October is Italian American History and Heritage month, and it is impossible to deny the influence that Italian culture and immigration has had on our neighborhoods. This is especially true in the South Village, an area which in the early 1900s was a predominantly Italian neighborhood, and one near and dear to Village Preservation’s heart, […]
If you ever find yourself taking a stroll in the far West Village (and I highly recommend you do), follow West 11th Street almost as far as the West Side Highway and Hudson River, and you will stumble upon a special reminder of the area’s history. The residential building at 354 West 11th Street, located […]
As a historian, researcher, and photographer active in preservation, Susan De Vries has been a valued contributor to the field for over two decades. Recently, we’ve added some of her photographs to our Historic Image Archive. Within these collections are images of some of the historic buildings we’ve worked to protect over the past few decades. Early in […]
Today we welcome Dena Tasse-Winter as Village Preservation’s Director of Research and Preservation. A native New Yorker, Dena joins us with a background in architectural and landscape history, archival research and writing expertise, and extensive experience within the governmental and cultural non-profit sectors in both New York City and Washington, D.C. Prior to joining Village […]
The Greenwich Village Historic District (GVHD) was designated (landmarked) on April 29, 1969. The district holds some of the most important and beautiful parts of Greenwich Village within its bounds — from Washington Square to Abingdon Square, from the New School to the New York Studio School. Historic houses of worship and historic houses, key sites […]
Last Thursday, Village Preservation was joined by Borough President Gale Brewer, Assemblymember Deborah Glick, the Historic Districts Council, Save Chelsea, Save Gansevoort, a representative of State Senator Brad Hoylman, and Third Council District Democratic Nominee Erik Bottcher for a demonstration and press conference condemning the city and a developer tearing down most of nine city, […]
We’re proud to share with the public new historic images and materials from a 1979 proposal by Greenwich Village architect Noah Greenberg to turn the abandoned West Side Elevated Rail Line that ran through his neighborhood into a “park in the sky” called “Manhattan Promenade.” While the proposal was well received at the time, it of course never came […]
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 […]
On January 6 2015, on Three Kings Day, the East Village community and allies rallied on the steps of City Hall on a cold winter day to urge Mayor de Blasio to return the Old PS 64/CHARAS El Bohio Community Center to community use. That was just one of many, many grassroots actions over many […]
The South Village is an area rich in architectural, cultural, and historic resources, distinct from (though connected to) those of its surrounding historic communities, such as Greenwich Village, Soho, and Noho. Much of this area’s history is defined by tenements and immigrants, particularly Italian-Americans; by speakeasies, jazz clubs, beatnik coffeehouses, and folk music clubs from […]
On January 16th, 2013, Village Preservation sent a letter to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) requesting that it landmark key sites of significance to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) history we had identified. At this time, no buildings in the city were explicitly recognized or protected by the LPC primarily for […]
This is one in a series of posts marking the 50th anniversary of the designation of the Greenwich Village Historic District. Click here to check out our year-long activities and celebrations. In the years leading up to April 29, 1969, when the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated the Greenwich Village Historic District, […]
On January 16, 2014, GVSHP sent a letter to the then-chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) Robert Tierney calling for landmark designation of the Stonewall Inn.
Did you know that 128 East 13th Street is believed to be the last surviving horse and carriage auction mart building in New York City? It was threatened with demolition until GVSHP got the Landmark Preservation Commission to hold an emergency hearing on landmarking the building on September 7, 2006, which started the long path toward […]
It seems well over a year ago when we rallied outside 112-120 East 11th Street to protest the demolition of these five tenement buildings with a history of rent stabilized units in them. Over one hundred people joined us that warm August day. This block of the East Village had been identified by the […]
On this day in 1970, the Landmarks Preservation Commission granted landmark status to the dignified Greek Revival house at 37 East 4th Street. This three and a half story house was built in 1844-45 by Samuel Tredwell Skidmore, a relative of Seabury Tredwell, who lived with his family only a few doors away at 29 East 4thStreet, […]
Note this is an update of a post previously posted by Matthew Morowitz. A Roman Catholic Church formerly located at 440 E. 12th St., Mary Help of Christians was demolished in the summer of 2013 to make way for new development. To try and preserve the site, there was an outpouring from the community in an […]
The historic 2017 federal court decision that Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) people are protected from employment discrimination under the civil rights act has deep roots in a house in the South Village at 186 Spring Street — a hotbed of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) civil rights activity in the post-Stonewall era. In fact, […]
GVSHP’s recently published Greenwich Village Historic District New Buildings Report for the first time catalogues every new building approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) in the Greenwich Village Historic District, our city’s largest and one of its oldest historic districts. That’s got us thinking a lot about this set of buildings, and what we can learn […]
On October 1, 2010, the New York State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) agreed to GVSHP’s request to find 326 and 328 East 4th Street eligible for listing on the State and National Registers of Historic Places. According to the significance statement issued by the NYSHPO, “the two adjacent three story, brick houses at 326 and 328 East […]
On September 21, 1965, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) held its very first public hearing. Twenty-eight buildings were on the agenda, including five in Brooklyn, fifteen in Manhattan, one in the Bronx, and seven in Staten Island. Eight of the properties are located in GVSHP’s catchment area between Houston and 14th Street. We have written extensively about […]
