← View All

Tag: East Village Building Blocks

Get Lost in History: Creating Self-Guided Neighborhood Walking Tours with Maps

Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo, with their charming streets, historic landmarks, and vibrant culture, are neighborhoods that beg to be explored on foot. Whether you’re a seasoned New Yorker or a curious visitor, there’s no better way to soak in these incredible neighborhoods’ rich history and artistic energy than by taking a walking […]

Building Blocks in the East Village, One Story At A Time…

You often hear it said that every building tells a story. This insight sounds reasonable enough. But if you don’t know what the story is, you’ll find yourself standing in front of a taciturn building wondering what you’re looking at. This would be a shame, particularly in a neighborhood like the East Village, where so […]

    Touring the Churches of the East Village

    The East Village is a neighborhood known for its rich history, diversity, and creative culture. That diversity includes the wealth of religious institutions found across the neighborhood, as highlighted by our Churches Tour on our East Village Building Blocks website. Covering a span from 1799 to 1970, stops on the tour include the oldest site […]

    Village Preservation Resources for African American History Month

    Welcome to February, and African American History Month! Village Preservation has long documented the stories behind the streets, buildings and people of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo. Those investigations have enabled us to offer several great resources to learn more about our neighborhoods, including our African American history, including our Civil Rights and […]

    The Evolution of Tenement Typologies in the East Village 

    The East Village is one of New York City’s most historically dynamic neighborhoods, as evidenced by its rich and diverse built environment. The neighborhood displays excellent examples of so many types of dense urban housing present in New York City, from single-family rowhouses to tenements of the “pre,” “old,” and “new” law typologies, to public […]

    The Gardens Less Travelled

    When spring arrives, our wonderful neighborhoods are alive with activity. Many more people are out and about, enjoying the unique beauty of our slice of the big city, where you can see the blue sky and the greenery of gardens, trees and flowers. The multitude of green spaces in our neighborhoods beckon at these times. And […]

    East Village Building Blocks Tour: Churches

    Churches often represent some of the most historic and stunning architecture in a community, and that’s as true if not more so of the East Village as it is of anyplace else. East Village churches range in date of construction from 1799 to 1970, come in a variety of styles and sizes, and include the […]

    John’s of The Village

    No, this post is not about where to find public restrooms in the Village. It is, though, about a very important part of New York City’s culture: Italian cuisine. Italian Immigrants have made a lasting impact on both Greenwich Village and the East Village, both of which had significant Italian immigrant and Italian-American communities.  Many […]

      East Village Building Blocks Tour: Little Ukraine

      Our neighborhoods are gloriously filled with immigration history. The East Village alone could tell a vast part of America’s immigration history. One such group that immigrated to our shores and landed in our neighborhood is the focus of our attention today — Ukrainians! To explore some of the Ukrainian sites in the neighborhood, we’re sharing […]

        East Village Building Blocks Tour: the LGBTQ East Village

        While the neighboring West Village may have the more well-known sites, the East Village contains a rich assortment of places connected to LGBTQ history, including the homes of noted artists, writers, musicians, and activists. It also holds a vast array of performance venues and gathering spaces that attracted and helped launch the careers of many […]

          East Village Building Blocks Tour: Synagogues

          If you’re walking around the East Village, you’re likely standing on (or near) holy ground. To illustrate this, we’ve created a tour of current and former synagogues in the neighborhood. This incredibly rich, multi-layered community was home to some remarkably beautiful houses of worship with stained glass, turrets, and more still visible. While many of […]

          A Walk Through Astor Land with East Village Building Blocks

          One of New York most prolific and high-profile building families, the Astors left their indelible mark on countless areas of the city. Though their name is typically connected to grand pieces of our city’s history, like the Astor Library and, of course, Astor Place, an enormous collection of their output hides almost in plain sight: […]

          A Building Blocks Tour of East Village Landmarks

          We have just added a new tour to our wildly popular East Village Building Blocks, our online tool which provides invaluable information about over 2,200 properties in the East Village. This tour takes you through the thirty individual New York City landmarks in the East Village  — one of the highest concentrations in New York […]

            A History of the East Village and its Architecture

            Village Preservation’s East Village Building Blocks, our web-based tool which provides information on each property in the East Village, has been wildly popular since its release just over a month ago. Equally popular has been the accompanying, in-depth report on the East Village by architectural historian Francis Morrone entitled, “A History of the East Village […]

              African American History in the East Village

              The East Village is probably not the first neighborhood that comes to mind when most New Yorkers think about African American history.  But this incredibly rich, multi-layered neighborhood was home to some remarkably consequential events, places, and figures in African-American history. To help explore just some of them, we have created a new African American […]

              Uncovering Mysteries in East Village Building Blocks

              In a recent post, we discussed the many resources that we used to research the over 2,200 properties that are featured in our online tool, East Village Building Blocks. In that post, we looked at how we figured out the history of two buildings which are easily discernible as 19th-century structures. Today we thought we […]

                15 things you didn’t know about the East Village

                Earlier this month, GVSHP launched its East Village Preservation effort, releasing its new website “East Village Building Blocks,” which contains historic information and images for every one of the neighborhood’s 2,200 buildings. Of course, any neighborhood spanning five centuries of history and nearly 100 blocks will reveal some surprises when you scratch the surface. But the East Village’s story has […]

                East Village Community Garden Dreaming with Building Blocks

                On these chilly late-January days, a little virtual trip through some lush, breezy gardens might just help to lift the spirits. With our recent launch of East Village Building Blocks, not only can you explore every building between 14th Street and East Houston, 4th Avenue and the East River, but you can also delve into […]

                  Research Resources for East Village Building Blocks

                  GVSHP’s recently-released East Village Building Blocks online web tool provides invaluable information about over 2,200 properties in the East Village, including each building’s date of construction, original architect, original use, and more. This resource was over ten years in the making, and with so many of the structures having been built before New York City had […]