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Tag: Little Africa

Celebrate Black History with Village Preservation’s Public Programs, Past and Present

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. […]

Landmarks of Little Africa: Black History in the South 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 […]

Harlem’s Great Churches and the Struggle for Abolition, Beyond the Village and Back

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. […]

Three Takeaways from Escape from New York: The 1822 Yellow Fever Outbreak and the Creation of Greenwich Village

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.

Civil Rights History at 92 Grove Street

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 […]

    Saul Bellow and 17 Minetta Street

    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’s West Village Scenes

    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 […]

    Henry Highland Garnet and the Village

    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.

      Interior Artwork of Our Lady of Pompeii Church

      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 […]

        July 9, 1819: Slavery, Gentrification, and the Last Execution in Washington Square

        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 […]

        The Freedman’s Bank in the South Village

        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 […]

        African American history in the Sullivan Thompson Historic District

        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 […]

        Tenements of the South Village

        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 […]

        Tales from the Crypt: Greenwich Village as seen through its burial sites

        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 […]

        Map It! Minetta Street, Lane, and…Place?

        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 […]

        Off the Grid: Minetta Street and Minetta Lane

        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 […]