Did you know that East 7th Street between Avenues C & D was once known as “Political Row”? Neither did we, until during the course of our East Village research we stumbled upon a fascinating New York Times article from 1902 lamenting the end of the street’s glory days. Of course, we had long been […]
At last week’s Edward Hopper panel, speaker Linda Yowell’s dramatic slides of the destruction caused by the 1917 extension of Seventh Avenue elicited great interest from the crowd. We thought it would be fun to follow up with some before-and-after shots of the extension of Sixth Avenue, which began in 1925. In conjunction with the […]
This is post #2 in a series devoted to our ongoing research of 143-145 Ave D, documenting all of the detours & discoveries uncovered along the way. For background, see part one. As we mentioned in our first post in this series, certain elements on the facade of 143-145 Avenue D initially gave us a […]
What follows is first in a series of posts devoted to our research of the fascinating building at 143-145 Avenue D. Early last year, while surveying Alphabet City as part of our research on the history of every single building in the East Village, we became interested in 143-145 Avenue D – at first glance […]
Each week we spend a great deal of time tracking applications coming before the Landmarks Preservation Commission for work on historic buildings in our neighborhood (photos and status updates to these applications can always been seen on our Landmarks Applications Webpage). Rarely does one catch our eye – and make us smile – the way […]
Our survey of every single building in the East Village has left us questioning some of the neighborhood folklore we’ve always taken for granted. For instance, the building at 105-107 Third Avenue, most people assume, has been home to Kiehl’s Since 1851 since, well, 1851. But the building is clearly styled in a late 19th-century fashion. […]
This past Wednesday, representatives from the City’s Department of Transportation (DOT) came before Community Board 2’s Traffic and Transportation Committee to present a revised plan for the Jane Street Triangle redesign. DOT hopes to permanently pedestrianize this small piece of West 4th Street which has been closed to traffic for years. In response to suggestions […]
Each year, in anticipation of our annual house tour, we scour the Village in search of its most interesting, fun, and fascinating residential spaces. Some of the history we’ve uncovered is just too good to wait to reveal, so we’re offering a little sneak peek into one of this year’s beautiful homes.
In chipping away at the gargantuan task of researching the history of all the buildings in the East Village, it’s always nice when a building wears its history on its sleeve. We’ve noticed that oodles of buildings throughout the neighborhood supply us with dates, whether on plaques or inscribed in parapets or on cornices. And […]
Today we pause to celebrate the anniversary of the consecration of one of the Village’s most beloved landmarks: on March 7th, 1846, Grace Church was consecrated at Broadway and 10th Street. The year 1846 was an exciting year for the Gothic Revival. James Renwick Jr.’s design of Grace Church, along with that of Trinity Church […]
EV Grieve sends some sad news from the East Village today, where 326 & 328 East 4th Street – the two remarkably intact 1837-41 Greek Revival buildings the City refused to landmark after we tried desperately to save them last fall – are being destroyed after 170 years. Apparently, the developer was not as keen […]
The Department of Transportation’s plans to pedestrianize portions of Astor Place have caused quite a stir in the neighborhood, as they have the potential to obliterate the historic street configuration that dates back to the earliest settlements in the city. As mentioned in our letter to DOT, Astor Place follows the path of an old […]
The locations of sites around the Village portrayed in Edward Hopper’s works have been hotly debated, especially in light of the MTA’s plans to construct an emergency ventilation plant on Mulry Square (which many people think may have housed the restaurant portrayed in Nighthawks at the Diner). GVSHP will weigh in with our own theories […]
When the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition asked the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation for help locating original building files for the Brown Building at 23-29 Washington Place, the site of the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in 1911, we knew exactly where to look. The New York City Department of Records (aka Municipal […]
Researching the history of a building – as we’re doing for thousands in the East Village – can often be an arduous task. So it’s a great gift when sites like the Museum of the City New York’s fantastic new online photo collection become available to us. Browsing through the site, we came across an […]
The New York Times reports that Suze Rotolo, artist, author, teacher, and activist, died this past Friday of lung cancer, at age 67. The author of “A Freewheelin’ Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the 1960’s” (2008), Rotolo was known to millions as the girl walking arm-in-arm with Bob Dylan down Jones Street on the […]
Recent proposals by the City to expand green spaces at the Jane Street Triangle and around Cooper Park and Astor Place would also have an impact on some of our city’s most historic and least-conforming streets. In January the City unveiled its plan for a redesign of Cooper Square and Astor Place which included an […]
The innocuous-looking apartment building at 226 East 13th Street, between Second and Third Avenues, may raise few eyebrows now. But on February 8, 1976, the building became synonymous in the popular imagination with drugs, prostitution, runaways, murder and mayhem, steeped in the urban decay which many saw as defining New York City in the 1970’s.
Off the Grid will be a great way for GVSHP to share news, commentary, trivia and historic information about the Village, East Village, and NoHo, and to hear from you. We hope you’ll become an avid reader, and share with friends, neighbors, and family. Coincidental with our blog launch, next month is the 200th anniversary […]
