British-born architect Richard Upjohn was born on January 22, 1802 in Sheffield, England. He moved to the United States in 1829, and in 1835 designed his first of many churches throughout the United States. He would go on to design over 50 churches in the Gothic Revival and Italianate styles across the country throughout his almost forty-year career. […]
In the years following World War I, Americans feared communist infiltration of our country following the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. As we continue to see today, when fear outweighs rational debate, civil liberties pay the price.
The eleventh annual ranking of national retailers in New York City by the Center for an Urban Future (CUF) just came out, and it reveals a 0.3 percent decline in the number of chain stores over the past year, marking the first year-over-year citywide drop in national retail locations since they began the annual analysis of […]
On January 16, 2014, GVSHP sent a letter to the then-chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) Robert Tierney calling for landmark designation of the Stonewall Inn.
GVSHP’s recently-released East Village Building Blocks online web tool provides invaluable information about over 2,200 properties in the East Village, including each building’s date of construction, original architect, original use, and more. This resource was over ten years in the making, and with so many of the structures having been built before New York City had […]
Today we begin a new blog series, Strange Bedfellows, where we take a look at unlikely pairs or assortments of noteworthy people who lived or spent time in surprisingly close proximity to one another in our neighborhoods. The St. Mark’s Historic District is known for all sorts of unique surprises — it contains Manhattan’s only […]
If only these old bones could talk! Well, in the case of Rick Kelly and his amazing craft, the old bones can indeed talk, or sing, if you will. Rick Kelly is a luthier who crafts bespoke guitars from the reclaimed wood that once belonged to buildings around the city. Rick’s guitars are like having […]
One of New York City’s most charming and distinctive corners, the St. Mark’s Historic District was landmarked by the City of New York on January 14, 1969. Containing fewer than 40 buildings on parts of just three blocks, this extraordinary East Village enclave contains several notable superlatives, including Manhattan’s oldest house still in use as a residence, […]
On January 10th, 1750, James Varick was born into slavery in upstate New York. Possibly a slave of the prominent Dutch Varick family, as a young boy he and his mother were freed and moved to New York City. The church he helped found, what would grow to be Zion African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, had a profound effect on […]
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. From its birth as a pop-up yoga speakeasy […]
Villager and photographer Rose Hartman has, since the 1970s, been known for her candid portraits of the world’s celebrities and non-celebrities as they pass through New York City. Ms. Hartman, who’s lived on Charles Street in the West Village, is a former high school teacher who took the leap into photography in her thirties. Hartman’s photography […]
On January 7, 1967, German-born singer Nico performed with The Velvet Underground at Steve Paul’s nightclub, the Scene, and this moment was captured stunningly in a photograph by Fred W. McDarrah. McDarrah was the photographer behind the Village Voice at the time and he had a fifty-year association with the paper that chronicled the post-War […]
If Beale Street Could Talk is the newest release from award-winning filmmaker Barry Jenkins. The film is Jenkins’s adaptation of a novella by James Baldwin of the same name. The story, based in 1970s New York City, is about mother-and-wife-to-be Tish, who vividly recalls the passion, respect and trust that have connected her and her […]
New Year, new entries! As the calendar year resets, so to the dates that correspond to Village intersections. We begin our 2019 series back where it all started: the East Village. In honor of today’s date, we are taking a look at the history and buildings around 1st Avenue and 3rd Street.
