“…really a story about two Catholic buddies roaming the country in search of God.” So said Jack Kerouac about his book, “On the Road,” soon after it was published in 1957. As we’ve discussed on this blog before, though known for his nomadic lifestyle, Kerouac had strong ties to Greenwich Village. Famous as a pioneer […]
Many would be surprised to learn that Charles Tiffany, the founder of Tiffany & Co., known for the manufacture of goods which came to be synonymous with the wealthiest New Yorkers, actually lived in the East Village with his family for most of the 1850s. This included his son, Louis Comfort Tiffany, who went on […]
December is South Village Month – join us in celebrating this vibrant neighborhood all month long! Postwar America in the 1950s through the early 1960s experienced the birth of a movement and style that opposed both government and authority. America’s culture of conformity during that post-war period bred a cultural renaissance that importantly included the Beat poets and […]
December is South Village Month – join us in celebrating this vibrant neighborhood all month long! In December 2016, following a multi-year advocacy campaign spearheaded by Village Preservation, the Sullivan Thompson Historic District was landmarked by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. This dozen-block, 175-building district designation was the culmination of a campaign formally begun by […]
Christopher Street is one of New York City’s oldest streets: known as Skinner Road in the 18th century, it was rechristened in 1799 by local landowner Charles Christopher Amos with the name it holds to this day. Filled with historic architecture and noteworthy sites including the Stonewall Inn and Christopher Park, the street remains relatively […]
Mainstream city planning has known its share of eloquent critics over the years (including, if we may be so bold, yours truly). But perhaps none has been as consequential as Jane Jacobs. Her groundbreaking 1961 treatise Death and Life of Great American Cities announces at the outset its intent to attack current planning and redevelopment […]
By the early nineteenth century New York City had developed as the largest port in the United States and one of the largest in the world. This growth of New York City also coincidentally overlapped with the era of the “Second Great Awakening,” when evangelical organizations throughout the United States and abroad were working to […]
Known as the Gilded Age, the period following the Civil War in late nineteenth century New York City was filled with glamour and bold, imaginative aesthetics. However, one person, and his eponymous product, may be more strongly associated with Gilded Age New York than any other — Louis Comfort Tiffany (February 18, 1848 – January […]
In the heart of Greenwich Village, a historic theater emerged as a cradle of creativity and a crucible for groundbreaking theatrical experiments—the Provincetown Playhouse. Established in 1915 in Provincetown, Massachusetts as the Provincetown Players, this group of creatives moved to New York in 1916 and opened what became the permanent home for the Playhouse at […]
Greenwich Village and the East Village are areas famous for creativity and innovation in all arenas, and that includes fashion and beauty trends. Today we will take a look at some of the local beauty stores that not only supplied these looks, but inspired them. Manic Panic Today, Manic Panic is a brand known for […]
He was one of the most significant, prolific, and versatile artists of the 20th century, and he produced several of his many iconic pieces from a studio located in a hidden Greenwich Village alley. We are referring to Isamu Noguchi, whose design work observed no boundaries. Drawing from influences as diverse as Italian marble work, […]
You decide to write a blog post about Bright Lights, Big City, the 1988 film based on a novel published four years earlier about the excesses and pitfalls of life among young up-and-comers in 1980s Manhattan that famously employed the then-distinct use of second-person narration. You mark how many shots from the film capture Manhattan […]
The East Village and Greenwich Village have long been bastions of progressive thought and hotbeds of radical social movements. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), or “Wobblies” as they are also known, found a home for its radical vision of industrial unionism in the East Village. The November 15, 1919, raid on the IWW […]
Pier 40 was built between 1958 and 1962 for the Holland America Cruise Line, and became the largest passenger and freight terminal in the Port of New York at the time of construction. Jutting into the Hudson River and effectively extending Leroy, Clarkson, Houston, King, and Charlton Streets west into the water, the pier was […]
We launched our Business of the Month program on November 13, 2014. Thanks to all of you who have nominated businesses through the years, we have surpassed 100 honorees. Help us to select the next one! Tell us which independent store you love in Greenwich Village, the East Village, or NoHo: click here to nominate your favorite. […]
