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Tag: Grace Church

Expanding Preservation Under Beverly Moss Spatt

Beverly Moss Spatt (1924-2023) was a leading figure in New York City planning and preservation for over fifty years. She grew up in Brooklyn where she helped form that borough’s first reform Democratic club. She served on the City Planning Commission from 1966-1970 and the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission from 1974-1982. She served as […]

Local Landmark: Church of the Immaculate Conception and Clergy House, 406-412 East 14th Street

One of the East Village’s earliest designated but perhaps least well known landmarks, is the Church of the Immaculate Conception and Clergy House, located at 406–412 East 14th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A, and designed a NYC landmark June 7th, 1966, just 8 months after the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission began designating landmarks, showing how highly they thought of […]

    The Gilded Village: the Renwicks and the Roosevelts

    This is the latest installment in our Gilded Village blog series. The Gilded Age was a time of contradictions and change: extreme wealth and desperate poverty; political stability and corruption; venal greed and generous philanthropy; social retrenchment and reform; an ever-more powerful establishment and a rising immigrant class. Nowhere were the paradoxes and churn of […]

    #SouthOfUnionSquare Master Architect: James Renwick, Jr.

    The neighborhood #SouthOfUnionSquare can be characterized as a true crossroads — where art, politics, industry, commerce, the New York elite, and the working class collided to create an eclectic built environment and cultural ferment emblematic of New York City’s status as America’s “melting pot.” While some have cited this eclecticism as a reason why the […]

    Beverly Moss Spatt Oral History: the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s First Woman Chair

    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 […]

    As Fifth Avenue Nears 200, A Look Back at How & Where It All Began, and Celebrated 100

    Fifth Avenue, one of New York’s defining thoroughfares, stretches from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village, kicked off (or terminated, depending upon your perspective) by Washington Square Arch. It stretches all the way to West 143rd Street in Harlem, and boasts some of New York’s as well as the country’s most significant architecture, and captures […]

      Why Isn’t This Landmarked?: 808 Broadway, “The Renwick’

      This post is part of our blog series Why Isn’t This Landmarked?, where we look at buildings in our area we’re fighting to protect that are worthy of landmark designation, but somehow aren’t landmarked.  The striking loft building at 806-808 Broadway/104-106 Fourth Avenue, which runs the entire block from Broadway to Fourth Avenue behind Grace […]

      James Renwick, Jr., 19th Century Architect Extraordinaire!

      James Renwick, Jr. was born on November 11, 1818, in New York City.  He would become one of the most successful American architects of the 19th century, designing such high profile buildings as New York City’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the Smithsonian “Castle” in Washington D.C., and Grace Church, right here in our neighborhood on Broadway […]

        Open House New York in Greenwich Village: The history of three unique sites

        Among the many delights included in this weekend’s Open House New York will be three iconic Greenwich Village buildings–a Gothic Revival church with many architectural firsts, a library that was originally a courthouse which heard the “Trial of the Century,” and a groundbreaking artists’ housing complex that was formerly home to Bell Telephone Labs and the site […]

        Mourning President Lincoln Along Broadway

        This is an updated re-posting of a piece originally penned by GVSHP staff member Drew Durniak. It was on April 14, 1865 that President Abraham Lincoln was fatally shot by actor John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater in Washington. The event was the first assassination of an American president and sent shock waves throughout the nation. […]

        Miriam Cahn Collection

        Longtime GVSHP member Miriam Cahn has called the Village her home for over 45 years. She was a special education teacher at Lennox Hill Hospital for many years before retiring to fulfill her calling as an artist. She recently contacted GVSHP to donate some of her extensive art collection to GVSHP. Her original collection covers a […]

        What Style is It? Mid-19th Century Edition

        Greenwich Village, the East Village and NoHo offer a vast array of architectural styles that span their long histories.  Through this series “What Style Is It?” we will explore the architecture of our area and look at the various architectural styles and their features.  So far we have looked at the Federal style and Greek Revival. […]

        Sacred Sites Open House Weekend Coming Up!

