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Category: Advocacy Efforts

Angela Davis: Her Greenwich Village Connections

This is an updated reposting of a blog by staffer, Matthew Morowitz, January 26th, 2016. Activist, leftist, and radical feminist — these are just some of the words used to describe Angela Davis, a scholar and civil rights leader and fighter who came to prominence in the countercultural era of the 1960’s.  Davis was born on January […]

Business of the Month — Eva’s Kitchen, 11 West 8th 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. What’s the West 8th Street stop for […]

Landmarks vs. National Monuments: How Safe is the Stonewall Inn?

In late April of last year, President Trump signed an Executive Order aimed at reviewing all National Monuments created under the Antiquities Act since 1996.  As the Stonewall National Monument, designated in 2016, would fall within this review, many individuals and advocacy groups have voiced their concerns that the current administration might strip the monument […]

Considering New Buildings in the Greenwich Village Historic District

On January 4, 2017, GVSHP released its report cataloging for the first time in one place all new buildings approved by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission in the Greenwich Village Historic District since its designation in 1969 — click HERE to see the report.  It’s been updated since its release and to date, we have […]

Our 2018 Resolutions

Happy New Year! We here at GVSHP hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and look forward to 2018! Like many people everywhere, GVSHP has also made some resolutions for the New Year.  Some of our biggest goals for this year center on our advocacy efforts, our Historic Image Archive, and our public programming.  In 2018 […]

Historic Preservation 101: What is a Landmark?

This is a re-posting of a piece originally written in 2011. Architect Phillip Johnson and others protesting the demolition of Pennsylvania Station We speak often of historic districts, individual landmarks and national and state register sites but, what do those terms really mean? This post will review how the designation of landmarks came to be, […]

Pier 40/St. John’s Deal — A Win-Win with Lessons to Learn

On December 15, 2016, the City Council approved a zoning change for the St. John’s Terminal site at West and Houston Streets that included a series of neighborhood protections and mitigations that GVSHP demanded. These included an agreement with the City for landmarking the final phase of GVSHP’s proposed South Village Historic District, restrictions on […]

Happy Anniversary to the Sullivan-Thompson Historic District!

On this date in 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously voted to designate the final piece of GVSHP’s proposed South Village Historic District, an incredibly important part of our rich history. After a hard-fought, ten-year campaign led by GVSHP, three new historic districts were created including the Greenwich Village Historic District Extension II in 2010, the South Village Historic District in 2013, […]

Business of the Month – Village Music World, 197 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. Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village has always […]

Shop Local; Small Business Saturday

November 25th is Small Business Saturday to supporting shopping local small shops. We recently hosted an architectural walking tour of Bleecker Street to draw attention to the array of shops on that classic strip and are attending the small business forum tomorrow being convened by Senator Holyman. Today we are doing a round up of […]

This Day in Preservation History: Home of Alexander Hamilton (Jr.) is Landmarked

The Federal-style rowhouse at 4 St. Mark’s Place, also known as the Hamilton-Holly house and the former home of  Trash and Vaudeville, was designated an individual New York City landmark on October 19, 2004.part of a proposal by GVSHP and the NY Landmarks Conservancy to seek landmark designation of thirteen (like the thirteen colonies) federal houses […]

The High Line is Dismantled and the West Side is Transformed

There’s no overstating it – we at Village Preservation love our members and friends sharing old mementos and images of our neighborhood. Personal or family pictures taken of one’s surroundings or familiar spots often now become, years later, important historical documents. Case in point:  we’ve just added to our ever-growing Historic Image Archive a mini-collection of […]

Sullivan-Thompson Historic Historic District Gets Its Landmark Street Signs

The Sullivan-Thompson Historic District is the Village’s most recently designated historic district, and was designated in record time. We’re happy to report that it has received its new street signs in record time as well. Usually taking several years to install, the brown street signs that indicate an area lies within a historic district were recently installed, […]

Saved From the Wrecking Ball: Today, and Fifty Years Ago

Victory snatched from the jaws of defeat! We have seen it on many occasions here at GVSHP. Most recently, in case you haven’t heard, we were victorious in persuading the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the New York City agency charged with administering the city’s Landmarks Preservation law, to begin the formal process of considering 827-831 Broadway […]

Critical Public Meeting Tonight to Save Our Neighborhood!