You’re probably not that likely to associate military veterans with Greenwich Village and the East Village; in the popular mind, the neighborhoods’ profile is much more strongly associated with peace movements and anti-war protestors (though of course some veterans have played key roles in those efforts). But in fact, reminders of, tributes to, and memorials […]
Coined in 1990 at the Third Annual Inter-tribal Native American First Nations Gay and Lesbian American Conference held in Winnipeg, the term “Two Spirit” (2S) refers to indigenous individuals whose gender expression and sexuality transcended Western binaries. The term reflects complex Indigenous understandings of gender roles, spirituality, and the long history of sexual and gender […]
Cappuccinos are made from equal parts espresso, steamed milk, and foam. While this recipe is not debatable, the origin story is. Various Italian, French, Turkish, Viennese/Austro-Hungarians lay claim to all or part of the histories of espresso and/or cappuccino. Also not debatable is that there are a wide variety of high-quality cappuccino purveyors, both old […]
St. Benedict the Moor was the first Church for Black Roman Catholics in the North, dedicated on November 18th, 1883 at 210 Bleecker Street. St. Benedict the Moor Church opened in a Greek Revival structure that had been built in 1836 for the First Unitarian Universalist Church. The opening of St. Benedict the Moor was […]
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. It is good to walk a mile in […]
One of the most beloved features of the Statue of Liberty is the poem inscribed on a bronze plaque inside its pedestal. “Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” which appear in the middle of the work, have come to define what the statue has represented for generations. Those words […]
The Public Theater is opening a significant new play, Manahatta, by Native attorney, activist, and playwright Mary Kathryn Nagle. It is fitting that this important piece of theatrical literature will be produced on the spot where, 500 years ago, the confluence of three nations, known as “Kintecoying,” was located. The area that is today Southern […]
Since 1973, New York City has hosted one of the most extravagant and enchanting Halloween celebrations in the world: the Village Halloween Parade. Its beginnings in the early 1970s were quite humble compared to todays internationally renowned affair, starting as an informal gathering of friends and family brought together by Westbeth Artists Community resident and […]
By the time the demolition of McKim, Mead & White’s monumental Penn Station commenced on October 28th, 1963, advocates had been fighting to save the Beaux Arts building for several years. This has often been referenced as the “beginning of the historic preservation movement” in New York City, and while it certainly was a catalyst […]
In the late 19th century the term “boy bar” referred to what we would now call a “gay bar”. This is not to be confused with the boy bar, which was a bar located at 15 1/2 St. Marks place from the early 1980s to mid 1990s. It was well known for its regular drag […]
The area South of Union Square has drawn artists into its corridors for many decades. From social realist painters of the early twentieth century to contemporary practitioners, this section of the Village maintains a rich history of creative minds who felt called to challenge the status quo of the art world that surrounded them, many […]
Costume designer and fashion icon Patricia Field is best known for, among other accomplishments, her work on the television show Sex and the City. For decades, Field also operated a boutique in Greenwich Village that became a fashion mecca, and font of downtown energy and creativity. After graduating from New York University in 1963, Field […]
There have been countless “firsts” in our neighborhoods: the first cappuccino machine (Café Reggio), the first building constructed specifically to house artists’ studios (The Tenth Street Studios at 51 West 10th Street, since demolished), the first racially integrated night club (Café Society) — the list goes on and on. While we at Village Preservation have […]
While many are aware of the Whitney Museum’s modest origins as a studio club of artist and collector Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, fewer know that only a few feet away from Whitney’s original studio lay another artist club that would also evolve into a long-standing New York art institution. Known today as the SculptureCenter, the Clay […]
“You can help save Washington Square Park. Robert Moses can be stopped. A handful of women did it in Central Park. The bird watchers did it in Central Park. The Washington Square Park Committee has helped hold back the steamrollers in Washington Square Park for six years. BUT an all out effort must be made […]
Fiorello (Italian for ‘Little Flower’) LaGuardia is remembered today as one of New York City’s greatest mayors. A progressive who guided New Yorkers through the Depression and World War II, he was the first Mayor to serve three terms, and the first of either Italian or Jewish descent. It was LaGuardia’s achievements as mayor, and his birth in the South Village, that prompted the Friends of LaGuardia to commemorate LaGuardia with a statue on October 19, 1994.
