Picturing our Neighborhoods Streetscapes Before Landmarking

Evelyn G. Haynes (1909–2001) was a dedicated preservationist and a member of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission during its earliest days. Following her passing, her family donated a collection of her records to Village Preservation. We have now reorganized and digitized Part 1 of the collection, which can be seen here.

The archive contains many hand-drawn sketches of streetscapes, such as the one shown below of St. Luke’s Place between 7th Avenue and Hudson Street, including details on each building.

The same buildings today, from a slightly different angle:

This collection, largely from the 1960s, focuses on photographs, sketching, writings, and historic materials connected to Greenwich Village, the Charlton-King-Vandam district, and Lower Manhattan, especially Federal (ca. 1790-1835) and Greek Revival (ca. 1830-1850) row houses and architecture in this area.

The sketch below shows the west side of MacDougal Street from Bleecker Street to Minetta Lane. This block was preserved and remains as shown in this ca. 1964 sketch as part of the South Village Historic District (landmarked in 2013 thanks to advocacy efforts of Village preservation).

These materials provide a fascinating record of the early preservation movement in New York City, and of some of our city’s great landmarks decades ago when their futures were in doubt. 

There are many more sketches to review as part of this collection, click here to see them all.

You can also see her contribution of many beautiful pictures of historic buildings of Lower Manhattan and New York City in the 1960s to our Historic Image Archive here. Click here to see other highlights of her collection.