Napoleon Eugene Charles Henry LeBrun, a prominent and prolific American architect of the late 19th century, was born on January 2, 1821. He began his career in Philadelphia and designed a number of notable buildings there and other Pennsylvania towns. In 1864 he moved his family and his practice to New York City. He would […]
Happy New Year and welcome to 2019! Perhaps you welcomed in the new year a bit ‘robustly’ last night. In that spirit, we thought we’d look at a few posts from this past year about the free flow of alcohol. So put a cold compress on your head, grab your coffee, put your feet up […]
Last week we looked at readers’ top five choices of 2018. Today, check out some of our favorites : Who Doesn’t Love Carole Teller? A resident of the East Village for over fifty years, Carole Teller so beautifully and thoroughly documented her neighborhood’s architecture, daily life, and many quirks, that we had to dole it out in multiple parts […]
Each year, Village Preservation hosts more than sixty public programs. They cover our neighborhoods from the western edge of Greenwich Village to the easternmost reaches of the East Village. Topics cover a diverse range of areas including rock and roll, restoring artists’ studios, terracotta mosaics in the subways, street photography, women’s poetry, and so much […]
As the calendar year comes to a close, GVSHP is looking back at some of our 2018 blog posts. Our neighborhoods are so rich in history on every street and around every intersection, we’d love to explore and share each one. But given that could take years, in 2018 we decided to let the calendar be our guide, […]
Mother Teresa, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her work among the poor in Calcutta, India, opened an AIDS Hospice in Greenwich Village on Christmas Eve in 1985. Mother Teresa was the founder of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic congregation of women dedicated to helping the poor. […]
The Village has always been, and remains, a hotbed of artistic creativity. Theater artists and companies continue to thrive here, as more and more emerge or find new homes in the neighborhood. This week, we welcome the upstart Ars Nova to the scene!
Calvert Vaux, one of the most prolific and influential architects in the United States during the second half of the 19th century, was born on December 20, 1824, in London, England. Best known in New York City as the co-designer of Central Park along with Frederick Law Olmsted, Vaux’s talents went beyond landscape architecture and […]
On December 19, 1776, Thomas Paine published The American Crisis, a series of pamphlets that helped fan the flames of American patriotism to inspire the American troops and public during the long, arduous years of the Revolutionary War. In a previous blog post, we discussed Paine, his legacy, and how he spent his final years […]
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Each year GVSHP writes almost 250 blog posts, with our staff (the authors) competing to write the best, most popular posts. Today, we look back on our five most popular posts of 2018, as chosen by our readers:
If you were to ask me to name a truly perfect album, it would take a very quick punk-rock-beat to say “London Calling!” Released on December 14, 1979, this iconic album has been called the first post-punk album; “merry and tough, passionate and large-spirited” by one reviewer; and one of the five greatest albums by […]
On December 23, 1815, African-American abolitionist, minister, educator, and orator Henry Highland Garnet was born into slavery. Garnet escaped his bondage and worked hard to fight for himself and the African-American community, eventually becoming the first African-American to address the United States House of Representatives. He also at one time resided at 185 Bleecker 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. Few businesses survive decades. Fewer still survive […]
We recently wrote about the online release of the 1940s tax photos of every building in New York City by the New York City Municipal Archives. As we mentioned, the 1980s tax photos have been available online for a while now. However, Maps Mania has taken this a step further and made this resource infinitely […]
The Village in the 1960s was a hotbed of creativity. In one of the most defining moments of that decade, in January 1961, a twenty-year-old Bob Dylan moved here to play the clubs and become a recording artist. Photographer Fred W. McDarrah was the photographer behind the Village Voice at the time. McDarrah had a […]
Straddling Greenwich Village and the East Village, the neighborhood south of Union Square between Fifth and Third Avenues was once a center of groundbreaking commercial innovations, radical leftist politics, and the artistic avant-garde. With the city’s recent decision to allow an upzoning for a “Tech Hub” on the neighborhood’s doorstep on 14th Street, there are […]
