← View All

Author: Hannah Chacko

The Greenwich Village and East Village homes of George Gershwin, Bill Dixon, George Barrow, and Red Rodney

During Prohibition in the 1920s, when jazz first rose to popularity in New York, many of its most prominent performance venues were located in Harlem and Midtown Manhattan. But this new style of music also found a distinct home downtown, with many of the liveliest and most innovative venues sprouting up in Greenwich Village and […]

34 1/2 East 12th Street: A Long History of Public Service

On September 15, 1998, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Police Athletic League Building (PAL) at No. 34½ East 12th Street between University Place and Broadway an individual landmark. Before its designation, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, now Village Preservation, supported landmarking the building through statements and letters to the Commission. Today, we […]

From Little Syria to Greenwich Village: The Pen League and New York’s Arab Literary World

In the early 20th century, the Little Syria neighborhood was found south of Greenwich Village on what was then called the Lower West Side, where the World Trade Center complex is now located. It was home to a growing community of Arab writers, artists, and intellectuals. Many of these writers and poets had fled political […]

Little Spain and the Enduring Legacy of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church

Today, West 14th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues is a bustling corridor connecting several subway lines and serving a wide range of businesses and institutions. But before it became the busy stretch we know today, it was at the heart of a large and vibrant Spanish immigrant community known as “Little Spain.” Spanish immigration […]