Pioneers Converge on MacDougal Street: Dr. Robert Hogan, Rev. Henry Highland Garnet, and Sarah Smith Garnet
175 MacDougal Street holds far more history than is visible upon first glance.
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Tag: abolition
Voting Rights For All? 1624-1870
Village Preservation’s curriculum on Black history for middle school students focuses on local, citywide, national, and global themes and movements from pre-European settlement through the 21st century. One of the themes we explore is how voting rights and other civil rights evolved and were won by and for African Americans in our city and elsewhere […]
Take a Virtual Walk! Visit the Homes of Greenwich Village’s Social Change Champions
Greenwich Village has long been the home of many of history’s most important social change champions. Now, using Village Preservation’s interactive map of the Greenwich Village Historic District, we can take a virtual walk through the neighborhood to visit the homes of these remarkable individuals. Get to know a nineteenth century abolitionist, an early-twentieth century […]
Beyond the Village and Back: Harlem’s St. James Presbyterian Church
The St. James Presbyterian Church at 409 West 141st Street, on the corner of St. Nicholas Avenue, stands on the incline of a hill looking eastward over Harlem. The commanding, 1904 neo-Gothic structure boasts an ornate bell tower, visible from the nearby St. Nicholas Park and the City College of New York.
14 historic sites of the abolitionist movement in Greenwich Village
In the years before the abolition of slavery in New York State in 1827 and the Civil War, New York was a hotbed of both pro-slavery and anti-slavery sentiment. The latter group consisted of both prominent African-American institutions and individuals (mostly associated with churches) who organized economically, politically, and socially against slavery, and whites who […]
Underground Railroad Church Once Located in Greenwich Village Led Abolitionist Cause
The Shiloh Presbyterian Church is one of many African American churches once found in Greenwich Village, when nearly all the city’s leading African American churches were located in this neighborhood. Like most of those churches, it played a leading role in the abolitionist movement, and its present-day descendant church can be found in Harlem. But […]
An Intersectional Black History Month Roundup
Black History is Village history, and while many are celebrating Black Futures Month, as a historic preservation organization, we’re glad to amplify a history that often goes unnoticed in the Village. These histories live in the context of the other movements that have their roots in our neighborhoods. So many of these stories are intersectional, […]
African Free School, First in America for Black Students, Found a Home in Greenwich Village
The African Free School was founded on November 2, 1787 in Lower Manhattan by the New-York Manumission Society and founding fathers Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. It was the very first school for blacks in America. Ultimately consisting of seven schools, the system’s third school was located in Greenwich Village, at 120 west 3rd Street, then known […]
Julia Ward Howe, Feminist Pioneer
Julia Ward Howe was a true 19th century Renaissance woman. In addition to being a serious scholar of philosophy and fluent in seven languages, she was a social reformer, writer, abolitionist, suffragette, and one of the early founders of Mother’s Day. Author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” this one-time Bond Street resident did […]
February: GVSHP celebrates African-American History Month
Since 1976, the United States has celebrated Black History Month, also called African-American History Month, in February. Some of our upcoming public programs will join in this celebration. On Thursday, February 4th, historian Joyce Gold will present a lecture and slideshow at the Hudson Park Library about the history of the African-American community in the […]