On February 2, 1860, a terrible fire broke out in a tenement at 142 Elm Street (today Lafayette Street, just north of Howard Street in SoHo). The building was occupied by 24 families, according to The New York Times account at the time, and the fire started in a bakery in the basement. Ten women […]
The plan to demolish the 172 year old historic former townhouses at 14-16 Fifth Avenue in the Greenwich Village Historic District, and replace them with a high-rise tower, has returned and will be heard before Community Board 2’s Landmarks Committee on Tuesday, February 16 at 6:30pm. You can register for the Zoom meeting here (be sure to click on the […]
Village Preservation’s curriculum on Black history for middle school students focuses on local, citywide, national, and global themes and movements from pre-European settlement through the 21st century. One of the themes we explore is how voting rights and other civil rights evolved and were won by and for African Americans in our city and elsewhere […]
This February is African American History Month, a time to highlight and celebrate the rich history of African American struggle, success, and life in our neighborhoods over the last four hundred years (the first non-Native American settlers of Greenwich Village and the East Village were, in fact, African Americans). It’s also the 200th anniversary of the birth […]
Almost 200 years after it was first published, Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven still terrifies and delights. The poem, about a forlorn lover tormented by a mysterious bird as he slowly descends into madness, permeated both critical circles and the popular consciousness, proving that the macabre could and should share a space with literary fiction […]
Influential Abstract Expressionist painter Paul Jackson Pollock was born on January 28, 1912 in Cody, Wyoming. With his father, a farmer and government surveyor, mother and four brothers, Pollock grew up in Arizona and Chico, California, before moving to Greenwich Village. He lived in several Village apartments before becoming the Jackson Pollock who is considered one of […]
Leontyn Price, the groundbreaking, world-renowned soprano and longtime Greenwich Village resident, made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera on January 27, 1961. Ms. Price was one of the first internationally recognized African-American opera stars. Her career broke through racial barriers at another time in our history when the United States was experiencing intense racial strife […]
2021 is the year we realize more than ever the need to shop local as much as we can. We know you love to support small, local, independent businesses. And we do too. 2021 is here and Village Preservation continues to add new local independent businesses to our “Small Business/Big History” signage program, in which we […]
The anti-war and civil rights activist Igal Roodenko was a leader in a number of the most significant social movements of the twentieth century.
Just in time for the upcoming Black History Month, Village Preservation has developed a new, four-part course on African American history for middle school students as part of our Children’s Education Program. This remote Zoom course focuses on local, citywide, national, and global themes and movements. It looks at the Dutch origins of slavery in New […]
Our neighborhoods are filled with incredibly rich stories, each door and window a portal into the hidden history of New York City. It is always a surprise to find that, when you dig even deeper, you can find amazing stories hidden in nooks and corners. The stately Village Presbyterian Church once located at 141-145 West […]
Village Preservation shares our oral history collection with the public, highlighting some of the people and stories that make Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo such unique and vibrant neighborhoods. Each includes the experiences and insights of leaders or long-time participants in the arts, culture, preservation, business, or civic life. Michael E. Levine is […]
We have posted a number of times about the origins of the names of various streets in our area, nearly all of which honor men. Bethune Street, barely three blocks in length, deviates from that patriarchal trend. It was named after a woman who was exceptional in her philanthropic and educational work, Joanna Graham Bethune […]
