Exploring ‘Queer Money Project’ and Local LGBTQ+-owned Businesses

To celebrate Pride this year, we’re guiding you on an exploration of today’s LGBTQ+-owned businesses led by the Queer Money Project — to celebrate both the contributions of the LGBTQ+ community in our neighborhoods, and to support small businesses (both of which we do 24/7, 365-days-a-year, but what better time than now?). And we’re doing it in an exciting new way that allows you to participate in Village Preservation programming on your own time. Grab a friend and visit these sites that we’ll reveal on Instagram throughout NYC Pride Weekend.

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A Woman Can Keep a Home and Build It

According to the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, only 14% of engineers in the United States are women. In 2022, though the number of women in S.T.E.M (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields is ever increasing, it’s shocking to hear that women still make up such a low percentage of engineers. Perhaps this is a result […]

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Business of the Month: Moustache, 90 Bedford Street

Your input is needed! Today we feature our latest Business of the Month — help us to select the next. Tell us which independent store you love in Greenwich Village, the East Village, or NoHo: click here to nominate your favorite. Want to help support small businesses? Share this post with friends. Restaurants have it tough. Sixty percent of them […]

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Celebrating Flag Day!

Flag Day is celebrated to commemorate the adoption of the flag of the United States on June 14, 1777, by resolution of the Second Continental Congress: “Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.” While not an official […]

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    The First Ever Village Awards!

    1991 was a memorable year. The Cold War ended as the Soviet Union collapsed. The Gulf War was waged. We watched Murphy Brown and slow danced to Bryan Adams. And the Giants won the Superbowl! But perhaps most notably, on June 10, 1991, Village Preservation held its first Annual Village Awards! Since 1991, we have […]

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      Welcome to the Neighborhood: Sustainable Village, 318 East 9th Street

      Today we welcome a new small business to our neighborhoods — help us welcome the next. Tell us which new independent store in Greenwich Village, the East Village, or NoHo you’re excited about by emailing us at info@villagepreservation.org. As advocates for local small business, we find great satisfaction in hearing of new independent establishments opening […]

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      Seeing Wright in the Village 

      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 […]

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      Alvin Baltrop: Photographs of a Dystopian Past

      Greenwich Village’s Hudson River piers have always held a certain clandestine fascination for some segment of the public. After an automobile crash caused the elevated West Side Highway to collapse in December of 1973, Piers 18 – 52 fell into a derelict state, creating a dystopian yet incredibly private space for LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers to […]

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      Alvin Baltrop (Graffiti Artist)

      Socialists, Communists, and Revolutionaries on Fifth Avenue #SouthOfUnionSquare

      New York’s Fifth Avenue rarely conjures up images of radicals or revolutionaries; it’s more commonly associated with high-end shopping, well-heeled cultural institutions, and corporate headquarters. But cross 14th Street, and all that changes, especially if you step back into the 20th and 19th centuries, when Fifth Avenue south of that great dividing line (and South […]

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      2022 Village Awardee: Jane Friedman and Howl! Arts

      Each year, Village Preservation honors the invaluable people, businesses, and organizations that make a special contribution to our neighborhoods at our Annual Meeting and Village Awards. This year, on June 14, 2022, at 6 PM we will be celebrating seven outstanding awardees — RSVP HERE to attend in person and HERE to participate virtually via […]

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      North America’s First Free Black Settlement In Our Neighborhoods

      According to historian Christopher Moore, the first legally emancipated community of people of African descent in North America was found in Lower Manhattan, comprising much of present-day Greenwich Village, NoHo, and the South Village, and parts of the Lower East Side and East Village. This settlement was comprised of individual landholdings, many of which belonged […]

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        2022 Village Awardee: Razom for Ukraine, 140 2nd Avenue

        Each year, Village Preservation honors the invaluable people, businesses, and organizations that make a special contribution to our neighborhoods at our Annual Meeting and Village Awards. This year, on June 14, 2022, at 6 PM we will be celebrating seven outstanding awardees — RSVP HERE to attend in person and HERE to participate virtually via livestream. New York City is […]

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          Vasant Rai: Guru of Raga-Rock

          Our neighborhoods have long been meccas for immigrant cultures from near and far, facilitating a multicultural mix that have made them among the most unique communities in America. In that vein, today we’d like to spotlight the life and legacy of Vasant Rai, one of the world’s most decorated and honored masters of Indian classical […]

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          ‘Seven to Save’: Did It Work? 

