Known for its eclectic ambiance and creative energy, the area South of Union Square has historically acted as a magnet for hundreds of musicians, painters, photographers, and the like. As…
Read More…six-month sentence in an Ontario reformatory after he was accused of soliciting sex. Herbert regularly dressed and performed as a drag queen in Toronto, and, one night while walking home,…
Read More…that would still allow changes to take place without compromising that significance. For example, there are sometimes parking lots or open lots in historic districts, as well as small utilitarian…
Read MoreSource: Museum of the City of New York online collection. Charles von Urban, 1932. Today on Map It! we’re unearthing some old maps and photos of Lewis Street, which once…
Read More…like the elegant cartouche above the doorway, Ionic pilasters flanking the middle stories, and the V-shaped decoration above the windows. This eclectic mash-up of styles makes this building extremely unique,…
Read More…the Great Depression, the WPA also dedicated large portions of its work to provide childcare for the working class. Many of these projects took place as federally funded nursery schools…
Read More…the fate of his incredible portfolio of properties in limbo. And on “Sex and the City,” Samantha had just moved into a loft in the Meatpacking District, making clear that…
Read MoreVillage Preservation’s Civil Rights and Social Justice Map was launched on January 3, 2017. This online resource, which marks sites in our neighborhoods significant to the history of various civil…
Read MoreThis is the latest installment of the Off the Grid series in which we highlight the people, places and events featured in our new book Greenwich Village Stories, available for…
Read MoreSecond Avenue Presbyterian Church, constructed 1831 (image courtesy HABS) Speaking of the firm Town, Davis & Dakin (which as you’ll recall from yesterday’s post built NYU’s original main building), we…
Read More…all of whom will vote on it. Send those letters here; you can personalize them or change the text. Please share. To also help, we have outlined below some talking points…
Read MoreOver the last several weeks GVSHP has been taking a look at the designation report for the new South Village Historic District which we fought ten years to achieve. As…
Read More…shifted that much, stating in a Sun interview “I have always been much more moderate than my supporters”. He was staunchly pro-Israel throughout his career, making him many friends and…
Read More…academy, the building faced the wrecking ball in the post-World War II years. However, preeminent preservationist Margot Gayle led a grassroots effort to save the building, and it found new…
Read More…filled with residents of what was then called Kleindeutschland, or Little Germany. This German-American enclave in today’s East Village was then the largest German-speaking community in the world outside of Berlin…
Read MoreOn November 19, 1969, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated 326 Spring Street, also known as the James Brown House, a NYC Landmark. The James Brown House was built in 1817…
Read More…landmark most, but not all of the Meatpacking District, as far south as Horatio Street and as far west as West Street. After this, GVSHP and a coalition of local…
Read MoreIt’s Village Preservation’s 40th birthday this year. In honor of this auspicious occasion, we recently released a story map that details our efforts documenting, celebrating, and advocating for the preservation…
Read More…were rotting out from underneath it, causing shifting and cracking walls. During the 1988 Tompkins Square Park Riot, the church granted the use of its building to protestors to organize and…
Read MoreThroughout history, societies look to the arts to give insight and meaning to events and experiences. And so with good reason, we have been thinking a great deal about our…
Read More…years! The 112 buildings on 11 blocks protect the city’s distinctive Meatpacking District with its cobblestone streets, warehouses and rowhouses. REBNY strongly opposed this designation, as noted in the district’s…
Read More…and the shrinking resources of another, the United States Postal Service. The church steeple sitting on East 12th Street was part of the 12th Street Baptist Church, built on this…
Read MoreSuperior Ink, prior to demolition For over 85 years, the 195 foot tall smokestacks of the Superior Inks building were a local landmark and beacon for the Far West Village….
Read MoreYou can’t watch a music video, open a fashion magazine or even walk down the street without seeing the latest fashion craze, Technicolor hair. Like so many fashion trends (mohawks…
Read More…has Beaux-Arts elements, like the elegant cartouche above the doorway, Ionic pilasters flanking the middle stories, and the V-shaped decoration above the windows. This eclectic mash-up of styles makes this…
Read More…Street could continue that transformation. GVSHP is working hard to make sure this development is reasonable, appropriate, and includes zoning and landmark protections for vulnerable districts. Find out more about…
Read More…“A few months ago I visited Washington Square Park for the first time in a long time. And there were tulips in full bloom; there were toddlers taking their first…
Read More…Thompson and Charlton King-Vandam Historic Districts here. Read the Sullivan Thompson Historic District designation report here. Read the Charlton King-Vandam Historic District designation report here. Read other designation reports here….