Building Has Tremendous Historic Significance, and Site Is Vulnerable to Supertall Development; Push for Broader Landmarks Protections for Area Continues We are pleased to report that in a surprise move, yesterday the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to calendar, or begin the process of formally considering for landmark designation, 70 Fifth Avenue (2-6 West 13th Street), a site […]
Like the New York branch of the Black Panther Party, the Umbra Poets Workshop started in an unidentified location somewhere in the East Village. Working to establish a Black poetic community counter to the mainstream in the 1960s and ’70s, the collective conducted readings, performances, and festivals, met to collaboratively workshop each others’ writings, contributed […]
“American Pie” is perhaps one of the most compelling, beloved, and cryptic songs in the American songbook. Written by Don McLean in 1970, the song sprang from the Folk Music movement in Greenwich Village. Izzy Young, well known to musicians and music aficionados around the world, whose Greenwich Village shop, the Folklore Center, was the […]
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. Having our clothes […]
Continuing our Cemeteries of the Village series, today we look at the blocks surrounding 2nd Street and Second Avenue. Two landmarked cemeteries still exist here, and four other 19th-century cemeteries once called these blocks home, but little trace of them remains. New York and New York City Marble Cemeteries The New York Marble Cemetery, a […]
We’ve just added our first new oral history of 2021. Michael E. Levine is an urban planner who worked as the NYC Department of City Planning’s Community Board #2 liaison beginning in the 1960s, and was intimately involved in the landmark designation of the Greenwich Village Historic District as well as pioneering zoning and landmark designations for […]
Village Preservation is expanding our “Small Business/Big History” signage project with four new additions in the West and South Village — Love Child Yoga, Cho’s Grocery, Three Lives Bookstore, and Julius’ Bar. Want to know what’s so unique about Horatio Street? What paint-throwing artist got his start on Carmine Street? Why Three Lives’ storefront may be even more famous for art than literature? And why a […]
In 1900, the Social Reform Club hosted a lecture by labor leader Edward King.
We love historic photos of our neighborhoods, many of which appear in our vast historic image archive. A subset of that archive includes artists’ renderings and interpretations. One Village artist whose work we’ve often admired, Bertram Goodman, created a number of works showing Greenwich Village in the mid-20th century with a particularly special quality. Bertram […]
Following the death late last year of Edith O’Hara, the founder of the 13th Street Repertory Theatre, Village Preservation urged the Landmarks Preservation Commission to consider landmark designation of 50 West 13th Street, the more than 170 year old rowhouse which has housed the theater since its founding. The 3 1/2 story house retains distinctive and unusual Greek Revival architectural […]
Born David Robert Jones on January 8th, 1947, the cultural and rock icon David Bowie navigated his way through music, theater, and film like a chameleon. Known for his outlandish though purposeful alter egos, he changed the way audiences viewed art, creating performance pieces, backstories, and personalities that drove his music to become more than […]
Butterfly McQueen — it’s an unusual name, but in many ways perfect for the woman to whom it is attached, as it evokes both flight and royalty. Born in Florida, McQueen was a dancer and actor who was made famous by her role as Prissy in Gone With The Wind — followed by many similar […]
Check out the latest issue of Village Preservation’s newsletter available here.
On January 6 2015, on Three Kings Day, the East Village community and allies rallied on the steps of City Hall on a cold winter day to urge Mayor de Blasio to return the Old PS 64/CHARAS El Bohio Community Center to community use. That was just one of many, many grassroots actions over many […]
In her manuscript for the novel People in Trouble, lesbian author and activist Sarah Schulman tells of a fictionalized AIDS activist organization called JUSTICE. By the time People in Trouble reached the shelves a couple years later, however, the real-life activist group ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) of which Schulman became an active […]
Around 1907, after recovering from a chronic backache, the 24 year old Max Eastman moved to New York City.