          Village Preservation’s proposed South of Union Square Historic District was recently named one of 2022-2023’s “Seven to Save” — the biannual list of the most important endangered historic sites in New York State — by the Preservation League of New York State. This designation shines a spotlight on the incredibly valuable and varied architecture of […]

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          2022 Village Awardee: Bonsignour, 35 Jane Street

          Each year, Village Preservation honors the invaluable people, businesses, and organizations that make a special contribution to our neighborhoods at our Annual Meeting and Village Awards. This year, on June 14, 2022, at 6 PM we will be celebrating seven outstanding awardees — RSVP HERE to attend in person and HERE to participate virtually via […]

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          2022 Village Awardee: Pageant Print Shop, 69 East 4th Street

          Each year, Village Preservation honors the invaluable people, businesses, and organizations that make a special contribution to our neighborhoods at our Annual Meeting and Village Awards. This year, on June 14, 2022, at 6 PM we will be celebrating seven outstanding awardees — RSVP HERE to attend in person and HERE to participate virtually via […]

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          The Oldest Building South of Union Square

          Village Preservation’s proposed South of Union Square Historic District was named one of the “Seven to Save” by the Preservation League of NY State for 2022-2023. The area is full of striking late 19th and early 20th century loft buildings, late 19th century hotels, early 20th century apartment buildings, and mid-19th century institutional buildings. Some […]

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          The Evolution of Tenement Typologies in the East Village 

          The East Village is one of New York City’s most historically dynamic neighborhoods, as evidenced by its rich and diverse built environment. The neighborhood displays excellent examples of so many types of dense urban housing present in New York City, from single-family rowhouses to tenements of the “pre,” “old,” and “new” law typologies, to public […]

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          The Cooper Union’s “Voices from the Great Hall”: Digital Archives Of One Of New York’s Most Historic Spaces

          Village Preservation is very excited to hold its first in-person Annual Meeting and Village Awards in three years on June 14. We’re especially excited that event will be co-hosted by The Cooper Union and held in The Great Hall. The Great Hall is a wonderfully appropriate setting for this important annual event for Village Preservation. […]

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            The Great Hall at The Cooper Union

            2022 Village Awardee: Astor Place Hair Stylists, 2 Astor Place

            Each year, Village Preservation honors the invaluable people, businesses, and organizations that make a special contribution to our neighborhoods at our Annual Meeting and Village Awards. This year, on June 14th, 2022 at 6 PM we will be celebrating seven outstanding awardees —  RSVP HERE to attend in person and HERE to participate virtually via livestream. […]

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              The Redstockings: “Rapping” for Reproductive Rights in Greenwich Village

              Founded in 1969 by activists Ellen Willis and Shulamith Firestone, the Redstockings were one of the first Women’s Liberation groups, known for their then-radical support of a woman’s right to an abortion. Based in New York City, their name is a portmanteau of “Bluestockings,” an 18th century women’s literacy group, and “Red,” then a color […]

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              East Village Building Blocks Tour: African American History

              People of African descent have lived in the area now known as the East Village since the mid-17th century, when semi-freed African slaves of the Dutch West India Company in New Amsterdam were granted farmland here in the area that lay between the established Dutch settlement south of Wall Street and the lands still populated […]

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                Go West! – The Leather & Denim Scene in the Weehawken Street Historic District

                The Weehawken Street Historic District (designated May 2, 2006) consists of a small area on three blocks around West, Christopher, and 10th Streets. Although primarily known for its relation to New York City’s maritime industry from the 1830s to 1920s, the tiny district was also the center of New York’s Queer Leather and Denim (L&D) […]

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                Neighborhood Bookstores in the Age of Amazon

                We held a panel entitled Neighborhood Bookstores in the Age of Amazon in celebration of Independent Bookstore Day, featuring the Unoppressive Non-Imperialist Bargain Bookstore (34 Carmine Street), Printed Matter (38 St. Marks Place), and Book Club Bar (197 East 3rd Street). This national commemoration comes amidst a critical period for independent bookstores and for small […]