On October 10, 2023, Chronicle Books published The New Brownies’ Book: A Love Letter to Black Families. It’s an anthology assembled by Karida L. Brown and Charly Palmer that combines the work of more than 50 contemporary Black artists and writers with selections published over a century ago from the original Brownies’ Book. Published by […]
Today we welcome Sandra Pomeleo-Fowler as our new Development Associate. Sandra is excited to be joining Village Preservation, and looks forward to supporting and working with our dedicated member community. Sandra is originally from Dripping Springs, Texas. Growing up in the country sparked her interest in how people make their homes and livelihoods off of the land, […]
During the years 1903 to 1907, construction was underway for an imposing steel frame structure located on the block bounded by Broadway, Fourth Avenue, and East 8th and 9th Streets. A second phase of construction occurred in 1924 to subsume the “Jones Building,” an existing nine-story commercial building at the northeast corner of Broadway and […]
After World War II, the U.S. saw the rise of modernist jewelry: handcrafted jewelry inspired by Cubism, Surrealism and Constructivism. There were two hubs of this movement: San Francisco, which was the home of the Metal Arts Guild, and Greenwich Village. Some of the most noteworthy jewelry designers were people of color, immigrants, and women, […]
This is the first entry in our new blog series, “Hidden in Plain Sight,” which highlights the many architectural curiosities and unique features found on buildings throughout our neighborhoods — details you might not notice on first pass, but if you’re paying attention, they tell easily overlooked and often forgotten stories. Every building in Greenwich […]
Greenwich Village resident and photographer Marjorie Zien has spent the last several decades chronicling life in her neighborhood and city. In 2021 she donated a collection of photos to Village Preservation taken throughout our neighborhoods in the aftermath of 9/11. In 2023 she donated to us a new collection of photos, which you can view […]
Bowlmor Lanes was opened at 110 University Place by Nick Gianos in 1938, at the beginning of what has been referred to as the “Golden Age of Bowling”. During this time, roughly the 1940s through 1960s, the popularity of the sport exploded with the introduction of the automatic pinsetter. From the beginning, Bowlmor Lanes was […]
A city “utterly devoid of harmony” — that is how the controversial Swiss-French architect Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier, described New York without actually having ever visited when he made this statement. Le Corbusier would eventually come to New York for the first time in 1935, and didn’t change his mind. There is […]
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 of the forbidden fruit separated us from […]
Greenwich Village has long been a mecca for artists and artistic endeavors. For over a century and a half, the neighborhood has fostered creative energy thanks in part to its charming streets, frequent interactions on those pathways between neighbors and fellow creators, a unique and strong sense of community, and (at times) cheap rents that […]
October is Italian American History and Heritage month, and it is impossible to deny the influence that Italian culture and immigration has had on our neighborhoods. This is especially true in the South Village, an area which in the early 1900s was a predominantly Italian neighborhood, and one near and dear to Village Preservation’s heart, […]
Edwin Fancher (August 29, 1923 – September 29, 2023) was a co-founder and part-owner of The Village Voice, along with partners Dan Wolf and Norman Mailer, from the 1950s until the 1970s. The Voice functioned as a local alternative newspaper for Greenwich Village (and by extension for New York City) and as an important national arbiter of “hip” […]
If you ever find yourself taking a stroll in the far West Village (and I highly recommend you do), follow West 11th Street almost as far as the West Side Highway and Hudson River, and you will stumble upon a special reminder of the area’s history. The residential building at 354 West 11th Street, located […]
Hip Hop at 50This is the sixth in a series of posts that celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Birth of Hip Hop. Our exploration takes us to the seminal places of Hip Hop’s early days in our neighborhoods and introduces some of the instrumental figures in the downtown world of Hip Hop. You can also explore our […]
If New York City streets had their own royal court, Broadway would be the old king and Fifth Avenue would be its fabulous queen. Just saying Fifth Avenue evokes glamour, iconic stores, incredible museums, and beautiful parks. Beginning here in Greenwich Village at the entrance of Washington Square Park, Fifth Avenue passes the Flatiron Building, […]
The American Indian Community House (AICH) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the needs of Native Americans living in New York City. With a mission to enhance the well-being of Native Americans and promote intercultural understanding, the AICH offered a range of services, including substance abuse counseling, HIV support, career assistance, and visual and […]
Village Preservation’s team is a strong one – we’re lucky to have a group of interns who are looking to gain experience in historic preservation in a non-profit environment. We usually have one or two new interns at a time, but this September we are excited to welcome five amazing new interns to the team! Not […]
”Congratulations, Dorothy, you’ve done it again. They all hate it.” So said Alfred H. Barr Jr., the first director of the Museum of Modern Art, to Dorothy Canning Miller, its first professionally trained curator, about the reaction to her exhibition “Americans 1942,” a show of 18 emerging artists that appalled both art critics and museum […]
The African American literary critic and professor Henry Louis Gates once stated that the Harlem Renaissance was “surely as gay as it was Black, not that it was exclusively either of these.” This era witnessed the significant contributions of numerous queer black artists, performers, and literary figures, firmly intertwining queerness with the Harlem Renaissance’s legacy. […]