If you’ve ever wondered what in the world treacle pudding is, or how one would properly consume marmite, Tea & Sympathy, the British outpost loved by Sarah Jessica Parker, Dame Judi Dench, Kevin Kwan, and none other than David Bowie, has got you covered. Opened on December 23, 1990, this tiny tea room at 108 […]
On December 22, 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian and Jewish descent, was court-martialed, convicted of treason, and sentenced to life in prison at the notorious Devil’s Island prison for allegedly sharing military secrets with the German Embassy in Paris. Two years later, an investigation into the already closed case […]
This has been a year like no other. We lost friends, loved ones, and local small businesses. We had to find new ways to reach our members, the public, and decision-makers. Education programs and fundraisers went virtual. But COVID-19 wasn’t the only source of challenges we faced. The Mayor put forward an unprecedented upzoning plan […]
This has certainly been a challenging year, to say the least. In spite of that, Village Preservation, the Community Boards, and the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) have continued to review and process permit applications for the landmarked properties in our neighborhoods. Interestingly, in the virtual environment that we have been operating in, […]
Despite all the challenges of the year, Village Preservation proudly hosted 76 programs (most of which were virtual), reaching over 9,000 people in 2020. How does one choose favorites? It’s nearly impossible, especially given that each program represents, at minimum, someone’s research, passion, skill, life’s work, book, or all of the above. So, in wrap-up […]
Throughout history, societies look to the arts to give insight and meaning to events and experiences. And so with good reason, we have been thinking a great deal about our theater artist community in these days and months since the pandemic has closed our beloved cultural institutions. Artists who create theater have been given the […]
On December 5, 2020 at about 5:00am, a fire broke out at 116 Second Avenue, a neo-Grec tenement. The six-alarm blaze spread to the 1892 Middle Collegiate Church next door to the south. Nearly 200 firefighters were dispatched and while four suffered minor injuries, thankfully the human toll did not go beyond that. However, the […]
As 2020 comes to a close, it’s a good time to take stock and look back on our most popular posts of the year. This eclectic mix of culture and history include the 1960s boy band the Monkees, and the oldest residence in Manhattan, 44 Stuyvesant Street. Tellingly, three of the five posts focus on […]
Some of our favorite local small businesses were recently prominently featured in the New York Times. Longtime neighborhood anchors Veselka (‘rainbow’ in Ukrainian) and (the former) Dinosaur Hill were the focus of a long form article that many people shared with me. The latter is closing as a result of a well-earned retirement, while the […]
Small businesses have been on everyone’s mind, and it’s no secret that Village Preservation is working hard to support our local small businesses — from our Small Business/Big History campaign, to our work supporting the ‘Save Our Storefronts’ Legislation for Small Business Relief, to our ongoing Businesses of the Month program, and much more. Recently, […]
Taped into a small notebook are photos of vacant lots on First Street and Second Avenue. Elsewhere there is a photo of flowers and graffiti for Joey Ramone outside the former site of CBGB, on Bleecker and Bowery. Gathered together, these pieces of ephemera constitute contemporary poet Brenda Coultas’ The Bowery Project (published in the […]
From the late nineteenth century until the mid-twentieth century, four elevated rail lines crossed over the streets of our neighborhoods.
Village Preservation is celebrating its 40th Anniversary this year, and in honor of this momentous milestone, we have created an interactive storymap that charts the historic journey of our organization. Today, we look at the history and future of our Children’s Education program. In 1991, in partnership with the Merchant’s House Museum, we launched our […]
We know you love to support small, local, independent businesses. And we do too. And as the recent NY Times editorial put it this past weekend: “In the darkest days of the pandemic this year, it was New York’s small businesses — its coffee shops and restaurants, groceries and bakeries — that remained open, serving […]
Village Preservation is celebrating its 40th Anniversary this year, and in honor of this momentous milestone, we have created an interactive storymap that charts the historic journey of our organization. During that span, we have worked tirelessly to preserve our neighborhoods — no easy feat — and despite being a “child” of the 1980s, our […]
Tennessee Williams’ A Street Car Named Desire, one of the most critically acclaimed plays of the 20th century, opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. And while shocking its mid-20th century audience with its unabashed brutality and sexuality, when the curtain closed on opening night, the audience erupted into 30 […]
We’ve added several new local independent businesses to our “Small Business/Big History” signage program, where we partner with great local businesses to promote neighborhood history and the wonderful services and products they offer. Take a tour in person or virtually, and learn a thing or two about the history of these buildings, streets, and neighborhoods, […]