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                  The Big Bank Heist at Broadway and Bleecker

                  Louis Werckle “is a little old man, of no physical strength, and of apparently less courage.” That’s how The New York Times snarkily described the janitor of the Manhattan Savings Institution on October 28, 1878, an innocent and unwilling participant in one of the greatest crimes of the 19th century, which took place smack dab […]

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                  Nikola Tesla: Retracing the Visionary’s Lost Legacy in Our Neighborhoods

                  Arguably the most important “father of electricity,” Nikola Tesla spent 13 years developing some of his most famous inventions critical to the future of electricity in laboratories located in Greenwich Village, NoHo, and the edge of today’s Chinatown. Emblematic of the way in which the far-sighted Tesla’s legacy and contributions to science were largely undervalued […]

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                    Celebrating the Greenwich Village Historic District

                    The Greenwich Village Historic District (GVHD) was designated (landmarked) on April 29, 1969. The district holds some of the most important and beautiful parts of Greenwich Village within its bounds — from Washington Square to Abingdon Square, from the New School to the New York Studio School. Historic houses of worship and historic houses, key sites […]

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                    More Than A Century of Dance at A More Than 225 Year Old Church

                    On April 25, 1795 the cornerstone was laid for St. Marks Church-in-the-Bowery — a historic cornerstone itself of our neighborhoods. What no one knew then was that the building would be a center for the dance community for one hundred years and counting. The history of dance and performance at St. Mark’s is rich and deep, and continues to engage New York City in unique and significant ways. 

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                    Photo of the sanctuary at St. Marks on the Bowery show the hardwood floors and open space for movement.

                    Szia, Nadia! – Immigrant History through the Lens of Netflix’s “Russian Doll”

                    Spoilers ahead for the first and second season of “Russian Doll” limited TV series Our neighborhoods have long been seen as a refuge and melting pot for immigrants of all nations and origins. Eastern and Southern Europeans and Chinese immigrants created communities within the heart of the Lower East Side, while Italians and African Americans […]

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                    The Documents of History: Mattachine Society of New York’s Archival Papers of 1951-1976 at the New York Public Library

                    As Village Preservation prepares to unveil a plaque commemorating the “Sip-In” at Julius’ Bar on April 21, 1966, one might wonder about the Mattachine Society of New York, which organized this historic event as part of their broader participation in the 1945-1969 Homophile Movement in New York City and beyond. We know the leaders of […]

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                    Remembering Christopher Moore and Honoring New York City’s Whole History

                    Christopher Moore (b. January 20, 1952, d. March 13, 2022, of complications from COVID and pneumonia) was a curator, archivist, author, storyteller, researcher, and the longest-serving member of New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, from 1995 to 2015. Moore became a notable fixture in the New York City preservation movement through his work to preserve […]

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                    The Long Road To Our Landmarks Law

                    On April 19, 1965, New York City passed its landmarks law. While credit for passage of this law is often attributed to the demolition of Penn Station, the tragic loss of that beautiful Beaux Arts monument was just another straw on the proverbial camel’s back. The ability to protect our important built history which came […]

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                    Celebrating Our Neighborhoods’ Immigrant Heritage

                    New York is a city of immigrants and, moreover, we are a nation largely of immigrants (Native Americans and the descendants of those brought here as slaves being the main and notable exceptions). This is especially true of our neighborhoods, which have attracted immigrants of all stripes for centuries. Immigration and the diversity of our […]

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                    Business of the Month: Carmine Street Guitars, 42 Carmine Street

                    Your input is needed! Today we feature our latest Business of the Month — help us to select the next. Tell us which independent store you love in Greenwich Village, the East Village, or NoHo: click here to nominate your favorite. Want to help support small businesses? Share this post with friends. Perhaps you dream of being guitarist extraordinaire Bill […]

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                    #SouthOfUnionSquare, the Birthplace of American Modernism: MORE Artist Studios at 30 East 14th Street

                    “South of Union Square, the Birthplace of American Modernism” is a series that explores how the area south of Union Square shaped some of the most influential American artists of the 20th century. Throughout the 20th century, the area south of Union Square attracted painters, writers, publishers, and radical social organizations, many of whom were […]

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                    The Gilded Village: Where Two Thirds of the Population Lived

