Two centuries ago, a war began in Europe that would shape boundaries and alliances on the continent for years to come. Greece, which for centuries had been under Ottoman rule, began a war for independence in 1821, and with help from the United Kingdom, France, and Russia, achieved victory and became its own nation by […]
On East 12th Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues, the entrance to a 26-story dorm, designed to house 700 NYU students, sits “discreetly” behind a disembodied 1847 church tower. Neither historic preservation nor adaptive reuse, the AIA Guide to New York City refers to it as a “folly behind which lurks yet another dorm for […]
The area south of Union Square is the center of an amazing and dynamic collection of histories.
Village Preservation is always working hard to document, celebrate, and protect the historic character of our neighborhoods, including the great buildings that make Greenwich Village, NoHo and East Village such wonderful places to live, work and shop. Of course, we’re not always able to save every historic building from demolition, and some disappeared long before […]
Earlier this month, GVSHP launched its East Village Preservation effort, releasing its new website “East Village Building Blocks,” which contains historic information and images for every one of the neighborhood’s 2,200 buildings. Of course, any neighborhood spanning five centuries of history and nearly 100 blocks will reveal some surprises when you scratch the surface. But the East Village’s story has […]
The Village is hallowed ground, and much like any sacred space, its landscape is marked by holy figures. For our neighborhoods, these figures are the architecture, and we even have our own “saints.” Yet, while these saints are often canonized in our memory, some of them have unfortunately left our temporal plane. With our fighting […]
The 12th of April isn’t a particularly special day of the year, but the spots around 4th Ave. and 12th St. are some special locations themselves. In honor of today’s date, we are taking a look at some of the buildings and history on and around this intersection.
We all know that New York University has an enormous presence in Greenwich Village and the East Village — one that has grown tremendously in recent decades, and is continuing to grow with the construction of their “NYU 2031” expanded campus on the Washington Square Village and Silver Towers superblocks south of Washington Square. The […]
50 years ago tomorrow, on April 19, 1966, the LPC landmarked St. Mark’s-in-the-Bowery Church. The Church is the oldest site of continuous worship in New York City. The parcel of land was purchased by Peter Stuyvesant in 1651 and a family chapel was erected on the site by 1660. Stuyvesant died in 1672 and was interred in […]
The East Village was the first home of the Ferrer Modern School of New York City. First located at 6 St. Marks Place, this school was based on the European model of the Esquela Moderna founded by Catalan educator and anarchist Francisco Ferrer, executed for sedition in 1909. Ferrer espoused education for all regardless of […]
On Tuesday, June 26 the Landmarks Preservation Commission will hold a public hearing on the proposed East Village/Lower East Side Historic District. This historic district was proposed last year by the Landmarks Preservation Commission and its boundaries were extended after GVSHP and other community groups advocated to include sites like the Pyramid Club at 101 […]