Read More…Part IV Richmond Hill Speaking of the Charlton King VanDam Historic District, that brings us to our final Village connection to Federal Hall. That area was once the home of…
Read More…Federal-style building on the right side with the peaked roof is 15 King Street, part of the Charlton-King-Vandam Historic District. Looking south on Sixth Avenue from Houston Street The following…
Read MoreMy colleague, Director of Research and Preservation Sarah Bean Apmann (she tells me that “Exalted Majesty Tour Guide” also works as a title), led the first GVSHP walking tour that I attended –…
Read More…ft. tall tower in the Meatpacking District — twice! Fortunately, the successful Meatpacking District/Gansevoort Market landmarking effort was just the beginning of a long run of landmarking and zoning successes…
Read More…example, REBNY claims that landmarking makes New York unaffordable, and pushes the working and middle class out of our neighborhoods. In the unlandmarked sections of the Village, working factories and…
Read More…the Gansevoort Market (Meatpacking District) Historic District by the City was 848 Washington Street, the old Swift Meatpacking Plant site. There, a developer had sought a zoning variance for a…
Read More…here and here. The borders of the Charlton-King-Vandam Historic District include MacDougal Street to the east and runs mid-block on the three streets to the west. Map via the NYC…
Read More…Dick, Ken Vegas, Lisa E. Davis, and Elyssa Goodman, Drag King History presented the story of New York City’s Drag King evolution from the 19th Century to today, showcasing the…
Read More…New School has done, and what NYU is asking the City Council to allow them do by breaking the rules, breaking agreements with the public, and selling off public land…
Read More…King Award-winning illustrations for Africa Dream (1978), Cornrows (1980), Grandma’s Joy (1981) and Working Cotton (1993), which received both the Caldecott and the King Honor Award. In November 2001, Carole…
Read More39 and 37 Charles Street in the Charlton-King-Vandam Historic District. Photo from the State and National Register report, but provided by the LPC (1965). We hope you have weathered the…
Read More…the property into lots of 25 by 100 feet on the three streets now known as Charlton, King, and Vandam Streets, much of which lies within the Charlton–King–Vandam Historic District….
Read More…Malamud and his family lived at 1 King Street, part of the Charlton-King-Vandam Historic District, which was then a predominantly Italian-American neighborhood (Malamud lived just around the corner from the…
Read More…entirely forgotten but fascinating footnote in this neighborhood’s viral and tumultuous history — a history we are seeking to honor and preserve, and which faces daily and growing threats. In…
Read More…Market in 1905, via MCNY Before the Meatpacking The Village was once a marshy area of sandy hills before Europeans arrived. What we now know as the Meatpacking District, or…
Read More…the world at that time – was a mere 7 years old when Arthur Hosking took this photo on May 27, 1920. View of the east side of Bway looking…
Read More…New York philanthropists were concerned about the plight of working-class women, who frequently earned meager wages, and were often at the mercy of unscrupulous supervisors. During the 1860s, the Working…
Read More…to take decisive action, and the infirmed owner unable or unwilling to move. By 2011, this neglected and badly deteriorated house on the corner of King Street in the Charlton-King-Vandam Historic…
Read More…affluent homeowner blocks of the King-Charlton-VanDam Historic District to the Trump SoHo (where the City claims no one “lives,” because it would violate the zoning, but we know better) and…
Read More…I kept thinking to myself “I would love to have a business that was like Li-Lac,” and I was looking for businesses like Li-Lac and wasn’t finding anything, or anything…
Read More…still be found today. Ahead, learn about five sites where Burr and Hamilton made history. Richmond Hill – Varick, Charlton, King, VanDam and MacDougal Streets The Richmond Hill mansion, via…
Read More…at the corner of Charlton and Sixth Avenue, the Greek Revival brick row house sits on the edge of the Charlton-King-Vandam Historic District. (Read more about this charming little district…
Read More…the corner of King Street on the eastern edge of the Charlton-King-Vandam Historic District, 43 MacDougal is a Greek Revival style townhouse that was built as part of a row…
Read More…Mansion The King-Charlton-VanDam Historic District This distinct neighborhood started in the early 19th Century as a piece of “’instant city’ developed from one large country estate by the great real…
Read More…are from a recent application for 17 King Street, taken circa 1940. Today, the rears of these Federal style row houses, which are located in the Charlton-King-Van Dam historic district,…
Read More…and multiple shifts, Mikey was often looked after by his Aunt. After school, he would attend her cooking class with her, which helped her develop her own ice cream making…
Read More…interested in projects promising higher returns. Yet REBNY has recently been attacking the thing it doesn’t like very much, landmarking, with the moral cudgel of something it doesn’t support very…
Read More…In preparation for his new career, he familiarized himself with the bagel making process by working as an apprentice from 2am to 11am at a traditional New Jersey bagel baker….
