Wystan Hugh Auden (February 21, 1907 – September 29, 1973), one of the most significant poets of the 20th century, was born in York, England, in 1907. His early career and works were deeply rooted in the English landscape and literary tradition. However, Auden’s move to the United States in 1939 and his subsequent acquisition […]
It is sometimes hard to imagine that the East Village was once farmland, but so was nearly everything in Manhattan at one time or another that lay north of the city that was once concentrated on the far southern tip of the island. What makes the East Village special is that it was once all […]
The East Village is a neighborhood known for its rich history, diversity, and creative culture. That diversity includes the wealth of religious institutions found across the neighborhood, as highlighted by our Churches Tour on our East Village Building Blocks website. Covering a span from 1799 to 1970, stops on the tour include the oldest site […]
Frank Lloyd Wright’s (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) contributions to American architecture are wide and varied; his low slung Prairie style homes that irrevocably changed American residential design and his smooth seashell spiral of the Guggenheim Museum overlooking Central Park are among the most significant architectural works of the 20th century. While neither would […]
On the corner of East 79th Street and 5th Avenue stands a 19th-century chateau that wouldn’t be out of place in the Loire Valley, yet seems just as comfortable on the Upper East Side. It’s been home to the Ukrainian Institute of America for nearly seven decades, but thanks to its previous inhabitants, this historic structure also holds an interesting connection with the early days of Greenwich Village and New York City.
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 […]
One of New York’s most historic but least known landmarks is the Bowne House, built ca. 1661 at 37-01 Bowne Street in Flushing, Queens. The two-and-a-half story wood house is the oldest building in the Borough of Queens and one of the oldest in New York City.
Continuing our Cemeteries of the Village series, today we look at two historic cemeteries that predate the modern street grid: The St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery Vaults and the nearby but long gone St. Mark’s Cemetery. These two cemeteries both belonged to St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery. The vaults beneath the Church still exist and remain the final […]
On the 19th of April in 1860, the New York state legislature passed a bill punishing an act, or omission of an act, that caused pain to animals “unjustifiably.” It was a historic step forward in the nineteenth-century movement toward animal protection. Just a few days before the New York legislature passed the animal-welfare act […]
On January 31, 1795, Nicholas William Stuyvesant, descendent of Director-General Petrus Stuyvesant, married Catherine Livingston Reade, herself a descendant of New York royalty of sorts (the family name can be found on streets in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn). While clearly this was a significant date for these two early New Yorkers, why should we care […]
To honor and recognize LGBT Pride Month, each year the St. Marks Church-In-The-Bowery produces an art installation along 2nd Avenue between 10th and 11th Street, the Pride Ribbon Project. The installation will be up through the end of June, and we highly encourage you to come to see this in person and read through and […]
The East Village has been fertile ground for theatrical innovation since the beginning of the 20th century. Off-Off Broadway productions began in the East Village as an anti-commercial and experimental or avant-garde movement of drama and theater. To celebrate the iconoclasts and innovative creators in our neighborhoods, we’ve created a tour of current and former […]
One of New York City’s most charming and distinctive corners, the St. Mark’s Historic District was landmarked by the City of New York on January 14, 1969. Containing fewer than 40 buildings on parts of just three blocks, this extraordinary East Village enclave contains several notable superlatives, including Manhattan’s oldest house still in use as a residence, […]
New York City publishes a very useful map-based website with one very big flaw. NYCityMap offers users a tremendous amount of information on all properties in New York City. Some of the information that may be seen for each property includes zoning, owner, block and lot, lot size and lot frontage. Overlays may be added identifying […]
Scratch the sidewalk anywhere in the Village or East Village and you’ll always find interesting layers of history. Last month, we went out on a limb and talked about 2nd Avenue and 2nd Street in honor of February 2nd (2/2), but today, March 2nd (3/2) we’re expanding our focus. Both 3rd and 2nd Avenues run through the […]
“…But who knows what is real anyway? Reality is overrated. What remains are the words scrawled upon an unwinding panorama, vestiges of dusty stills peeled from memory, a threnody of gone voices drifting across the American plain. The One Inside is a coalescing atlas marked by the boot heels of one who instinctively tramps, with open […]