“I am Spartacus!” That is what many people think of when they think of Kirk Douglas, in his role in the 1960 film Spartacus as the leader of a slave revolt in ancient Rome. But did you know he once made his home in Greenwich Village? While he was a struggling actor at the beginning […]
On December 6, 2006, the Trump SoHo ‘Condo-Hotel’ was caught advertising its planned units to prospective buyers as a “Primary Residence” or “Secondary Residence.” GVSHP found the advertisements and immediately fired off a letter demanding yet again that construction of the building not be allowed, as the zoning for the area prohibited residential uses. Unfortunately, […]
There have been a handful of times in this country when the outcome of a political campaign was truly stunning. Such was the case in 1919 when several groups known as the “Drys” won a 70 year campaign to prohibit the production, sale, and distribution of alcohol. The 18th Amendment abolished booze in on January […]
I was holiday shopping at my local bookstore and was delighted to encounter Emily Jenkins’ “All of a Kind Family Hanukkah.” In the book, a Jewish immigrant family prepares for Chanukah in their Lower East Side Tenement in 1912. The family’s four daughters share a room, make latkes, throw tantrums, and in the end light […]
The Center For Migration Studies has provided GVSHP with historic images in the past, and recently sent us several images of the interior artwork of Our Lady of Pompeii church. The church has stood on the northwest corner of Carmine and Bleecker Streets since 1928, but the congregation dates back to 1892, when Father Pietro […]
Recently we looked at seven late 19th and early 20th century buildings now under consideration for landmarking by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (read about them here,) They are all located along Broadway south of Union Square, in an area rich in architectural and cultural significance, and also increasingly endangered since the approval by the […]
My favorite series in the past MANY years is The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel written by the amazing Amy Sherman-Palladino. Not only is her rapid-fire dialogue and direction a joy to watch and listen to, but the actors who have been cast in the show are sublimely well-suited for their roles. Then, of course, there are […]
Privately owned public spaces, or POPS, are public areas adjoining or adjacent to buildings created through incentivized zoning. What this zoning means is that by providing a public space, developers are given a floor area bonus, allowing them to build a larger building with a greater Floor Area Ratio (FAR) than they would have been […]
World AIDS Day takes place on the 1st December each year. It’s an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, to show support for people living with HIV, and to commemorate those who have died from an AIDS-related illness. Begun in 1988, World AIDS Day was the first ever global health […]
GVSHP just added 29 new historic images to our archive taken from current public applications to the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) for significant changes to landmarked buildings in our neighborhoods. Historic photos are typically included in applications to provide explanation or context for proposed changes in historic districts or to individually landmarked structures, and GVSHP […]
New York City is full of hidden surprises that even the most dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker may not know about. One such example is the elusive “backhouse” or rear house. There are literally scores of these hidden structures throughout the older neighborhoods of Lower Manhattan like Greenwich Village and the East Village. But because they are […]
On March 31, 1492, Spain ordered that all Jews living within the kingdom either convert to Christianity or be expelled. Portugal did the same less than five years later. Some of those Spanish Jews converted and remained in Spain, either secretly practicing their faith or genuinely converting (even some of those, however, continued to face […]
“For all of us who were worried that the conservative backlash in this country would bring about unnamed terrible things, the future is now.” These words date to November 1980, and were written by activist and journalist Andy Humm following the mass shooting at the Ramrod bar on West Street in Greenwich Village on November […]
“Small Business Saturday” is this coming Saturday, a day to promote the independent retailers and other businesses that enrich our neighborhoods. To help you help our local small businesses, we’ve compiled a list of books that we have featured this year at our free public programs, along with local bookstores where you can buy them […]