Many people love the the historic architecture of our neighborhoods. But not everyone shares such a reverence, and historic buildings are often marked for demolition. Of course as supporters of Village Preservation know, we often must fight to protect our history; sometimes we win, and sometimes we lose. Today’s story illustrates that like perhaps no […]
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. This has always […]
A new application filed with the Landmarks Preservation Commission for construction on the lot adjacent to the Merchants House Museum at 27 East 4th Street once again threatens the safety and integrity of one of New York’s first landmarks, a nationally-recognized piece of American history, and a vital and irreplaceable public educational and cultural resource. […]
With good reason, Missouri and Connecticut like to claim the great writer Samuel L. Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), as one of their own. But New Yorkers like to claim Twain as well, and there’s plenty of cause to do so. He did have a love/hate relationship with the city, […]
Village Preservation and ten other local community organizations representing thousands of residents have released a community alternative rezoning plan for SoHo and NoHo. The Mayor’s plan would allow new development up to 2.4 times the size current rules allow and a deluge of oversized luxury condos, while opening the floodgates to giant big box chain […]
It’s Village Preservation’s 40th birthday this year. In honor of this auspicious occasion, we recently released a story map that details our efforts documenting, celebrating, and advocating for the preservation of our neighborhoods, all of which are made possible by our members and supporters. The map is divided by decade, and so today we showcase […]
Following a huge backlash from neighborhood residents, the City has withdrawn its much criticized rezoning plan to require special permits for new hotels in the area of Greenwich Village and the East Village south of Union Square. Village Preservation had led the criticism of the plan, citing the broad range of mistakes and oversights in […]
The poets and New York natives Anne Waldman and Lewis Warsh met at the Berkeley Poetry Conference in 1965, while absorbing the Zen-influenced poems of San Francisco-based writer Robert Duncan. This chance encounter begat a romantic and creative partnership that, back across the country in the East Village, lit a spark within the Downtown poetry […]
Our new interactive tool “Virtual Village” brings users on a multitude of virtual explorations.
In 1804, New York City had already celebrated 190 years since its founding. Comparatively, the United States was only 28 years young. In order to honor the already rich history of the city, John Pintard, then the secretary of the American Academy of Fine Arts, drew up plans for an institution that would include a […]
On November 19, 1969, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated 326 Spring Street, also known as the James Brown House, a NYC Landmark. The James Brown House was built in 1817 and, as the designation reports notes, retains its original gambrel roof, second story lintels and dormers. Perhaps even more than its architecture and age, the […]
Did you know that for many local small businesses, more than half their revenue is generated in November and December, which brings them into the black for the year and allows them to stay afloat? This is especially true for sales-based businesses like bookstores. So please consider supporting neighborhood small businesses this time of year, […]
For more than half a century, La MaMa E.T.C. has brought amazing off-off-Broadway theater to the East Village. 74 East Fourth Street, designated a New York City landmark on November 17, 2009, was built in 1873 for the Aschenbrödel Verein (“Cinderella Society”), a musicians’ club formed in Kleindeutschland in 1860. In 1969, it became Ellen […]
Our new interactive tool “Virtual Village” brings users on unique and unexpected journeys.
Beginning in 1948, the artists William Baziotes, David Hare, Robert Motherwell, and Mark Rothko held a public lecture series entitled Subjects of the Artist. Regularly attracting a crowd of around one hundred and fifty people, the series eventually disbanded in 1950. It was then that Robert Goodnough, a masters’ candidate in art education at New […]
If you are a research geek like me, you’ll understand that coming across a piece of relatively unknown history that is associated with our area can be very exciting. This was the case when I was recently researching 59 Fourth Avenue, part of the South of Union Square neighborhood for which we are seeking landmark […]
James Renwick was one of the most influential, accomplished, and skilled American architects of the 19th century.
Music and the Village are synonymous, perhaps no place more so than where Greenwich Village and the East Village meet, south of Union Square. Today we’re taking a wonderful journey through this area to look at several notable musicians, music venues, and recording studios that found a home here, from jazz to punk, blues to […]
For more than 70 years, The Brotherhood Synagogue, located at 28 Gramercy Park South, has sought to meet the spiritual and cultural needs of its members in a welcoming, progressive community, while working to make religious brotherhood a living reality.