Critical Public Meeting on Saving Third & Fourth Avenue Corridors in the East Village TONIGHT — Wednesday, September 13th Anyone who cares about overdevelopment in the area between 3rd and 5th Avenues, Union Square to Astor Place: Join GVSHP and neighbors at the Community Board #3 Land Use Committee Meeting TONIGHT, Wednesday, September 13 Rutgers Community […]

Business of the Month – Blaustein Paint & Hardware – 51 Greenwich 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. Sometimes you  just have to attend to […]

An East Village Landmark Gets a Facelift

While we all get ready to enjoy the holiday weekend, there is no holiday for preservation! At next Tuesday’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) hearing, an exciting application will be presented for 74 East 4th Street, home to former Village Award winner, La Mama Experimental Theater Club. The application for this East Village landmark (both an […]

The Village’s Twin Peaks: From a quirky ‘Swiss-chalet’ to a landmarks controversy

Few buildings capture the whimsy, flamboyance, and bohemian spirit of early 20th century Greenwich Village as does the building known as “Twin Peaks” at 102 Bedford Street. Described as a “wonderfully ludicrous mock half-timbered fantasy row-house castle” by architecture critic Paul Goldberger, the present incarnation of the building was born in 1925 as a radical remodeling […]

MacDougal Sullivan Gardens — One of New York’s Oldest and Most Special Historic Districts

On August 2nd, 1967, MacDougal-Sullivan Gardens was designated a New York City historic district. These 22 homes surround a beautiful private garden oasis, and this was one of the first historic districts to be designated in our area, prior to even the Greenwich Village Historic District in 1969 (only the Charlton-King-Vandam Historic District was designated earlier, […]

How Zoning Shapes Our Neighborhoods

On July 25, 1916, New York City adopted the very first zoning rules anywhere in the country. This system for regulating the size, height, use, and other related characteristics of new development revolutionized the way cities looked and developed, and changed forever how we see property rights and our responsibilities and obligations to our neighbors […]

More is More: Greenwich Village Historic District Extension II

In this series, ‘More is More,’ we look at historic district extensions in our area. The Greenwich Village Historic District Extension II was designated June 22, 2010 after a multi-year campaign led by Village Preservation.  Although this is an extension of the Greenwich Village Historic District which was designated in 1969, it was also the first phase […]

The Church of the Village: Remembering Injustice Against Gay Clergy Event

On Wednesday, June 21st, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation attended a plaque unveiling at the Church of the Village to honor former gay clergymen.  Reverends Clarence Edward Egan and Paul Abels were both pastors in the Village, very active in the neighborhood, and firmly rooted in fighting for civil rights and social justice.  […]

It’s the Butter that binds us! 2017 Village Award Winner Patisserie Claude delights and defines.

Off the Grid is highlighting our 2017 Village Awards winners in our upcoming June 6th Annual Meeting & Award Ceremony. Click here for more information about the event and to RSVP. Read about other awardees here. Patisserie Claude is a business that makes us all proud to live in the Village. Not only is it one of the most civilized of […]

2017 Village Awardee: GOLES

Off the Grid is highlighting our 2017 Village Awards winners in our upcoming June 6th Annual Meeting & Award Ceremony. Click here for more information about the event and to RSVP. Read about other awardees here GOLES stands for “Good Old Lower East Side,” which is an apt name for this group which works hard to preserve the spirit and character […]

2017 Village Award Winner: Dinosaur Hill

Off the Grid is highlighting the 2017 Village Awards winners in the lead up to the June 6th Annual Meeting & Award Ceremony. Click here for more information about the event and to RSVP. Read about other awardees here. Dinosaur Hill, an East Village stalwart for over 30 years, is a toy store which features an eclectic and unusual collection […]

