Five years ago this Sunday GVSHP and other community and preservation groups held a Rally to Save the South Village. More than 150 people including elected officials, community and business leaders and neighbors turned out on April 11, 2011 to call upon the City to landmark the remainder of the South Village and save this historic neighborhood […]
We recently published a detailed report of the Federal style houses which GVSHP has helped to get landmarked, listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places, or both. This architectural style for houses prevailed between the Revolutionary War and about 1835, and derived from the English Georgian style following a classical vocabulary. In […]
This has to be the most frequently asked question that we get regarding landmarked properties. This question can be in reference to any number of changes including demolition, a proposed new building, or an alteration. We wrote a blog a few weeks ago about our Landmarks Application webpage as a resource for information on upcoming, […]
It never fails to amaze me what we sometimes find, historically, was located in our neighborhoods. DNAInfo NY recently published an article, “MAP: Discover the Hidden History of New York’s First Sex Districts.” In addition to a history of prostitution in 19th century New York City, the article features an interactive map. The map identifies […]
25 Bleecker Street is one of nine extant buildings originally constructed as Federal style row houses in the NoHo East Historic District. It was built c. 1830 for David Chrystie at a time when this area was being developed with homes for the city’s expanding middle class. Although altered considerably over the years, the house […]
I recently came across a book printed in 1894 by Thomas A. Janvier entitled In Old New York. The section on Greenwich Village contained a treasure trove of illustrations, some of which could be compared to views of today. However, before I get to the images, here is how the author described the Village and its […]
Ever wonder what is going on with the construction of the landmarked building next door, or anywhere in Greenwich Village, NoHo, Gansevoort Market, the South Village, and the East Village? Well GVSHP offers to the public its Landmarks Applications Webpage, a wonderful resource that provides up-to-the-minute information on landmarked properties which require review via a […]
The Noho Historic District embraces a broad arc of New York City’s commercial history from the early 1850’s through the 1920’s, during which time this section prospered as a major retail and wholesale dry goods centers. It offers an eclectic mix of architectural styles and building types including early 19th century houses, turn-of the century office buildings, […]
As one of the oldest surviving houses in Manhattan, 57 Sullivan Street has born witness to and participated in the story of the evolution of housing in New York City. It started as a single-family house at its inception in the early nineteenth century. As the demographics of the neighborhood changed, it became multi-family housing […]
This is the third part of a three part series on the Weehawken Street Historic District. This small historic district is comprised of only fourteen buildings but represents a wonderful cross section of the development of Greenwich Village’s Hudson River waterfront. Just prior to World War I, real estate in Greenwich Village became more and […]
This is the second part of a three part series on the Weehawken Street Historic District. This small historic district is comprised of only fourteen buildings but represents a wonderful cross section of the development of Greenwich Village’s Hudson River waterfront. The designation of this District was due in large part to the efforts of […]
This is the first part of a three part series on the Weehawken Street Historic District. This small historic district is comprised of only fourteen buildings but represents a wonderful cross section of the development of Greenwich Village’s Hudson River waterfront. The designation of this District was due in large part to the efforts of […]
Happy New Year! Tomorrow will mark my four month anniversary working for GVSHP and it has been a whirlwind! My quiet existence as an architectural historian ended on September 8 of last year as I was swept up in the tumultuous world of New York City Preservation. Here are a few of the highlights […]
This post is the third of a three-part series called Histories of Fourth Street, from East to West, a collaboration between GVSHP and the students in NYU’s Fall 2015 Intro to Public History course. Each group of students was tasked with preparing a presentation around a particular topic concerning a section or block of Fourth […]
This post is the second of a three-part series called Histories of Fourth Street, from East to West, a collaboration between GVSHP and the students in NYU’s Fall 2015 Intro to Public History course. Each group of students was tasked with preparing a presentation around a particular topic concerning a section or block of Fourth […]
This post is the first of a three-part series called Histories of Fourth Street, from East to West, a collaboration between GVSHP and the students in NYU’s Fall 2015 Intro to Public History course. Each group of students was tasked with preparing a presentation around a particular topic concerning a section of Fourth Street in […]
During the holiday season we reflect back on the past year. Here at GVSHP we’ve certainly had some big accomplishments. We have also had a lot of wonderful support from our members and neighbors, but we need your help to continue the fight. Please consider GVSHP in your year-end giving! Alice Carey and Geoffrey Knox, […]
Unsure of what to get that special someone for the holidays? How about a horse? A hundred years ago you could have gone down to 126-128 East 13th Street and bid on one of the magnificent equines available via auction by Van Tassell & Kearny who occupied the building for more than fifty years. Built […]
On December 3, 1935, First Houses were dedicated and opened, the first housing project undertaken by the then-recently established New York City Housing Authority and the first publicly-funded low-income housing project in the nation. The groundbreaking development was made a New York City landmark on November 12, 1974.
This has been no small year for preservation in New York City, and we at the GVSHP in the season of thanks wish express our gratitude to our members and volunteers who have worked so hard in helping us achieve some very sizable accomplishments. Here are just a few…
“I have lived on the Lower East Side for seventy years. And when I came here, I found Nirvana, and I will die in this building — not in a hospital. I’ll die in this building. This is my home, and I love it here.” That is just the beginning of the fascinating story of […]
As part of our continuing Landmarks50 celebration, and in honor of Stanford White’s birthday today (he would be a mere 162 years old), we are looking at the New York Public Library Tompkins Square Branch designed by his firm, McKim Mead & White, and completed in 1904. Located at 331 East 10th Street north of […]
On the morning of January 31, 1857 the body of Dr. Harvey Burdell was discovered in his office at 31 Bond Street, strangled and stabbed fifteen times with the walls and doors “besmeared with blood,” according to The New York Times. A search of the building, owned by Dr. Burdell, revealed a bloody towel and […]
On October 28, 1972, Stevie Wonder released his album, Talking Book recorded at Electric Lady Studios at 52 West 8th Street. Rolling Stone Magazine’s review of the album at the time described it as “…the laid back funk of the vocals resting on a deliciously liquid instrumental track like a body on a waterbed. Yet […]
On October 25, 2011, the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) voted unanimously to landmark Westbeth, following through on a promise made seven years earlier to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) and other community groups working to extend landmark protections in the Far West Village. In 2009, GVSHP’s nomination of Westbeth was accepted […]
As part of NYCLandmarks50, the celebration of this year’s 50th Anniversary of the adoption of the NYC Landmarks Law in 1965, we took a look at some of the many and varied individual landmarks in our neighborhood. On October 13, 2009 the Ralph and Ann E. Van Wyck Mead House (later Isaac T. Hopper Home […]
When we think of Art Deco architecture in New York City, what often comes to mind are Midtown icons such as the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, or Rockefeller Center. However Greenwich Village and the East Village boast some of their own Art Deco gems, also worth examining.
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 […]
Greenwich Village is home to what is considered by many one of the finest examples in the nation of a mid-century modern residential complex: the University Village/Silver Towers. Designed by I.M. Pei & Associates with James I. Freed as lead project architect, the complex was built between 1964 and 1966. Critics from the time of […]