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. Eating out in […]
Lenny Bruce pushed buttons. A regular at the clubs in the Village, he was also, arguably, one of the leaders of the counterculture movement in Greenwich Village in the 1960s, and honed his stand up acts gigging in various Village night clubs. The counterculture movement in our neighborhoods during that time helped numerous comedians evolve more personal […]
A remarkable number of people and places in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo played important roles in the move towards women’s suffrage. These neighborhoods were long centers of political ferment and progressive social change, and women and men here played a prominent part in removing barriers to women voting in New York State […]
The creation of the African Free School, which was founded on November 2, 1787, signaled a profound shift in the course of social reform, abolition, education, and racial equality in New York City and early America. Prior to the Revolutionary War, New York City had one of the largest populations of Black slaves in the […]
In 1754, there was no library in New York. Can you believe it? Today we are taking a wonderful journey through our neighborhoods to trace the beginnings of the New York Public Library which came to light through several important institutions, philanthropists, and buildings. With the help of our new Virtual Village map and its […]
The East Village is home to a dynamic group of historic LGBT+ sites — overshadowed as they may be by the many such landmarks of the West Village, including Stonewall. But LGBTQ+ artists, writers, musicians, and activists have long called the East Village home, or spent significant time there. Among them are Allen Ginsberg, Emma […]
On October 28, 2014, the structure at 334 E. 14th Street that architectural historian Francis Morrone calls “one of the most important buildings in the East Village” was designated a New York City landmark. Designed in 1866 by Julius Boekell, creator of a wide variety of significant buildings around the city, it serves as both a […]
De Blasio’s Just-Released SoHo/NoHo PlanWould Change the Face of Historic NeighborhoodsWith Massive UpzoningPlan Has Devastating Implications forNeighborhoods and Historic DistrictsAcross the City Late yesterday the de Blasio administration released details of their planned upzoning of SoHo and NoHo — and it’s even worse than we imagined. Here are some highlights: Virtually the entirety of the two […]
Village Preservation just released an incredible new tool, our #SouthOfUnionSquare “Virtual Village” site, which is an interactive map highlighting the architecture and histories of the area South of Union Square. In researching the voluminous history of the area, which surprisingly still largely lacks landmark protections, we discovered certain themes that we have turned into tours […]
Village Preservation is thrilled to share “Virtual Village”: a new online interactive tool.
Village Preservation is committed to supporting, protecting, and promoting small businesses. When we were lucky enough to be introduced to chef, author, and Village entrepreneur Fany Gerson, we were overjoyed. Fany is the consummate cook and a great example of an intrepid small business owner who is valiantly carrying on through the tough times. She […]
On October 22, 1820, a group of Greenwich Village residents gathered at the home of Catherine Ritter.
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. Greenwich Village has […]
Archiving is one of the many ways that Village Preservation ensures the preservation of our neighborhoods. By keeping records and files of images, stories, and the processes of preservation since neighborhood residents first came together to advocate for their neighborhoods, we keep Village histories alive. We have always made these archives accessible for anyone who […]
Not everyone knows its name or its history, but few have passed the incredibly impressive red brick building at the northeast corner of Lafayette Street and East 4th Street and not marveled at the stunning work of architecture located there. The De Vinne Press Building was designated a NYC Landmark on October 19, 1966 — […]
The first public meeting on the city’s proposal to rezone and upzone SoHo and NoHo will be next Monday from 6-8 pm. This will be the first time further details of the city’s proposal will be made public – the first step before a months-long public hearing and approval process. Here’s what we do know: […]
Carl Jung (1875-1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist whose ideas about the human unconscious had a profound effect on literature, art, and philosophy. While he was a longtime corresponder and collaborator with Sigmund Freud, Jung eventually departed from traditional psychoanalysis to explore and document his own unique vision of the human mind, spirit, and personality. Among […]
