September Programs: Memory, Music, and Architecture
The crisp chill of autumn hasn’t arrived quite yet, but as summer winds down and New York begins its slow transition into sweater weather, we have a full slate of programs exploring the people, places, stories, and ideas that have shaped Greenwich Village, the East Village, NoHo, and New York City. From the Revolutionary era to the 1970s, from historic gardens and architecture to nightlife and contemporary housing policy, our September programs offer many different ways to explore the past, and consider what it means for the future.
Here are nine incredible programs to look forward to this month.
Remembering 9/11 and Reclaiming Ground Zero
September begins with a special screening of 9/11: Reclaiming Ground Zero on Tuesday, September 15. Marking 25 years since the events of September 11, 2001, the documentary examines the difficult questions New Yorkers faced in the aftermath: What should happen to the site of the World Trade Center? Who should decide? And how could a devastated city come together to imagine a future?
The film explores the remarkable civic process that brought 5,000 New Yorkers together to consider the future of Ground Zero. Following the screening, a guided discussion will give attendees an opportunity to share their own thoughts, memories, and reflections on how 9/11 affected New York City and its neighborhoods.
Freedom’s Edge: Greenwich Village and the American Revolution
Village Preservation’s yearlong Revolutionary Village series continues on Thursday, September 17, with Freedom’s Edge: Greenwich Village and the American Revolution.
This 90-minute walking tour, co-sponsored by the Merchant’s House Museum, looks beyond the familiar stories of generals, battles, and Founding Fathers to examine the Revolution through the streets and waterfront of Greenwich Village. In 1776, the Hudson River waterfront was a military corridor and a place of labor, including the labor of enslaved Black New Yorkers. It was also a landscape in which the promises of liberty and freedom were experienced very differently by different people.
The tour asks an essential question: Whose freedom did the American Revolution promise? By examining the physical landscape where these histories unfolded, the program offers a more complicated and inclusive understanding of America’s founding—and of the Village’s place within it.
A Garden in the Heart of Old New York
On Saturday, September 19, Village Preservation and Merchant’s House Museum members are invited to step inside one of Manhattan’s remarkable surviving 19th-century spaces with a Members-Only Garden Tour at Merchant’s House Museum.
Led by Merchant’s House Museum Head Gardener John Rommel, the tour will explore the museum’s lush historic garden in full bloom. Participants will also enjoy a special members’ reception featuring light refreshments and autumnal treats, followed by a plant sale.
For anyone interested in historic landscapes, architecture, or the experience of everyday life in 19th-century New York, this is a rare opportunity to experience a hidden oasis while connecting with one of the city’s most important preserved historic interiors and gardens.
The Women Behind New York’s Nightlife Revolutions
On Tuesday, September 22, The Unseen Revelers takes to the streets of Greenwich Village and the East Village to uncover the stories of women who helped transform New York nightlife.
The 90-minute walking tour highlights female activists, artists, performers, producers, and cultural figures who used taverns, bars, lounges, speakeasies, and clubs as places to build communities, introduce new art forms, advance political ideas, and reshape popular culture.
The stories range from Billie Holiday and her landmark performance of “Strange Fruit” to dancer Norma Miller, Sylvia Robinson’s role in bringing Hip Hop to new audiences at Webster Hall, Ruza Blue’s groundbreaking Hip Hop events, photographer Martha Cooper, and Patti Astor’s gathering of New Wave musicians and graffiti artists.
Together, these stories reveal that nightlife was about far more than entertainment. It could be a space for experimentation, activism, cultural exchange, and community-building.
Rethinking the Housing Debate
On Wednesday, September 23, Village Preservation continues its ongoing Cracks in the YIMBY Consensus series with Part 4: The Zoning Alibi.
Co-sponsored by the City Club of New York and by CNU NYC, the program examines one of the most consequential assumptions in contemporary urban policy: that restrictive zoning is the primary cause of high housing costs, and that deregulation and increased construction will necessarily make housing more affordable.
