Nestled in the vibrant streets of New York City’s East Village at 135 Second Avenue, the Ottendorfer Library stands as a testament to the multicultural and linguistic tapestry that has woven itself into the city’s history. Founded by a visionary immigrant, the library has played a pivotal role in fostering diversity, education, and cultural exchange. […]
On October 6, 1683, thirteen families arrived in Philadelphia and founded the first German settlement in North America. Since then, generations of Germans have immigrated to the United States, with the greatest influx arriving in the mid-19th century following the revolutions of 1848. Manhattan became a main destination for these immigrants, especially the East Village, […]
The area of Greenwich Village and the East Village south of Union Square, for which Village Preservation has been advocating landmark protections, is the center of an amazing and dynamic collection of histories. Village Preservation’s South of Union Square Map+Tours is an online interactive tool that allows users to journey back in time to explore and […]
On October 28, 2014, the structure at 334 E. 14th Street that architectural historian Francis Morrone calls “one of the most important buildings in the East Village” was designated a New York City landmark. Designed in 1866 by Julius Boekell, creator of a wide variety of significant buildings around the city, it serves as both a […]
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. I’ve walked by 86 University Place between 11th and 12th Streets, aka “Mittelstaedt House,” countless times. Based upon the unusually elaborate cornice alone, I have […]
On August 12th, 1882, the very first Yiddish theatrical performance in New York City was held in a building which still stands at 66 East 4th Street, between the Bowery and Second Avenue. Over the next four decades, the Yiddish theater would become a focal point and social outlet for the 3.5 million Jews that […]
Immigration means something different to everyone — it reminds us of our ancestors, of how the world is constantly changing, or of how, as people, we are always on the move. Our neighborhoods, and New York City in general, are a global hub for movement and have been for hundreds of years. This history is […]
From the mid-19th through the early 20th century, the East Village was the center of what came to be known as Kleindeutschland, or “Little Germany” – the largest German-speaking community in the world outside of Berlin and Vienna. It contained countless houses of worship, social halls, labor and community organizations, charitable institutions, and eating and drinking […]
It might be temporarily closed for renovations, but when the Ottendorfer Branch of the New York Public Library opened in 1884 it was New York City’s first free public library, and was designated a New York City landmark on September 20, 1977.
This post is part of a series about Village blocks that correspond to calendar dates. You can read some of the other ones here. August is here and so is another date that corresponds with a Village intersection! As we are now in the 8th month, we’re taking a look at every East Villager’s favorite […]
On June 15, 1904, a disaster of unprecedented proportions took place in New York City, resulting in the loss of over 1,000 lives, mostly women and children. This largely forgotten event was the greatest peacetime loss of life in New York City history prior to the September 11th attacks, forever changing our city and the […]
I recently wrote about the rich and interesting cultural history behind the Ukrainian National Home, located at 140-142 Second Avenue just south of 9th Street in the East Village, for the website 6sqft. That incredibly diverse story extends from Peter Stuyvesant and his direct descendants to German teetotalers, Jewish gangsters, Ukrainian Nationalists, Dixieland Jazz stars, […]
On July 19, 1799, the Rosetta Stone was discovered during the Napoleonic Campaign in Egypt. This stele is inscribed in three languages — Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Demotic, and Ancient Greek — and became the key to finally translating and unlocking the secrets of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic script. Like ancient Egypt, our neighborhoods have been a shifting […]
Tucked away on East 7th Street between Avenues C and D is the former Beth Hamedrash Hagadol Anshe Ungarn. This small synagogue, designed in the classical revival style, is set amidst Old and New Law tenements. It’s a small but striking reminder of a time when New York was home to the second largest Jewish community […]
In the late 19th and early 20th Century, the East Village and Lower East Side were home to a substantial German immigrant community. As a result, this area became known as Kleindeutschland, or “Little Germany.” Eventually the German community moved north to the Upper East Side and elsewhere, spurred on by the General Slocum Disaster, demographic […]