Dear friend, Over the last year and a half, we’ve gone through a transformation. Our new name is Village Preservation, and in June we launched our new website: VillagePreservation.org. Both were designed to better fulfill our mission of celebrating, documenting, and preserving the incredibly rich architectural and cultural history of Greenwich Village, the East Village, […]
Advocacy through preservation leadership is one of Village Preservation’s most important functions. You can be a part of that by attending hearings in person or virtually, and sending emails through our website to elected officials, the Mayor, and city agencies. Our new website, VillagePreservation.org, has all the information and resources you expect from our old website, and […]
The closure of St. Vincent’s Hospital in 2010, Greenwich Village’s one full-service hospital, was and remains the subject of considerable grief and dismay. But St. Vincent’s wasn’t the first Greenwich Village Hospital to close its doors. One particular one was set up to serve a growing immigrant community, and got some particularly high-profile help in […]
We’ve just added over a dozen wonderful new images to our historic image archive culled from recent landmarks applications in our neighborhoods. Some highlights include the old Ninth Avenue Elevated being torn down in 1940, and an 1898 image showing wooden houses at the corner of Sixth Avenue and 11th Street (with its own Elevated […]
Village Preservation’s highly acclaimed continuing education classes are available online this Fall! Sign up now to reserve a spot: whether you’re a real estate professional seeking required NYS continuing education credit, or you’re just a history lover who wants to learn more about preservation, planning, and development in our city, with a special focus on […]
Some of the most iconic films in history have used New York City as its backdrop. Sweeping dramas, gut-busting comedies, and action/adventure movies have swung through the streets dozens of times (sometimes destroying the city in the process). Because horror films often focus on the monster or an evil entity itself, the location (other than […]
We are thrilled to report that today the City Council’s Zoning Subcommittee voted down the application by a developer seeking to transfer air rights from the landmarked house at 4 St. Marks Place to 3 St. Marks Place (at 3rd Avenue), which would have increased by 20% the size of a planned office tower there. This more […]
October is LGBT History Month, and we’ve got a great new episode of our Off the Grid podcast on our Soundcloud page to help celebrate. Explore some of the many great historic sites of our neighborhood connected to LGBT history from the East Village to the West Village, the South Village to NoHo, including civil […]
There are very few welcome surprises that have come along in the past months of this pandemic. But Village Preservation’s Spring House Tour Benefit, a much beloved annual event that is a hallmark of the beginning of spring in New York, is one whose fate has a happy, and unexpected, outcome! Traditionally held on the […]
Do you love old photos like we do? It’s fascinating to see the changing and remaining face of our neighborhoods over the years and decades. Village Preservation is fortunate to serve as custodian of an immense and rich photo archive you can explore here. And sometimes we see some intriguing online resources and archives that […]
In 2007, Village Preservation published “The Italians of the South Village” by Mary Elizabeth Brown, Ph.D. The report is exhaustive and highlights buildings, people, and dynamic histories of a long-storied community in an historic neighborhood. The report opens with a map of Italian-American Sites in the South Village, which lists 45 sites in this relatively […]
Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century, the neighborhood south of Union Square was a hub for leftist and labor organizing.
Details Are Scarce, But Indications Raise Big Concerns and Conflicts of Interest; Local Elected Officials, Citywide Candidates, and Real Estate Interests Back Move In a surprise move this Wednesday, Mayor de Blasio announced that he intends to propose a rezoning of SoHo and NoHo that would include upzoning certain areas to substantially increase the size of allowable […]
We recently added a new collection, the Jean Polacheck Collection, to our historic image archive. This collection dates largely from the 1940s through the mid-1950s, and includes scenes of Washington Square Park, Midtown Manhattan, the interior of clubs and restaurants, and other Greenwich Village and NYC street scenes. Scroll down to see a sample of […]
Over 2.4 million New Yorkers, or nearly one-third of its population, identify as Hispanic or Latino, including myself. National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15) is one of many occasions that allows us to reflect on the impact that Hispanic and Latino residents and revolutionaries have had on our neighborhoods for over 400 years. Juan […]
