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Tag: Houston Street

Celebrating the Origins of the South Village

December is South Village Month – join us in celebrating this vibrant neighborhood all month long! In December 2016, following a multi-year advocacy campaign spearheaded by Village Preservation, the Sullivan Thompson Historic District was landmarked by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. This dozen-block, 175-building district designation was the culmination of a campaign formally begun by […]

The Largest School in the World

Designed by Charles B.J. Snyder, P.S. 188 opened on September 21, 1902, taking up the entire city block bounded by East Houston and what was then Lewis, Manhattan, and East Third streets. A 1902 New York Times article deemed this building “the largest public school in all the United States, and probably the world.” Designed […]

    Nikola Tesla: Retracing the Visionary’s Lost Legacy in Our Neighborhoods

    Arguably the most important “father of electricity,” Nikola Tesla spent 13 years developing some of his most famous inventions critical to the future of electricity in laboratories located in Greenwich Village, NoHo, and the edge of today’s Chinatown. Emblematic of the way in which the far-sighted Tesla’s legacy and contributions to science were largely undervalued […]

      Alexander Hamilton and the Village

      The hyped musical “Hamilton” opened on Broadway last weekend to rave reviews. The excitement surrounding the musical and the legacy of Alexander Hamilton, one of the United States’ Founding Fathers, has us reflecting back on Village history and preservation related to the famed New Yorker (and his rival, Aaron Burr). 54 MacDougal Street Located in […]

      The Shrine Church of St. Anthony of Padua

      This Thursday evening, September 25, we will present the third program in our series “OMG!: Churches and Synagogues of Greenwich Village.” Father Joseph Lorenzo, O.F.M., pastor at the Shrine Church of St. Anthony of Padua, will present a slideshow and history of the church and the parish. Our previous programs in this series were The […]

      Map It! Manhattan Street

      Last month reader Mike commented on our Lewis Street post that his aunt lived nearby on Houston, and that he remembered seeing a ‘Manhattan Street’ when he visited. I hadn’t heard of Manhattan Street, and since I love looking at old maps, I just had to investigate! Lo and behold, there it was on the […]

      2014 Village Award Winner: Pino Prime Meats

      In the old Italian South Village, St. Anthony of Padua church stands on the corner of Sullivan Street and Houston Street, an anchor for the vibrant community of Italian immigrants who settled in this neighborhood over 100 years ago. Nestled two doors south of the church on Sullivan Street is the venerable Pino Prime Meats, […]

      Kitty Genovese and the Village

      On March 13th, 1964, Kitty Genovese was brutally raped and murdered in Kew Gardens, Queens. The crime, and Kitty Genovese’s name, became symbols of much more than this one savage act. Largely through reporting in the weeks that followed, the murder became a parable of sorts about the unravelling of society, increasing crime, racial fears, […]

      MacDougal, Sullivan, & Thompson

      No, it’s not the name of a law firm. It’s the names of 3 of my favorite streets in the recently-designated South Village Historic District. For many years I lived in the South Village, and often when I gave people directions, I would find myself saying, “Stay on Bleecker, cross 6th Avenue, then you’ll cross […]

      A Silver Anniversary

        While we’re not yet technically at the ‘silver’ (i.e. 25th) anniversary, but November 18th Mark’s the date in 2008 when we were able to get  Silver Towers in the South Village landmarked.  On that day the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to designate this I.M. Pei-designed complex, first proposed by GVSHP in 2003, including its […]

        St. Anthony of Padua – Then and Now

        St. Anthony of Padua Church has stood on Sullivan Street in the South Village since it was designed and built in 1886 by Arthur Crooks. St. Anthony’s is America’s earliest extant Catholic church established to minister to Italians and served the South Village’s growing immigrant Italian population at the turn of the 20th century. Not […]

        From Pier to Park

        As the summertime blanket of heat and humidity descends over the city, our thoughts inevitably move toward the cool breezes found at the city’s waterfront. A little bit south of the Far West Village waterfront that GVSHP fought to get landmarked (see here and here) is the massive concrete structure known as Pier 40. Though […]

        Seinfeld’s Off the Grid Anniversary

        The Brooklyn-born, Long Island-raised, Queens College-educated comedian Jerry Seinfeld was born on April 29, 1954. While no doubt many Off the Grid readers are Seinfeld fans, the following day is another Seinfeld anniversary which strikes even a little nearer and dearer to the heart of this blog.