December is South Village Month, when we celebrate the incredible neighborhood south of Washington Square and West 4th Street. Village Preservation kicked off the effort to preserve this endangered historic neighborhood in December 2006, and completed the process in December 2016 with the designation of the third and final phase of our proposed South Village Historic District.

But still you may ask, “What’s so special about the South Village?” Would it help if we told you it contains some of New York’s first and only historic districts honoring both immigrant and artistic history? That it played a key role in the development of New York’s African American, LGBTQ+, and Italian American communities? That it has the highest concentration of early 19th-century Federal and Greek Revival Houses anywhere in New York, along with hundreds of other 19th-century buildings? That it was the center for the Beats and the folk revival, launched the careers of Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix, provided a platform for revolutionary theater and feminist debate, and contained some of our city’s most important examples of early reform housing, meant to provide quality homes for the city’s poor and working class?

Get the details on all of this and more: 

Continue the Celebration! 

• Join us for the Sullivan Thompson Historic District Shop + Stroll, Wednesday, December 13, 5-8pm. Enjoy the amazing independent shops located in the South Village below Houston Street, take in the festive lights, and take advantage of the treats, prizes, or discounts being offered by more than 20 local shops for those who sign up for and participate in the stroll. Register + info HERE.
• And take part in a free Zoom webinar: South Village Italian Americans and the Arts, Tuesday, December 19, 6pm. Learn how this vital immigrant community interacted with, inspired, and contributed to the arts and artists around them in the late 19th and 20th century. Register + info HERE.