Village Preservation previously conducted extensive research on the history of one particularly peculiar East Village Building, 143-145 Avenue D. This research culminated in a five-part blog series which was eventually used as part of the buildings entry on our East Village Building Block Resource. We were recently reminded of this building’s fascinating history following the […]
In our blog series Beyond the Village and Back, we take a look at some great landmarks throughout New York City outside of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo, celebrate their special histories, and reveal their (sometimes hidden) connections to our neighborhoods. Explore our Beyond the Village and Back maps too. Sometimes we only have to go a […]
Alphabet City owes much of its initial development to shipbuilding, the industry that used to dominate the area. Known as the Dry Dock District, this area used to bustle with thousands of workers building waterborne vessels, as well as in supporting trades such as iron works and wood mills. Residences were built around the area […]
On Monday, October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy a.k.a. “Superstorm Sandy” made landfall in New York. It was one of the most devastating natural disasters to ever hit New York. It inflicted $19 billion in damages and killed 43 people in New York City. Many neighborhoods in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Queens were flooded by the 14-foot storm […]
The utilitarian building at 151 Avenue C between 9th and 10th Streets would hardly elicit a second glance from the casual passerby today. But its unassuming looks belie the incredible story of how Gilded Age science and philanthropy converged here to save thousands of children’s lives. In the 1800s, intestinal infections and diseases like tuberculosis caused by […]
On this day in 1979, The Talking Heads released their single ‘Life During Wartime‘ from the album Fear of Music. The song not only went on the be a classic of the band’s, the era, and the genre, but perhaps no song better captured the anarchic, chaotic, and ultimately creative feeling of the East Village/Lower […]
John Lequizamo, arguably one of the Village’s funniest residents, was not always a preservationist. As he remarked in a recent interview in the New York Times, his therapist recommended that he “get a hobby.” The entertainment business is notoriously rife with stress, and Mr. Leguizamo has been in the business of show for quite a […]
On April 29, 1996, playwright Jonathan Larson’s Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning musical “Rent” made its Broadway debut at The Nederlander Theatre. As many Broadway show-goers and longtime East Village residents already know, “Rent” takes place in the heart of the East Village during the AIDS epidemic in the mid-to-late 1980s. This legendary rock […]
Kids today still know what a pencil is and how to sharpen it, right? In any case, following the news of P.S. 64 we reported on earlier this week, we thought we’d take a look at another (even older) East Village school later converted to community use. This former H-plan school building was constructed in […]
Next in the Map It! series is 7th Street Place, aka Leandert’s Place and St. Bridget’s Street, a long-lost alleyway on the Avenue B side of Tompkin’s Square Park between 7th and 8th Streets that angled toward the center of the block behind Nos. 183 to 197 East 7th. The skewed property line dates to […]
This post is the last of a four-part series called Everyday Lives, Ordinary People: A History of East Village Immigrants, a collaboration between GVSHP and the students in NYU’s Fall 2013 Intro to Public History course. Each group of students was tasked with researching the cultural history of everyday people in the East Village between […]
On Avenue C between 9th and 10th Streets sits a small, unassuming two-story garage. Chances are you’ve walked past it and never even noticed it. The large garage door with spray-painted “No Parking” message is less than inspiring. However, this building was once witness to history. In 1891, the leading cause of child mortality was […]
Tomorrow evening GVSHP will be holding a special event at one of the East Village’s newest cultural hot spots- the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MORUS). Opened on December 8, 2012, on Avenue C between 9th and 10th Streets, MORUS preserves neighborhood history of the East Village and promotes scholarship of grassroots urban activism by […]
Louisiana’s notorious Angola State Prison. Folk singer Pete Seeger. The Dry Dock District in Alphabet City. The Library of Congress. Kurt Cobain. http://youtu.be/mcXYz0gtJeM?t=15s Seemingly unrelated, right? Not exactly. They are all connected to legendary folk musician Huddie William “Lead Belly” Ledbetter, who died from Lou Gehrig’s disease on December 6, 1949. If you don’t know […]
Walking down the quiet, shady block of East 3rd Street between Avenues C and D, the last thing you would expect to stumble upon is an art gallery. But look no further than number 292 where you will find a community gallery, founded by squatters, officially known as Bullet Space. If you’re intrigued, let’s start […]
Many of you may remember the unusual, eclectic toy tower that once stood in the 6th & B Community Garden on Avenue B and East 6th Street. The East Village has a wealth of community gardens and 6th & B is definitely one of the most spirited in the neighborhood. The garden was started in […]
This is post #5 in a series devoted to our ongoing research of 143-145 Ave D, documenting all of the detours & discoveries uncovered along the way. For background, see parts one, two, three and four. If you’ve been following our forays into the rich and storied history of 143-145 Avenue D, you’re aware of […]
No, we’re not referencing the catchy pop song of a similar title (although it’s now stuck in our heads!). We’re talking about the Umbrella House, 21-23 Avenue C, between East 2nd and 3rd Streets- the building with the lively umbrellas suspended from its facade. Built in 1899 as an Old Law Tenement by prominent East […]
This is post #4 in a series devoted to our ongoing research of 143-145 Ave D, documenting all of the detours & discoveries uncovered along the way (for background, see parts one, two and three) It’s been a while since we’ve shown some love to one of our favorite buildings over at 143-145 Avenue D, […]
This is post #3 in a series devoted to our research of the fascinating building at 143-145 Avenue D. Those of you who have been following our research on 143-145 Avenue D – the oldest extant building in Alphabet City (for background, see parts one and two) – are now well-versed in the building’s connection […]
This is post #2 in a series devoted to our ongoing research of 143-145 Ave D, documenting all of the detours & discoveries uncovered along the way. For background, see part one. As we mentioned in our first post in this series, certain elements on the facade of 143-145 Avenue D initially gave us a […]
What follows is first in a series of posts devoted to our research of the fascinating building at 143-145 Avenue D. Early last year, while surveying Alphabet City as part of our research on the history of every single building in the East Village, we became interested in 143-145 Avenue D – at first glance […]