New York history buffs have been waiting a long time for this — the New York City Municipal Archives has digitized all 720,000 of its tax photos of every building in New York City, taken 1939-1941, and placed them all on their website. The city agency had already posted digitized versions of its ca. 1980 tax […]
With the colder air, the shorter days, and the mania of holiday planning that come with late November, it seems right to start spending more time in the warm, comfortable indoors. And looking through our Historic Image Archive, while our neighborhood’s building facades and street life take center stage, it’s also nice to note the […]
Mass transit emerged in New York City in 1827 with the omnibus, a large stagecoach pulled by horses that could accommodate about a dozen riders at a time. While horse-drawn carriages had always existed in NYC, the omnibus was different because it ran along a designated route and was a more affordable option. “Omni” meant the bus carried everyone […]
Four years ago today, GVSHP launched our Business of the Month program, in which each month a local independent business is featured on GVSHP’s website and blog Off the Grid, and shared with thousands of followers via our e-bulletins and social media, showcasing one of the great retail treasures of the Village, East Village, or […]
On November 12th, 1968, Firehouse Engine Co. 33 at 44 Great Jones Street was designated a New York City landmark. The design of the firehouse, a “distinguished example of French Beaux Arts architecture,” is attributed to architect Ernest Flagg (February 6, 1857 – April 10, 1947). Flagg has designed quite a few significant buildings around […]
James Renwick, Jr. was born on November 11, 1818, in New York City. He would become one of the most successful American architects of the 19th century, designing such high profile buildings as New York City’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the Smithsonian “Castle” in Washington D.C., and Grace Church, right here in our neighborhood on Broadway […]
November 11, 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the Armistice which ended World War I, a war that engulfed most of Europe since 1914. United States troops tipped the balance toward Allied victory, placing the United States on the world stage in a new way. The war came at a great cost, though. WWI claimed […]
This post is part of a series about Village intersections that correspond to the date. In July, we took a look at 7th Avenue and 12th Street and discussed the former St. Vincent’s Hospital. Yet, just a block down on 11th Street more history can be seen that’s not connected to the demolished medical center. In […]
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. Need a bag of any kind? Or […]
This post is part of a series about our favorite things in and about the Village. Andrew Berman, GVSHP’s Executive Director since 2002, has a plethora of favorite things about our neighborhoods, so it’s hard to press him for a discreet list. But there are a few things that Andrew feels particularly passionate about, […]
A recent visit to the powerful exhibit Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power at the Brooklyn Museum surprised me with its deep Greenwich Village roots. The show begins in 1963, before the emergence of the Black Power Movement later in the decade, with work by members of the Spiral Group arts […]
On November 1, 1871, one of America’s most influential writers, Stephen Crane, was born in Newark, New Jersey. He is probably best know for his Civil War novel The Red Badge of Courage, which he wrote from his home at 61 Washington Square South, part of what was known as “Genius Row” — so named […]
The Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade has been a much-loved event in the East Village since the 1990s. This year’s parade was initially canceled, but then moved to the East River Park Amphitheater.
We decided it was high time for some of our most ardent and vocal supporters to have a say here on Off the Grid. To that end, we have invited one of our favorite East Villagers, Tom Birchard, owner of Veselka, to let us know his favorite East Village spots. We at GVSHP highly endorse […]
On Monday, October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy a.k.a. “Superstorm Sandy” made landfall in New York. It was one of the most devastating natural disasters to ever hit New York. It inflicted $19 billion in damages and killed 43 people in New York City. Many neighborhoods in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Queens were flooded by the 14-foot storm […]
Fall is the time to notice the sublime changing colors of the leaves on the trees. Or smell the fallen nuts of a gingko tree that some harvest in parks to eat. Did you know that there is a great online map of every street tree in NYC? Which one do you walk by and admire? […]
October 25 is the Day of the Basque Country, the national holiday of the Basque Autonomous Community. But did you know that 82 Bank Street was once a major hub for the Basque community in NYC?