Two pretty big things, actually, which is surprising, considering one is the funky heart of our nation’s largest city, while the other is a ‘city’ of 36,000 in pretty sparsely-populated northeastern Oklahoma. And we’re betting that depending upon your areas of interest, while you may know one surprising connection between the two places, you probably don’t […]
One of my favorite places in New York has always been St. Marks Church-in-the-Bowery on 2nd Avenue and 10th Street. Long before I actually stepped inside it’s peaceful courtyard or impressive interior, I was so charmed by the way it sits diagonally on its lot – an obvious vestige of a bygone, pre-grid era in New […]
Summer time, and the bounty of vegetables and fruits are abundant. Sometimes you want a touch more of the flavor of the farm with your meal. Besides local grocery stores and green markets there are Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) projects in the city. There are three CSA’s in the East Village area you should be aware […]
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 the summer rolls on, we thought we’d take the time to do a little Landmarks update. The above screenshot from our Landmarks Applications Webpage shows three Certificate of Appropriateness (C of A) applications to be heard in August at the Landmarks Commission. Click on the photo to learn more about these applications and how […]
Last week Off the Grid featured a story about the 55th Annual Washington Square Music Festival, which presents free concerts in Washington Square Park on Tuesday evenings in July. This week, we thought we would venture East, where the Third Street Music School has been featuring free Thursday afternoon concerts since 1981. Music in Abe […]
On January 14, 1969, the St. Mark’s Historic District was designated. The district was one of the first historic district designations by the newly created Landmarks Preservation Commission. The district also includes the GVSHP’s home in the Neighborhood Preservation Center on East 11th Street, which formerly served as the rectory for the adjacent St. Mark’s […]
It is hard to imagine East 10th and Stuyvesant Streets today without thinking about neighborhood resident and activist Marilyn Appleberg. Marilyn has worked tirelessly as an advocate for the blocks since she moved to the neighborhood in 1969. In recognition of her service, Marilyn will be presented with a 2012 Village Award, which will be […]
This weekend, the New York Landmarks Conservancy is again organizing the state-wide Sacred Sites Open House Weekend. This free event offers a unique opportunity to explore the interiors of more than 30 historic religious sites in New York City and 70 sites throughout New York State – and two right here in our neighborhoods!
Recently, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and American Express announced 40 preservation projects in the running for grants through their annual Partners in Preservation program. This program seeks to increase the public’s awareness of the importance of historic preservation, and this year it’s focusing on preservation in New York City. From April 26 through […]
Last week, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and American Express revealed 40 preservation projects up for grants through their annual Partners in Preservation program. This program seeks to increase the public’s awareness of the importance of historic preservation. This year, the program is focusing on preservation in New York City. From April 26 through […]
Any restoration of a historic site within our neighborhoods is exciting. But when that project is a stone’s throw away from our office space at the Neighborhood Preservation Center, we get a little giddy. Not surprisingly, we have been thrilled to watch the progress unfold on the restoration of the West Yard Arch project.
With today being Halloween, we thought we would take a look at … dead bodies in the Village! You can tune out the ominous laughter you may be hearing right about now, today’s post is actually about some fabulous historic cemeteries in the East and West Village.
Since 1999, GVSHP’s office has been housed on the second floor of the Neighborhood Preservation Center (NPC) at 232 East 11th Street. The entire building housed the rectory of the adjacent St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery until the lower floors were restored after a fire to house NPC and the top floor reserved for […]
We’re always on the lookout for album covers shot in the Village, East Village, or NoHo. Many of the great album covers of the last half century were shot on our streets, so you might say it’s a bit of a preoccupation of ours (see prior post, “It Happened Here: Album Covers“). So imagine our […]
This weekend, our friends over at the New York Landmarks Conservancy are hosting a state-wide, free-of-charge Sacred Sites Open House Weekend. The event offers a fantastic opportunity to take shelter from the rain inside 140 religious structures all across New York State, including four churches right here in the Village!
This spring marks the 30th Anniversary of the St. Mark’s Greenmarket and Music at Abe Lebewohl Park. The joint milestone got us a little nostalgic (okay, we know, when are we not nostalgic?) and we decided to take a walk down the memory lane of this neighborhood staples’ home- Abe Lebewohl Park. If you’ve ever […]