Remembering Mary Help of Christians

Note this is an update of a post previously posted by Matthew Morowitz. A Roman Catholic Church formerly located at 440 E. 12th St., Mary Help of Christians was demolished in the summer of 2013 to make way for new development.  To try and preserve the site, there was an outpouring from the community in an […]

2017 Village Award Winner: The Public Theater

  The arts are the soul and life of our civilization.  They are the link which we use to identify individual and shared expressions. It is widely recognized that The Public Theater is one of our nation’s greatest institutions for theater and a cultural leading light. We in the Village are incredibly fortunate that their […]

Congratulations to 2017 Village Awardee: B & H Dairy

Off the Grid is highlighting the 2017 Village Awards winners in the lead up to the June 6th Annual Meeting & Award Ceremony. Click here for more information about the event and to RSVP. Read about other awardees here. B & H Dairy has been a mainstay in the East Village since 1938, located at 127 2nd Avenue. In 2015, B […]

2017 Village Award Winner: Frank Collerius

Off the Grid is highlighting the 2017 Village Awards winners in the lead up to the June 6th Annual Meeting & Award Ceremony. Click here for more information about the event and to RSVP. Read about other awardees here. Frank Collerius has been the branch manager of the Jefferson Market Library (JML) since 1999.  Frank has truly succeeded in […]

Announcing the 2017 Village Awardees!

Join us on Tuesday, June 6th at 6:30 pm for the 37th GVSHP Annual Meeting and 27th Village Awards — RSVP required; click here. Co-hosted by The New School The Village Awards recognize the people, places, and organizations which make a significant contribution to the quality of life in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and […]

Happy Anniversary to Far West Village Landmark Victories!

On May 2, 2006, two new historic districts were designated in the Far West Village, the Greenwich Village Historic District Extension and the Weehawken Street Historic District, as part of GVSHP’s on-going campaign since 2001 to secure protections for this historically, architecturally and culturally rich area.  The Greenwich Village Historic District Extension was the first-ever […]

Happy Birthday Greenwich Village Historic District!

Note: This is an updated version of a post originally written by Drew Durniak Map of the Greenwich Village Historic District. Click to enlarge. On April 29th, 1969, Mayor John Lindsay was still smarting from the botched cleanup of the February 1969 snowstorm, The 5th Dimension was at the top of the pop charts with […]

More is More: The NoHo Historic District Extension

In this series, ‘More is More,’ we look at historic districts extensions in our area. In the previous posts, we covered the designation of the Greenwich Village Historic District Extension and the St. Mark’s Historic District Extension.  Today we are going to look at the NoHo Historic District Extension, designated May 13, 2008.  Following the designation […]

Historic Court Decision Had Roots in Village House

The historic 2017 federal court decision that Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) people are protected from employment discrimination under the civil rights act has deep roots in a house in the South Village at 186 Spring Street — a hotbed of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) civil rights activity in the post-Stonewall era.  In fact, […]

‘Tech hub’ part of spreading development virus

Op-ed by GVSHP Executive Director Andrew Berman in  Read it here. To great fanfare, Mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced plans for a slick new “tech hub” to be built on E. 14th St. just east of Fourth Ave., on the current site of a P.C. Richard store. Sandwiched between two high-rise New York University […]

Remembering Landmarking Success in the Far West Village

On March 6, 2007, three historic structures GVSHP fought to have preserved were designated as New York City landmarks:  159 Charles Street, 354 West 11th Street and 150 Barrow Street, aka the Keller Hotel.  These designations represent just part of GVSHP’s ongoing campaign to preserve the Far West Village, which has also resulted in three historic […]

More is More: Greenwich Village Historic District Extension

In this series, ‘More is More,’ we look at extensions of historic districts in our area. In the previous post, we covered the designation of the St. Mark’s Historic District Extension.  Today we are going to look at the Greenwich Village Historic District Extension, designated in 2006.  This was the first-ever expansion of the Greenwich Village […]