Caffe Cino at 31 Cornelia Street was a community, a haven, the birthplace of countless theatrical careers and movements, and the origin of off-off-Broadway theater. In November 2017, Caffe Cino was added to the National Register of Historic Places, which is a great symbolic honor for the Caffe, which opened in 1958 and closed its […]
GVSHP has partnered with the free Urban Archive App over the past year to share our historic image archive via this location-based tool. As part of this partnership, we conducted scavenger hunts in the East Village and Greenwich Village, and created guided walking tours of the Bowery and Meatpacking District. Now we’re sharing the opportunity […]
John “Jack” Silas Reed was an American journalist, poet and communist activist at the beginning of the 20th century whose writing about revolutionary events and radical causes made him a very polarizing figure in this country and abroad. He is probably best known as the author of Ten Days That Shook the World, his account […]
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. A little shop on East 12th Street […]
Folk music icon Woody Guthrie was a little man with beady eyes – as described by his second wife Marjorie, though she had imagined him to be taller, strapping, and more like a proper cowboy than he was. Perhaps it was because of his Dust Bowl Ballads, his first album, chronicling his travels from Dust […]
On October 17, 2017 the Landmarks Preservation Commissions (LPC) held a hearing to consider landmarking 827-831 Broadway, the threatened 1866 lofts once home to Willem de Kooning. Just two weeks later, the LPC voted to landmark them, culminating a year and a half campaign by GVSHP and our allies to save them from the wrecking […]
In a recent application to the Landmarks Preservation Commission to make some changes to the building at 770 Broadway (8th/9th Streets), there is a great picture of this impressive building being constructed; the photos from this application are now part of our historic image archive. This photo really showcases the construction technology of a steel […]
On October 15, 1974, the Gay Activist Alliance Firehouse, located in SoHo at 99 Wooster Street, was bombed.
Ever walk past a particular building or gate and wish you could go inside? Well this weekend, maybe you can, since it is Open House New York. More than 140 sites can be visited for free and without reservations!
Among the many delights included in this weekend’s Open House New York will be three iconic Greenwich Village buildings–a Gothic Revival church with many architectural firsts, a library that was originally a courthouse which heard the “Trial of the Century,” and a groundbreaking artists’ housing complex that was formerly home to Bell Telephone Labs and the site […]
October 11th is National Coming Out Day, a day dedicated to raising awareness and visibility of the LGBT community through the process of “coming out,” or identifying one’s LGBT identity to friends, family, and others. In the Village, what better way to live loud and live proud than to frequent some of the establishments that […]
The now infamous Ninth Street Show, a ‘coming out’ of sorts for the post-war New York avant-garde art scene, began as a whimsical idea, but ended up literally overturning the hegemony of the uptown artists and art dealers over the art world in the mid-20th century New York art scene. The show was to become the […]
The New York City subway system is messy, crowded, unreliable, full of musicians, and generally teeming with folks who will bowl you over if you’re not careful. It’s also full of art. Graffiti and advertisements, yes, but that’s not the kind of art we’re talking about. The stations themselves were built with art. The tiles may be […]
The Beat poets, inextricably linked with the Village and East Village, materialized in the post-WWII American of white picket fences to celebrate all things messy, countercultural, drug-addled, disenfranchised, and unstoppably vital. East Villager Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” was an anthem of this movement, with its power, breathlessness, and breadth of content. And on October 7, 1955, Ginsberg […]
The Village is hallowed ground, and much like any sacred space, its landscape is marked by holy figures. For our neighborhoods, these figures are the architecture, and we even have our own “saints.” Yet, while these saints are often canonized in our memory, some of them have unfortunately left our temporal plane. With our fighting […]
Ithiel Town, born on October 3, 1784, transformed American architecture, as well as the landscape of our neighborhoods. A significant figure in beginning the Greek and Gothic Revivals in this country, he was among the first professional architects here and started the first architectural firm, later joined by Alexander Jackson Davis, another seminal figure in […]
Last week we solved one of our longstanding historic photo mysteries, when Eric Robinson, the cousin of the photographer, Carole Teller, was able to identify the location of this elevated train which had been demolished almost fifty years ago. Many of the images we receive as donations to our historic image archives are unidentified in terms of […]
Seven late 19th and early 20th century buildings are now under consideration for landmarking by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. They are all located along Broadway south of Union Square, in an area rich in architectural and cultural significance, and also increasingly endangered. So in looking around the area, it begs the question: […]
Gay Street is one of the most charming and picturesque streets in Greenwich Village, an icon of the historic neighborhood’s anachronistic character. But the origins of its name are hotly debated, with the LGBT rights movement and abolitionism often cited as the source of its unusual nomenclature. And while the street certainly has strong connections to […]
GVSHP’s historic image archive reflects an amazing cross-section of NYC history. Many of the images arrived to us unidentified in terms of location. We have solved many historic photo mysteries including identifying the location of this one at 15 Carmine Street, this one on St. Marks Place and 2nd Avenue, and these South Street Seaport images. However, a few mysteries […]
Even though the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) just calendared, or began the formal process of consideration for, landmark designations of seven buildings in the area affected by the recent Tech Hub upzoning — 817, 826, 830, 832, 836, 840, and 841 Broadway — this is far from adequate to protect this neighborhood. Join us […]
I love I Hate Hamlet. How could I not have known all these years that Paul Rudnick wrote the play while living at 132 West 4th Street, in the very same apartment where none other than John Barrymore lived for several years?