As both we and the media have recently reported, two months ago GVSHP requested the landmark designation of a potential historic district on East 11th Street between Third and Fourth Avenues. GVSHP was aware that a developer was planning to move ahead with plans to demolish a significant stretch of this block, which we had long […]
Last Tuesday the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) handed preservationists what may seem like a small victory, but was nevertheless an important one. The LPC denied an application to remove a 1930 studio window from 246 West 11th Street, an 1842 Greek Revival row house in the Greenwich Village Historic District. The applicant proposed to replace it with a […]
The Landmarks Preservation Commission recently released a new interactive map. The map shows all exterior, interior, and scenic landmarks, historic districts, and properties calendared for designation. According to LPC Chair Meenakshi Srinivasan, “The launch of this map is a key milestone in our efforts to ensure that all New Yorkers have the history of our city at […]
This has to be the most frequently asked question that we get regarding landmarked properties. This question can be in reference to any number of changes including demolition, a proposed new building, or an alteration. We wrote a blog a few weeks ago about our Landmarks Application webpage as a resource for information on upcoming, […]
Village Preservation is excited to share our oral history collection with the public, and hope they will shed more light on what makes Greenwich Village and the East Village such unique and vibrant areas. Each of these histories highlights the experiences and insights of long-time residents, usually active in the arts, culture, preservation, business, or […]
As reported by our allies the Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts, the New York State Supreme Court recently upheld the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s denial of the hardship application by a developer on the Upper Eats Side seeking to demolish two historic buildings which are part of the landmarked City and Suburban Homes First Avenue […]
As part of NYCLandmarks50, the celebration of this year’s 50th Anniversary of the NYC Landmarks Law, we are taking a look at some of the many and varied individual landmarks in our neighborhood. The building complex now known as Colonnade Row, first named LaGrange Terrace, was one of the first properties landmarked under the Landmarks Law in […]
Stonewall was designated an individual landmark on June 23, 2015. Since then, people have asked us why, if the building was already located in a designated historic district, was the “double landmarking” necessary?
They’re next door neighbors, but they could not be more different. One is high-rise and concrete, the other low-rise and brick. One is modern and geometric, while the other is quaint and irregular. One is pre-planned and serene, the other — spontaneous, and buzzing with activity. Who is this odd couple? It’s Silver Towers and […]
The United States Senate’s historic passage yesterday of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), banning workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, has deep roots in a house in the South Village at 186 Spring Street — a hotbed of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) civil rights activity in the post-Stonewall […]
On September 9, 2003, the Gansevoort Market Historic District was officially designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. The designation not only culminated a three-year effort to protect the increasingly endangered Meatpacking District from the very real prospect of mass demolitions and oversized new development (such as the Hotel Gansevoort, which preceded the […]
We’re gearing up for the Landmarks Preservation (LPC) hearing about “Phase II” of the proposed South Village Historic District next Tuesday, June 25. We hope you can join us at the LPC at 1 Centre Street, 9th floor, and testify in favor of designating this and the rest proposed South Village Historic District. You can […]
The Landmarks Preservation Commission has recently begun creating on-line slide shows to showcase various history months as represented by some of the city’s roughly 31,000 landmarked properties. In March, they highlighted Women’s History Month, and in February, Black History Month. Now for the first time, the LPC has also created a “Gay Pride Month” slide […]
Op-Ed from The Villager newspaper, April 25, 2012 http://thevillager.com/2013/04/25/quinn-and-city-cant-omit-3-key-south-village-sites/ Quinn and City Must Not Omit Three Key Sites From South Village Landmarking (if you want to help, write the City and Speaker Quinn today — click HERE) BY ANDREW BERMAN | On April 15, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public meeting to present its […]
Earlier in the week we looked at what sites the Landmarks Preservation Commission excluded from our proposed South Village Historic District in their draft proposed phase II designation. As promised, in anticipation of Monday’s night’s public property owner’s meeting on the draft proposal, today we are looking at what’s in. Hint: it’s some great stuff.
Last week the Landmarks Preservation Commission revealed their draft proposed boundaries for Phase II of our proposed South Village Historic District, and announced that the public “property owner’s” meeting to discuss the proposal would be held next Monday April 15th at 6:30 pm at the NYU Meyer Building, 4 Washington Place (at Broadway), rm. 121. […]
Well, we’ve been waiting for years — though certainly not waiting patiently or quietly — for the long-promised landmark designation of the South Village. Today we found out that it will be yet another couple of days until we find out about the historic neighborhood’s fate. The City Council met this morning for what was […]
The Landmarks Preservation Commission’s (LPC) response to pleas to consider the entire proposed South Village Historic District for landmark designation, as LPC Chair Robert Tierney promised to do in 2009, has frequently been to say that they have spent enough time in the Village and have to look at other parts of the city as […]
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 […]
You may have seen 60 Minutes last night with a segment about the impact of the mortgage crisis on neighborhoods in Cleveland, Ohio. With owners and banks abandoning homes the city has decided to demolish them as a means to prevent blight and crime. The reporter, Scott Pelley, walked down the street with a former city official counting […]