Greenwich Village has long been a hub of creativity, activism, and cultural exchange, and its Black history is deeply woven into the neighborhood’s identity. From the early days of New York City’s African American communities to the Civil Rights Movement and beyond, Black residents have shaped the social, artistic, and political fabric of the Village. […]
In honor of the incredible strides made in preserving the South Village over the past two decades, Village Preservation has named December “South Village Month” in honor of our kicking off and finishing off our ten-year landmarking campaign in the last month of the year. The three historic district designations and half dozen individual landmark […]
The churches of Harlem have long served as essential institutions in the neighborhood, shaping not only the spiritual lives of residents, but also the bonds that strengthen community. Many great churches, including Mother A.M.E. Zion Church, the Abyssinian Baptist Church, and St. James Presbyterian Church established their present-day homes in Upper Manhattan in the 1920s. […]
us through our history with insights that help us understand our own times as much as we begin to understand the past. We hope you check out James and Michelle’s work and continue to come along such journeys through Village Preservation’s programming.
There are many sites throughout Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo that have played an important role in Black history and the struggle for civil rights in the United States. One of those sites, located in the West Village across from Sheridan Square, did so twice, in two separate centuries, in two very different […]
Beginning in the late 18th century, the area more or less defined by today’s Bleecker, Mercer, Thompson, Sullivan, MacDougal, and Carmine Streets started to grow as a free Black community in New York City. Institutions were formed — the Abyssinian Baptist Church moved to 166 Waverly Place in 1864 and stayed there for four decades; […]
Ira Frederick Aldridge is today remembered as one of the most renowned actors of the nineteenth century.
The Abyssinian Baptist Church at 136-142 West 138th Street is the home of the second oldest African-American congregation in Manhattan, and has long been a center of civil rights and social justice activism.
Minetta Street is one of the most charming and unique “corners” of Greenwich Village. I say corners, of course, because this one block-long street literally bends at nearly a 45-degree angle between Minetta Lane and the intersection of Sixth Avenue and Bleecker Street. This narrow street features small 19th century homes and 20th-century apartment buildings, […]
If Beale Street Could Talk is the newest release from award-winning filmmaker Barry Jenkins. The film is Jenkins’s adaptation of a novella by James Baldwin of the same name. The story, based in 1970s New York City, is about mother-and-wife-to-be Tish, who vividly recalls the passion, respect and trust that have connected her and her […]
On December 23, 1815, African-American abolitionist, minister, educator, and orator Henry Highland Garnet was born into slavery. Garnet escaped his bondage and worked hard to fight for himself and the African-American community, eventually becoming the first African-American to address the United States House of Representatives. He also at one time resided at 185 Bleecker Street.
The Center For Migration Studies has provided GVSHP with historic images in the past, and recently sent us several images of the interior artwork of Our Lady of Pompeii church. The church has stood on the northwest corner of Carmine and Bleecker Streets since 1928, but the congregation dates back to 1892, when Father Pietro […]
On November 1, 1871, one of America’s most influential writers, Stephen Crane, was born in Newark, New Jersey. He is probably best know for his Civil War novel The Red Badge of Courage, which he wrote from his home at 61 Washington Square South, part of what was known as “Genius Row” — so named […]
On March 30, 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was certified as duly ratified, prohibiting the denial of citizens the right to vote based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude” by state or federal government. This was of course meant to ensure that African-American men could vote, though that right was […]
This is a re-posting of a piece written by GVSHP’s Matthew Morowitz. Sunday, July 9th marked the 198th anniversary of the last execution that took place in Washington Square – the site of our neighborhood’s now-beloved public park. To commemorate this striking and layered anniversary, we are reposting an article on the subject originally written […]
On March 3, 1865, The Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company, commonly referred to as The Freedmen’s Bank, was created by the United States Congress to aid freedmen in their transition from slavery to freedom. During the bank’s existence, 37 branches were opened in 17 states and the District of Columbia, making it one of the […]
On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Witnesses point towards the fleeing gunman moments after King was shot. This ended the life of one of the 20th century’s most revered and influential figures. It also began a fifteen year […]
February is Black History Month. We here at GVSHP are celebrating it by highlighting different sites and locations of significance to African-American history in the Village. A great source for this is our recently-released Civil Rights & Social Justice Map.
February is Black History Month. We here at GVSHP want to celebrate it by highlighting different sites of significance to the African-American community within our neighborhoods. Over the course of the next month we will be discussing some of these areas that we have marked on our new Civil Rights & Social Justice Map, looking at […]
Off the Grid has previously taken a look at African American history in the South Village, which was home to almost a quarter of the city’s African-American population during the mid-19th century and known as “Little Africa.” The newly designated Sullivan-Thompson Historic District included part of “Little Africa,” and in looking at the recently published designation report for […]
As mentioned in the GVSHP testimony at the designation hearing for the Sullivan-Thompson historic district, the majority of the historic fabric in this district is its tenements. Here is a laboratory and cross-section of tenement types which served as the homes for much of NYC’s African American community in the 19th century as well as many […]
Burial spaces serve a wide variety of purposes: religious, political, socioeconomic. For example, a graveyard might demarcate the boundary of a church or private property, while the kind of interment that was undertaken (burial, cremation, mausoleum) might give insight into the roles and statuses the deceased maintained in their lifetime. It also gives us insight […]
Over the last several weeks GVSHP has been taking a look at the designation report for the new South Village Historic District which we fought ten years to achieve. As February is African-American History Month, now seems like an especially appropriate time to highlight the African-American history of the South Village, the subject of a […]
We’re gearing up for tomorrow’s LPC public meeting in which the commissioners will vote to “calendar” the proposed South Village Historic District. With this in mind, we thought we’d take a look at some buildings that once existed in the proposed area as part of our Map It! series. While Minetta Brook has long been […]
On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. This ended the life of one of the 20th century’s most revered and influential figures. It also began a fifteen year campaign to make Dr. King’s Birthday a national holiday — the […]
For historic preservationists, who often use the built environment as a major source of information about a community’s past, the hardest stories to capture are those where the physical trace no longer remains. We can find evidence of the many communities that have called the Village home over the years in the built fabric of […]
Columbus Day has traditionally served as an opportunity to honor the contributions of Italian-Americans to our country. The South Village is one of New York’s great immigrant neighborhoods from the last great wave of immigration to New York and the United States at the turn of the last century. Thousands of immigrants, mostly but not […]
Today is the 200th anniversary of the official adoption of the Manhattan street grid, an event of enormous importance to New York as a whole, and in a slightly different way, to neighborhoods like the Village, East Village, and NoHo, which have remained in large part defiantly “off the grid.” Perhaps one of the most […]