On September 24, 1827, Union General Henry Slocum was born. Though the namesake of the steamship fire that became one of the largest losses of life in NYC history (second only to 9/11), General Slocum the man was also an important figure in his own right, having served prominent in the Civil War, and served […]
The fall equinox is this weekend, ushering in the start of autumn. As we all know, autumn has a flavor, and that flavor is pumpkin spice. A mixture generally consisting of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and allspice, in the 21st century it has made its way out of the pumpkin pie and into the coffee […]
It might be temporarily closed for renovations, but when the Ottendorfer Branch of the New York Public Library opened in 1884 it was New York City’s first free public library, and was designated a New York City landmark on September 20, 1977.
The award-winning guitarist, composer, and producer Nile Rodgers was born on September 19, 1952. Rodgers co-founded the influential disco group Chic; produced music for artists as diverse as David Bowie, Sister Sledge, Daft Punk, Madonna, Diana Ross, and Disclosure; and played a pivotal role in the flowering and success of rap and hip hop. Less […]
“For the poor New York Puerto Rican, there are three survival possibilities,” the poet Miguel Algarin wrote in 1975. “The first is to labor for money and exist in eternal debt. “The second is to refuse to trade hours for dollars and to live by your will and ‘hustle.’ “The third possibility is to create […]
GVSHP partnered with the Village Alliance and Urban Archive to host a scavenger hunt in the Village on September 15, 2018. One team got all 30 questions right – can you match their knowledge of the Village? We’ll give you the first one free- it’s the meeting spot of the Scavenger Hunt at Washington Mews. Now you […]
New York City publishes a very useful map-based website with one very big flaw. NYCityMap offers users a tremendous amount of information on all properties in New York City. Some of the information that may be seen for each property includes zoning, owner, block and lot, lot size and lot frontage. Overlays may be added identifying […]
The Village is known as one of the oldest parts of New York City, where historic architecture can be found everywhere, and charming houses from a bygone era still stand. Here at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, a perennial question we’re asked is “which is the oldest house in the Village?” It’s a […]
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. The corner newspaper stand and candy store […]
“Tom Fontana does not own or use a computer. He writes his scripts in longhand on yellow legal pads. Emails for Tom are sent to his office where a hard copy is prepared for him.” This is a notice from Tom’s webmaster at tomfontana.com and I lead with this information because, in this day and age, […]
The number “343” is indelibly linked with September 11, 2001 — the official number of firefighters killed on 9/11. However, a 344th New York City firefighter was killed at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. His name was Keith Roma, and he was a 27-year old Staten Island firefighter who worked for the […]
In 2001, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated 130 West 30th Street as a Landmark. Designed by the preeminent architect Cass Gilbert in 1927–28, the building was built to accommodate offices, showrooms and manufacturing space for the fur industry.
Did you know that 128 East 13th Street is believed to be the last surviving horse and carriage auction mart building in New York City? It was threatened with demolition until GVSHP got the Landmark Preservation Commission to hold an emergency hearing on landmarking the building on September 7, 2006, which started the long path toward […]
Our neighborhood is rife with educational institutions and schools which have blazed trails and tread new ground. Today we will look at two schools which have benefited the younger members of our neighborhood for a century, and continue to this day their original missions of progressive education.