The East Village has for decades been one of New York City’s most vital Hispanic enclaves, and a thriving hub of latin culture. One need only look at Avenue C’s official designation since 1987, “Loisaida,” to get a sense of the Latin-American footprint in the neighborhood. The term “Loisaida,” a phonetic transliteration of the Spanish […]
We have gratefully reached that point in September in New York City when the weather is close to flawless, with clear blue skies, moderate temperatures, and a light westerly breeze. A respite from the humidity of August and a welcome reminder that fall approaches, it is also a great time to reflect on one of […]
In 1926, the Academy of Music opened at 126 East 14th street. Although called the Academy of Music, the building was primarily a cinema, and a particularly grand one at that, named for the previously existing Academy of Music opera house which had been located across the street, and had closed earlier that year. For […]
New York is an immigrant city. It has concentrated populations of various immigrant groups making it the largest city in the world for many groups, or sometimes the largest outside of their countries of origin. New York has the largest Jewish population of any city in the world, and at 30% of its population, New […]
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 practice of cleanliness is already an act […]
Hip Hop at 50This is the fifth in a series of posts that celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Birth of Hip Hop. Our exploration takes us to the seminal places of Hip Hop’s early days in our neighborhoods and introduces some of the instrumental figures in the downtown world of Hip Hop. Negril Nightclub: 181 2nd Avenue […]
Ben Shahn (September 12, 1898 – March 14, 1969) is one of those artists whose work is familiar even to people who may not know his name. For many, he is the quintessential political artist; a classic Social Realist who first gained recognition for the series of 23 paintings he did in the early 1930s,The […]
Since September 11, 2003, twin pillars of light have pierced the Lower Manhattan sky from dusk to dawn each year, briefly reverting our skyline to an impression of its previous self. First implemented as a months-long temporary art installation in early 2002 to commemorate the September 11th attacks, Tribute in Light was reinstalled on the […]
The painter Alfred Mira (1900 – 1981) was born into an Italian immigrant family and grew up Greenwich Village. His father worked as a carpenter, but young Mira had dreams of becoming an artist. His family couldn’t afford the 50 cent daily tuition for art school, so Mira took a job at an interior decorator […]
Today we’re celebrating the accomplishments of some historic writers and authors who made their mark in the neighborhood South of Union Square. Writing is one of the many creative professions that has thrived in this district (one that has yet to be recognized and protected by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, but you can help preserve […]
When it first opened in 1936, the Second Avenue station was supposed to become a hub for the subway system. Today, the station, located at Houston street and Second Avenue, though mammoth and meandering, feels almost unnecessary. It provides no subway transfers, and exists in close proximity to other stations along the same line. Notably, […]
Today we welcome aboard William Roka (pronouns: he/him) as Village Preservation’s new Director of Programs. William brings a wealth of experience working at museums and education non-profits, with a stint in the tech world. As the South Street Seaport Museum’s public programs manager and historian, he played a critical role in helping the museum recover […]
The recent renaissance of all things Barbie, engendered by the blockbuster film by Villager Greta Gerwig and her partner and co-writer, Noah Baumbach, caused us to wonder: of all the careers Barbie had and all the places she lived, did she ever find herself living or working in our neighborhoods? Lo and behold, we were […]
“I always hope my art inspires people to be nice human beings.” says artist Magda Love. “The world is really fucked up; so if you have the power to create something positive and make people feel good, why not?” As luck would have it, Love does have that power, and she has deployed it, alongside […]
Alfonso Angel Yangco Ossorio was a Filipino-American Greenwich Village-based artist and collector with a quasi-religious devotion to the art world. An intense, synthesizing artist in his own right, Ossorio created a unique style that merged otherwise disparate, contemporary movements in the Post-war era, while playing a key role in launching the careers and serving as […]
A year or two into my career as a historic preservationist, I was accused (in good humor) of being a warden of “the ephemera of New York.” I tended toward a particular interest in protecting the seemingly minor and often transient aspects of our built environment: attributes such as vault lights, sidewalk grates, and paving, […]
This is the fourth in a series of posts that celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Birth of Hip Hop. Our exploration takes us to the seminal places of Hip Hop’s early days in our neighborhoods and introduces some of the instrumental figures in the downtown world of Hip Hop.
Architect Gordon Bunshaft (May 9, 1909 – August 6, 1990) is credited with creating the style of corporate modernism that defined office tower, bank, and even apartment building construction (at least in New York City) in the the second half of the 20th century. Described as someone who “behaved like a titan of industry, a […]
Linda Yowell, architect and preservationist, recently donated a wide assortment of photos to Village Preservation’s Historic Image Archive, covering the 1970s through the late 1990s. Among them are images of small businesses that Yowell, who has also been a Village Preservation trustee since 1998, captured during that period. Some of the stores have long since […]