        GVSHP is proud to be a co-sponsor of the New York Landmarks Conservancy’s Sacred Sites Open House Weekend, which is this weekend, Saturday May 16th and Sunday May 17th.  According to NYLC: Each spring, congregations throughout the State open their doors so neighbors can experience first-hand the wonderful art, architecture, and history embodied in New […]

        Village Scenes: A March of Snow and Sunshine

        After a long, cold, and snowy January and February, Mother Nature decided we weren’t quite ready for spring just because our calendars told us it was March. Only a few days into the month, the city was covered in snow. While we weren’t exactly thrilled, we couldn’t help but notice how pretty the neighborhood looked. […]

          The Beauty of the University Place & Broadway Corridors

          Last week’s community meeting about the need to better preserve and protect the Village’s University Place and Broadway corridors was a great success.  Well attended, participants at the meeting were extremely engaged and enthusiastic, and there appeared to be a very strong consensus about the need to change the current state of affairs which allows […]

          Building Profile: St. Denis Hotel

          Completed in 1853, by architect James Renwick, the St. Denis Hotel stood at the corner of East 11th Street and Broadway. The property, which was owned by the Renwick family, had been given to them by their relative, Henry Brevoort, a successful farmer and prominent landowner during the late eighteenth century. The hotel was named […]

            Building Broadway: Incredible Photographs from 1920

            Here we are in the midst of the holiday season. The city was blanketed with snow this weekend and shoppers are frantically working through their holiday gift-giving lists. For today’s Building Broadway post, I’d like to share a wonderful gift that was left to all of us almost 100 years ago: Arthur Hosking’s photographs of […]

            When Greenwich Village was farmland

            Here in Greenwich Village, we are surrounded by history.  So sometimes when I walk the streets, I try to imagine what life was like at different times in the past. When I see modest Federal style houses, I imagine a time in the early 1800’s when fresh water didn’t come from a faucet, but was […]

            McCreery’s Then & Now: Dry Goods to Duplexes

              The middle of the 19th Century saw an influx of wealthy New Yorkers moving north of Washington Square.  To cater to this growing population, lavish new developments began to spring up around Union Square.  Gothic Revival religious institutions such as the James Renwick-designed Grace Church and the Richard Upjohn-designed Church of the Ascension (a […]

              NYU Renovation Tosses Architecture and History Out the Window

              It’s disappointing but hardly surprising — NYU destroying a small but important piece of the Village’s architectural heritage and character.  What is puzzling, however, is how utterly unnecessary the destruction appears to be. NYU is renovating its Brittany Hall dormitory at 55 East 10th Street, at the northwest corner of Broadway.  The 15-story tower is […]

              An Illustrated Trip Down Broadway

              We recently highlighted the marvelous illustration work of James Gulliver Hancock as he continues in his attempt to draw all the buildings in New York. This week, we thought we’d take a look at a much earlier attempt at cataloging the city – a great set of illustrations of Broadway from Bowling Green to 59th […]

              Newest Library Acquisition

              Over the summer we told you about the 1959 Greenwich Village Guide book published under the auspices of The Villager newspaper.  This past week GVSHP received a donation to our library which included a 1947 version of the Greenwich Village Guide.  This edition features advertisements from some venerable Village businesses and institutions.

              Baking on Broadway — Then and Now

              Standing where Broadway begins its curve to the west at 10th Street, the landmarked Grace Church has been a fixture of Broadway’s landscape for over 160 years. James Renwick Jr.’s gothic masterpiece was consecrated in 1846 after the congregation moved uptown from its original location at Broadway and Rector Street. The 1890s photo above shows […]

              Sneak a Peek Inside Four Village Churches This Weekend

              This weekend, our friends over at the New York Landmarks Conservancy are hosting a state-wide, free-of-charge Sacred Sites Open House Weekend. The event offers a fantastic opportunity to take shelter from the rain inside 140 religious structures all across New York State, including four churches right here in the Village!