Read More…at the WPA Headquarters at 110 King Street. Source: Smithsonian Archives. The building at 110 King Street was not only the location of the program’s administrative offices, but also held…
Read More…be used as the Dry Dock Banking House. Based on tax records and fire insurance maps, we know that the banking house relocated directly across the street to the building…
Read MoreBelieve it or not, the Soho Playhouse is actually within the Charlton-King-Vandam Historic District, which was designated 50 years ago this week, a district which is part of the larger…
Read More…buildings had been built, and all four sites were occupied by historic Meatpacking plants, much like the rest of the Meatpacking District. It was around this time that GVSHP proposed…
Read More…and of course working on the Greenwich Village Historic District designation, and the M1-5 designation of SoHo as a joint living/work ordinance district for artists, and the ability to have…
Read More…a point of taking cooking classes and seeking connections to local cooks. She would then ask them to let her assist, either as part of a sort of cooking technique…
Read More…Soviet Union, along with songs associated with women working in factories. Published by the “Workers Bookshop,” it contains little distinctly Jewish content. The lyrics place the date as 1944; FDR…
Read More…was inflamed by brewing tensions between New York’s upper class and working class. On May 7, 1849, three days before the Astor Place Riot, the well-known British actor William Charles Macready…
Read More…rehearsed for the first time while on hiatus from the Talking Heads. However, Frantz and Weymouth and the Talking Heads got their musical start in the downtown punk and new…
Read More…individual landmarks. Broadway looking north from 13th Street towards Union Square, 1912. Broadway looking north from West 13th Street towards Union Square Another old picture from this application shows…
Read More…to Jamaican parents, and moved to Brooklyn when he was three years old. He first became interested in jewelry-making while working as a crafts assistant for the Children’s Aid Society….
Read More…Store, working as a candy salesman, though augmented this job with English language teaching. Eventually he secured a job as an English teacher working for the City of New York…
Read More…list is full of Village locations, Villagers behind and in front of the camera, romance, action, drama, intrigue, and all the things to keep us occupied when we’re looking for…
Read More…working pages. This friend really knows his stuff when it comes to LES history and he happens to lead a really great walking tour. However, I got the impression that…
Read More…While neighboring areas like the Charlton-King-Vandam and Greenwich Village Historic Districts are relatively protected by their landmarked status, the unprotected South Village – the area south of Washington Square Park…
Read More…cabinets in an 1827 town house on Charlton Street, in the Charlton-King-Vandam Historic District. Dan Morgenstern, director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University who presented a lecture…
Read More…Pompeii in 1949, Lucy and Lenny moved to nearby Sullivan Street. After they bought 51 MacDougal Street (part of the Charlton-King-Vandam Historic District) in 1962, Lenny eventually took over the retail…
Read More…Doris Diether Collection of the Village Preservation Historic Image Archive. Some New Yorkers prefer Papaya King or Gray’s Papaya or the newer upstart Papaya Dog over Nathan’s. The combination of…
Read More…speaking across the globe, author and activist James Baldwin had a profound impact upon 20th-century culture beyond just the written word. He was part of the 1963 March on Washington…
Read More…working-class neighborhoods — including East Harlem and Brownsville, Brooklyn — that were otherwise lacking in strong healthcare options. International Workers Order logo. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia. In 1936, the IWO…
Read More…landmarking and rezoning the Far West Village. In a stroke of good timing, Mayor Bloomberg happened to walk by while the rally was taking place at 1:00pm on the steps…
Read More…to 1961; Map data © 2019 Google 1. James Baldwin, 81 Horatio Street Through his writing, televised debates, and public speaking across the globe, author and activist James Baldwin had…
Read More…Street, 1942 First Avenue looking north from East 9th Street, 1942 First Avenue looking south from East 9th Street, 1942 First Avenue looking north from East 12th Street, 1942 For…
Read More…2011; the other we hope to save from the wrecking ball and get landmarked quite soon. The larger of these two early Meier projects was the renovation of the former…
Read More…a look at some of the other individual landmarking efforts we’ve gotten behind over the years which have turned out well, much as we hope 827-831 Broadway will as well….
Read More…voice to “The Proponents” and the other to “The Opponents.” Unsurprisingly, given its many recent attacks on landmarking, the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) was prominent among the…
Read More…block with a notable musical history, to which the store has added a new chapter, the culmination of the circuitous journey that led Rick there. Rick’s background — the making…
Read More…of working-class New Yorkers escaping the heat. Sloan described the inspiration for this painting as “another of the human comedies which were regularly staged for my enjoyment by humble roof-top…
Read More…GVSHP is working in a number of ways to support small businesses. Here’s two ways you can help: Special Retail District GVSHP and allied community groups are working to get…
Read MoreLawrence Henderson leads a Village Preservation group through downtown Black Heritage sites. Author and NYC tour guide Lawrence Henderson is sharing his research and walking tours with Village Preservation in…
Read More…here. GVSHP has partnered with the Urban Archive App to develop several free guided walking tours. See the bottom of the page for links to additional walking tours. These tours feature…
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