Economic geographers Tom Kemeny and Maximilian Buchholz will discuss research conducted with Gregory Randolph and Michael Storper that challenges aspects of this conventional narrative. The panel will consider the relationship between zoning, housing prices, income inequality, and the limitations of relying on a construction boom to address housing affordability.
Moderated by Village Preservation Special Projects Director Juan Rivero, this virtual program promises a substantive discussion of the policy choices shaping the future of New York and other major American cities.
Architecture and Nature in the Gilded Age
September’s architectural history program on Sunday, September 27 turns the spotlight on two major 19th-century figures with deep connections to Greenwich Village: Calvert Vaux and Frederick Clarke Withers.
Architectural historian Francis R. Kowsky will discuss the careers of these two important designers and their contributions to American architecture and landscape design. Vaux, best known as the co-designer of Central Park, and Withers were also responsible for important work in and around New York City, including the Jefferson Market Courthouse.
Co-sponsored by Jefferson Market Library and the Calvert Vaux Preservation Alliance, the program will also explore restoration efforts at The Point, the historic Hudson Valley estate designed by Vaux for the Hoyt family in 1855.
It is an opportunity to consider how architecture and landscape were intertwined during the Gilded Age—and how the work of these designers continues to influence our understanding of historic New York.
Village Nights: The 1970s with Terre Roche
That same evening, September 27, Village Preservation returns to the Bitter End for another installment of Richard Barone’s Village Nights, a series celebrating the musical history of Greenwich Village by decade.
Part of the Bitter End’s 65th anniversary celebration and Village Preservation’s Revolutionary Village programming, the series looks at the Village’s extraordinary musical legacy through performances, conversations, and stories from people who experienced it.
The September installment focuses on the 1970s, a decade of extraordinary musical experimentation and transformation in Greenwich Village and beyond, with special guest Terre Roche. The program continues the series’ exploration of how clubs, performers, songwriters, and audiences made the Village a crucial center of American musical culture.
Behind the Scenes at the Keith Haring Foundation
Back by popular demand, on Tuesday, September 29, we have the unique opportunity to explore the legacy of one of the most recognizable artists associated with downtown New York: Keith Haring.
This behind-the-scenes tour of the Keith Haring Foundation will introduce participants to the organization’s mission of sustaining, expanding, and protecting Haring’s artistic legacy and ideals. The Foundation’s collections and archives preserve materials documenting Haring’s life, work, and the cultural world in which he lived and worked.
As part of our Revolutionary Village programming, the visit also offers a chance to consider Haring’s contribution to the continuing story of New York’s downtown arts community, and the importance of preserving not only buildings and streetscapes, but also the cultural histories that developed within them.
Death Matters: The Neighborhood Funeral Home
September’s programs conclude on Wednesday, September 30, with a subject that is simultaneously deeply personal and an important part of neighborhood history: Death Matters: From Your Parlor to Ours – The Growth of the Neighborhood Funeral Home.
Presented with Merchant’s House Museum, this special installment of the Death Matters series marks the centennial of the Greenwich Village Funeral Home. Thanatologist Matilda Garrido will speak with Peter DeLuca, President of the Greenwich Village Funeral Home, about the transformation of American funeral practices.
In the 19th century, funerals commonly took place in the home. Over time, changing social customs and the professionalization of end-of-life services helped give rise to the neighborhood funeral home. These institutions became woven into the fabric of communities, providing services at some of the most difficult moments in people’s lives.
Looking at the history of the Greenwich Village Funeral Home provides a fascinating window into a century of changes in the neighborhood; and in the ways New Yorkers have lived, mourned, and cared for one another.
Join Us This September
We hope you’ll join us for several of these programs and continue exploring the history, architecture, culture, and preservation of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo with Village Preservation.
Remember, Village Preservation Members have the opportunity to register for our events early. And, we offer special members-only programming throughout the year. Don’t miss your chance to take advantage of these great benefits and become a member today!