                    Our Gilded Age blog posts have previously looked into some of the major stores and influential people of the era in our neighborhoods South of Union Square. This period, from the end of the Civil War until around 1900, is renowned for its excess, luxury, and wealth enjoyed across American cities. Rapid economic growth bolstered […]

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                      Private Lives: The Poignant Photography of Gail Albert Halaban

                      “What we can see out in the sunlight is always less interesting than what we can perceive taking place behind a pane of window­glass. In that pit, in that blackness or brightness, life is being lived, life is suffering, life is dreaming….” ­ Baudelaire, Windows The pandemic has been, for many of us, the defining […]

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                      Beer Now, Beer Then, Beer Here, Beer Everywhere

                      Filled with mingled cream and amber, I will drain that glass again. Such hilarious visions clamber Through the chamber of my brain. Quaintest thoughts, queerest fancies Come to life and fade away. What care I how time advances; I am drinking ale today — Edgar Allan Poe This ode to ale by one-time Village resident […]

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                      Purdy & Henderson: Engineering NYC from #SouthOfUnionSquare

                      The neighborhood South of Union Square has no shortage of trailblazers in the arts, architecture, commerce, and social justice. Architects, like James Renwick, Jr., Louis Korn, Goldwin Starrett of Starrett & Van Vleck, and Albert Buchman of Buchman & Fox for example, typically get the lion’s share of the accolades for the design and construction […]

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                      Making a Place for Play — WPA Era Neighborhood Playgrounds in our Neighborhoods

                      Approved as part or the New Deal on April 8th, 1935, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) had a significant impact on our neighborhoods’ social resources and cultural capital. Considered to be one of 20th century America’s largest investments in social infrastructure, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) pursued over 26 different projects in the Greenwich Village, […]

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                      Picturing the World Trade Center

                      The twin towers of the World Trade Center dominated the New York City skyline for almost thirty years, from their grand opening on April 4, 1973, until their destruction on September 11, 2001. They were visible from almost all corners of the city, and on a clear day, one could see them from up to […]

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                        Civil Rights History at 92 Grove Street

                        There are many sites throughout Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo that have played an important role in Black history and the struggle for civil rights in the United States. One of those sites, located in the West Village across from Sheridan Square, did so twice, in two separate centuries, in two very different […]

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                          The Gilded Village: the Renwicks and the Roosevelts

                          This is the latest installment in our Gilded Village blog series. The Gilded Age was a time of contradictions and change: extreme wealth and desperate poverty; political stability and corruption; venal greed and generous philanthropy; social retrenchment and reform; an ever-more powerful establishment and a rising immigrant class. Nowhere were the paradoxes and churn of […]

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                          April Programming at Village Preservation

                          Greenwich Village, NoHo, and the East Village. You will have an opportunity to learn more about the history of arts and culture in our neighborhoods, as well as participate in workshops that build our ability to continue to preserve our land as well as culture unique to our communities.

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                          Photo of Indepedent Booksellers: Unoppressive Non-Imperialist Bargain Books, Book Club Bar, and Printed Matter.

                          ‘In America, They Don’t Let You Burn’: The Legacy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

                          Anna Gullo, a survivor of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, believed, “In America, they don’t let you burn.” But the tragic events of March 25, 1911 proved her wrong. So did the failure to prosecute Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, the factory owners who locked the factory doors to protect their profits rather than their […]

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                          John Brown and Edmonia Lewis: Civil Rights Crusaders Who Intersected in Greenwich Village

                          Greenwich Village has long been a mecca and incubator for radical social justice advocates. With Village Preservation’s interactive map of the Greenwich Village Historic District as well as our Civil Rights and Social Justice Map, we can take a virtual walk through the neighborhood to visit significant sites related to many of these remarkable activists. […]

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                          Stormé DeLarverie: Village Guardian

                          A self-proclaimed “gay superhero,” Stormé Delarverie (≅ December 24, 1920 – May 24, 2014, Pronouns: she/her in public, he/him in performance) was a drag king, bouncer, and neighborhood activist who outspokenly protected LGBTQ+ communities in our neighborhoods and Lower Manhattan. Pronounced “Stormy De-Lah-vee-yay,” she made a name for herself as the (alleged) spark that started […]

