college degree to practice. It’s a critical part of our city’s and country’s history, particularly the history of people with disabilities and Black Americans, which very few of our city’s designated landmarks reflect or protect.

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