In the 1910’s — a period known as “the Greenwich Village Renaissance,” when a great flowering a radical political, cultural, and artistic ferment emerged took root this neighborhood — a new fashion trend also emerged from the bohemian subculture of Greenwich Village. Women began cutting their hair, removing their corsets, and wearing loose fitting clothes […]
Born in March 1873, Inez Haynes Irwin, otherwise known as Inez Haynes Gillmore, was a remarkable suffragette, author, and feminist that once resided here in Greenwich Village at 240 West 11th Street. Inez had a storied life that went against many of the societal norms for women at that time. In one of her first […]
On Thursday, December 8th, the audience of our program “Village Preservation at Westbeth Gallery’s Winter Show” had the opportunity to hear directly from artist and Westbeth resident Christina Maile. Christina is self described as trained as a landscape architect, her writing and visual work references colonialism, feminism and extinction and she is of Dayak and West Indian descent.
Everyone in the audience at the gallery very quickly became aware of the depth of knowledge Christina has to share about Westbeth Artists Housing. This program was a great introduction to the launch of Christina’s oral history with Village Preservation, which is available here on our website.
In the early 20th century, Greenwich Village was teeming with vitality and possibility. Great intellectuals met on street corners, in cafes, as part of clubs, using the neighborhood as a playground for their minds to connect and create. One center of such interactions was the Heterodoxy Club, the women’s debating group that created common ground […]
Fiercely independent and feverishly devoted, Jeannette Rankin (June 11, 1880 – May 18, 1973) was the first woman to be elected to Congress in 1916, three years before women across the country were granted suffrage by the 19th Amendment. She is known not only for this feat, but for being one of 50 members of […]
On the northeastern edge of the Greenwich Village Historic District, at 21 East 11th Street, just west of University Place, sits an 1848 late Greek Revival townhouse with a wide stoop topped with a transitional Italianate door. The beautifully preserved townhouse bears a red Historic Landmarks Preservation Center Cultural Medallion in honor of trailblazing landscape […]
Village Preservation shares our oral history collection with the public, highlighting some of the people and stories that make Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo such unique and vibrant neighborhoods. Each includes the experiences and insights of leaders or long-time participants in the arts, culture, preservation, business, or civic life. Beverly Moss Spatt has […]
The 1892 McKim, Mead & White Italianate Eclectic style Baptist church on Washington Square set the scene for some of feminist artist Carolee Schneemann’s most notorious works of kinetic theater – including 1964’s groundbreaking “Meat Joy.
There are many important takeaways from Village Preservation’s 19th Amendment Centennial StoryMap; there are a remarkable number of people and places in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo who played key roles in the women’s suffrage movement. That these neighborhoods were long centers of political ferment and progressive social change, and people here played […]
This is one in a series of posts marking the 50th anniversary of the designation of the Greenwich Village Historic District. Click here to check out our year-long activities and celebrations. Aviatrix Amelia Earhart is a household name for shattering a record-breaking 18,415-foot glass ceiling in her airplane. Almost as famous is her mysterious disappearance […]
Valerie Solanas (April 9, 1936 – April 25, 1988) is nothing if not divisive. She was a mysterious Villager known for being a radical lesbian feminist separatist, for writing the wild, controversial SCUM Manifesto, for shooting Andy Warhol and two others at Warhol’s Factory in Union Square and defending herself at her trial. It’s clear that what is known […]
In June, 2015 GVSHP was proud to award Barbara Shaum a Village Award. We are very sad to share the news that she passed away in September. Her longtime friend Eleanor Magid and her granddaughter Amity Paye shared a beautiful obituary they wrote with us: Barbara Shaum, New York’s doyenne of custom-made sandals, died at […]
The 1960’s was a turbulent decade marked by numerous notable murders, assassinations, and attempted assassinations (some of which, like the Martin Luther King Jr. assassination, the Bobby Kennedy assassination, and the murder of Kitty Genovese, have previously been chronicled on Off the Grid). But one may have shook downtown more deeply and personally than any […]
Betty Friedan’s (February 4, 1921 – February 4, 2006) seminal work, The Feminine Mystique, was published on February 19, 1963 by W.W. Norton publishers, then located at 55 Fifth Avenue. After authoring The Feminine Mystique, Friedan would go on to become the national voice of second-wave feminism, help found the National Organization for Women (and serve as […]