New York is renowned for its vibrant immigrant history, and the many diverse neighborhoods born out of years of heavy immigration in the 19th and early 20th-centuries. But for all that still exists of famed neighborhoods like Little Italy, the Jewish Lower East Side, or Brooklyn’s Italian Bensonhurst, there are many immigrant enclaves virtually lost […]
Forty-seven years ago, on January 14th 1969, the Landmarks Preservation Commission concluded that, “On the basis of a careful consideration of the history, the architecture and other features of this area, the Landmarks Preservation Commission finds that the St. Mark’s Historic District contains buildings and other improvements which have a special character and special historical […]
This post is the second of a three-part series called Histories of Fourth Street, from East to West, a collaboration between GVSHP and the students in NYU’s Fall 2015 Intro to Public History course. Each group of students was tasked with preparing a presentation around a particular topic concerning a section or block of Fourth […]
Today is Yom Kippur, so let’s take a look at some East Village buildings that are, or used to be, synagogues. Jewish immigrants to the East Village and Lower East Side were a significant segment of the population of these neighborhoods, particularly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Sixth Street Community Center, 638 East […]
The Ottendorfer Branch of the New York Public Library (NYPL) at 135 Second Avenue was designated an individual New York City landmark September 20, 1977. The library was built in 1883-4 by Oswald Ottendorfer, a wealthy German newspaper magnate, along with the adjoining Stuyvesant Polyclinic Hospital. These buildings are both representative of Kleindeutschland, or “Little Germany,” […]
In celebration of Valentine’s Day today, we thought we would tip our hats to some of our neighborhood’s architectural cherubs. There’s a wonderfully rich supply of them in the East Village, particularly within what had been known in the late 19th and early 20th century as “Kleine Deutschland” or “Little Germany,” the area centered along […]
This post is part of the Looking Up series, which explores the unique architectural and historical stories that can be discovered when we raise our gaze above the sidewalk, the storefront, and the second floor. Adjacent to the Ottendorfer branch of the New York Public Library on 2nd Avenue north of St. Mark’s Place is […]
This is part of the Looking Up series of posts, which explore the unique architectural and historical stories that can be discovered when we raise our gaze above the sidewalk, the storefront, and the second floor. The stretch of St. Mark’s Place between Second and Third Avenues holds a variety of building types — tenements […]
This post is the first 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 […]
Walking East 3rd Street is a collaboration between GVSHP and the students in NYU’s Fall 2012 Intro to Public History course. Each pair of students was tasked with researching the cultural history of one particular block of East 3rd Street and sharing with us something fascinating they discovered along the way. All posts in the […]
Today is the 108th anniversary of the General Slocum disaster. The greatest loss of life in New York City before 9/11, this singularly important event had a particularly profound impact on the East Village. On the morning of June 15, 1904 the steamship General Slocum set off on a journey to the Locust Grove Picnic […]
Walking along East 2nd Street, between Avenue A and First Avenue, you might have noticed a historic building that, in terms of its age and style, seems out of context with its immediate neighbors. It now serves as a residence, but what was it originally and who used it? And what’s with the parking lot […]
Last week, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to landmark East 10th Street, from Avenue A to Avenue B. So we thought we would welcome our newest district with a quick overview. Learn more about GVSHP’s efforts to landmark this district.
Walking East 7th Street is a collaboration between GVSHP and the students in NYU’s Fall 2011 Intro to Public History course. Each pair of students was tasked with researching the cultural history of one particular block of East 7th Street and sharing with us something fascinating they discovered along the way. All posts in the […]
On the morning of June 15, 1904, the General Slocum steamship set sail carrying over 1,300 passengers, most of whom were women and children and members of the East Village’s German Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Mark at 325 East 6th Street. Passengers were headed for a pleasant Sunday jaunt to the Locust Grove Picnic […]
Our survey of every single building in the East Village has left us questioning some of the neighborhood folklore we’ve always taken for granted. For instance, the building at 105-107 Third Avenue, most people assume, has been home to Kiehl’s Since 1851 since, well, 1851. But the building is clearly styled in a late 19th-century fashion. […]