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                          Storme DeLarverie in 1986

                          The Irish Emigrant Aid Society’s Greenwich Village Roots

                          On March 22, 1841, the Irish Emigrant Aid Society was established “to afford advice, information, aid and protection to emigrants from Ireland and generally to promote their welfare.” The Society was founded by Bishop John Hughes and Dr. Robert Hogan, president of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, and leading Irish merchants, philanthropists, and politicians. […]

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                            The Gardens Less Travelled

                            When spring arrives, our wonderful neighborhoods are alive with activity. Many more people are out and about, enjoying the unique beauty of our slice of the big city, where you can see the blue sky and the greenery of gardens, trees and flowers. The multitude of green spaces in our neighborhoods beckon at these times. And […]

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                            Great NYC Museums Go #BeyondTheVillageAndBack

                            New York City is blessed with a broad range of historic and internationally recognized cultural institutions across the five boroughs. But few know how many of them have origins here in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo. A look through our recently released Beyond the Village and Back maps, one covering Manhattan below 72nd […]

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                            Welcome to the Neighborhood: Via della Scrofa, 60 East 4th Street

                            Today we welcome a new small business to our neighborhoods — help us welcome the next. Tell us which new independent store in Greenwich Village, the East Village, or NoHo you’re excited about by emailing us at info@villagepreservation.org. As advocates on behalf of small business, we find great satisfaction in hearing of new independent establishments opening […]

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                            The Gilded Village: Shopping in the Neighborhood #SouthOfUnionSquare

                            The Gilded Age in New York City, from roughly the end of the Civil War to 1900, is a cacophony of contradictions. On the surface, the era was defined by excess, luxury, materialism, abundance, technical advancement, and extreme new wealth, which brought with it unprecedented corruption, inequality, and unrestrained greed. The Gilded Age is easily […]

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                            Barbara Kahn: Playwright With Impact Beyond The Stage

                            Barbara Kahn recently joined Village Preservation for a celebration of the her oral history with the organization (watch the video here). Barbara and friends offered a selection of performances from Barbara herself as well as her longtime collaborator, Robert Gonzales Jr. The performances of monologues and a song were followed by conversations about Barbara’s process […]

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                            Barbara Kahn

                            Catholic Churches: Anchor of New York’s 19th Century Irish Community

                            Irish Catholic immigrants to New York were one of the earliest and largest major immigrant groups to our city, outside of the Protestant immigrants from the United Kingdom who were much more readily accepted as “Americans.” They came here in ever-increasing numbers from the 18th century, seeking food security, jobs, religious and political freedom. Upon […]

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                            Business of the Month: Stevdan Stationers, 473 Sixth Avenue

                            Your input is needed! Today we feature our latest Business of the Month — help us to select the next. Tell us which independent store you love in Greenwich Village, the East Village, or NoHo: click here to nominate your favorite. Want to help support small businesses? Share this post with friends. As any writer or reader of love letters […]

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                              Local Lesbian Bookstores: Founders of a Feminist Future

                              Historically, our neighborhoods have hosted many independent and unconventional bookstores. These small institutions have helped define the character of our neighborhoods as a literary capital of the Western world. With apartments as small as ours, these bookstores took on the role of collective public living rooms, acting as places of community gathering and organization. But, […]

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                              Alix Dobkin advertising for Labyris Books in a "the Future is Female" T-Shirt

                              Suffragists of Greenwich Village

                              “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” Following decades of activism, the 19th Amendment was adopted on August 18, 1920. Unsurprisingly, many people and organizations located in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo […]

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                              Preserving the Past is Female!

                              Historic Preservation is a field where we seek to preserve communities and history through the built environment. The field requires knowledge of architecture, planning, law, and culture, among other areas. With such a multitude of skills required, no wonder it attracted so many prominent women like First Ladies Jackie Onassis and Lady Bird Johnson. In […]

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                                Recognizing the Civic Institutions of Little Ukraine

                                Ukrainians have long loomed large in the cultural tapestry of the East Village. Indeed, well before the neighborhood was dubbed the East Village, many knew a portion of it — and still do — as Little Ukraine. Like many immigrant groups, the first wave of Ukrainian immigration into the United States consisted of individuals flocking […]

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