How’s He Doing? Looking Back on Ed Koch Four Years After His Passing

Edward I. Koch served as Mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989, following terms as Greenwich Village’s Congressman, City Councilmember, and Democratic District leader. Koch, a self-described “liberal with sanity”, passed away four years ago today, following several decades living at 2 5th Avenue. Koch previously lived at 81 Bedford Street,  72 Barrow […]

The People, United, Will Never Be Defeated

Have you heard that chant, or others like it, echoing off Greenwich Village buildings recently? I know I have, because the recent political goings-on have turned our city and country into one giant public space for demonstration. But in the streets of Greenwich Village and the East Village, this is nothing new. Our neighborhoods’ public […]

Ten Years Ago Today — Fighting for the Federals!

Ten years ago today, the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) held hearings on three Federal-era (1790-1835) houses GVSHP had proposed for landmark designation — 94, 94 1/2, and 96 Greenwich Street, located just below Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan.  These houses were built in 1798, making them among the oldest extant structures in Manhattan.  That same […]

More is More: The St. Mark’s Historic District Extension

In this series, ‘More is More,’ we will look at extensions of historic districts in our area.  Extensions to historic districts are just what they sound like — additions to previously-designated historic districts that abut the original district and are determined to share not just geography but architectural and/or historic significance.  Why such areas are […]

2016 GVSHP Year in Review

As 2016 fades into memory, we wanted to look back on all that GVSHP accomplished during the year, and what we have to look forward to in 2017. In 2016, GVSHP: Helped lead the opposition against the Mayor’s plans to roll back neighborhood zoning protections, successfully blocking most of the plan and leaving the majority of our […]

126 Waverly Place, A Lesson in Preservation

GVSHP’s recently published Greenwich Village Historic District New Buildings Report for the first time catalogues every new building approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) in the Greenwich Village Historic District, our city’s largest and one of its oldest historic districts.  That’s got us thinking a lot about this set of buildings, and what we can learn […]

Dissent and “Strange Fruit” in the Village

It seems that President-elect Donald Trump is having a difficult time filling the roster for his inauguration ceremony. In previous years, the inauguration festivities have included extensive and star-studded ceremonies featuring speeches, musical performances, dance numbers, and dramatic readings. But this year, many artists have shown an unwillingness to participate, or have their work featured, in […]

East Village CreateNYC event tonight

In 2015, the City Council passed legislation requiring the City to produce its first-ever comprehensive cultural plan: CreateNYC. CreateNYC is supposed to become a roadmap to guide the future of arts and culture in NYC. The NYC Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) and Hester Street Collaborative (HSC) are working together with artists, cultural organizations, New York City agencies, arts […]

Sullivan-Thompson, a District of Immigrants

The recently landmarked Sullivan-Thompson Historic District is one of the first historic districts in New York City so designated almost exclusively based upon its immigrant history and working-class architecture. As stated by the LPC research staff in their presentation before the Commissioners’ vote, “The architecture in the proposed district reflects the waves of immigration that […]

Coming Soon: The Sullivan-Thompson Historic District Designation Report

Christmas is coming early this year!  We have been told by the Landmarks Preservation Commission that the designation report for the newly landmarked Sullivan-Thompson historic district, aka phase III of our original South Village proposal, will be published today.  Perhaps appropriately, it is scheduled to be released almost exactly three years after the designation of […]

Business of the Month: The Hat Shop, 120 Thompson Street (now at 148 Sullivan 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. Strolling the neighborhood of […]

Gone But Not Forgotten: The Tunnel Garage, 1922-2006

This is part of Off the Grid’s “My Favorite Things” series. As the old saying goes, you win some, you lose some.  That’s particularly true in preservation, where sometimes in spite of the most heroic of efforts and compelling of cases, historic treasures succumb to the wrecking ball. I’m frequently asked, “Which fight do you most regret […]

Unveiling & Dedication for the Mosaic Trail Light Poles

The final pieces of the renovation of Astor Place will be unveiled and dedicated tomorrow. Thanks to the creative verve of Jim Power, aka the Mosaic Man, and the support of the Village Alliance Business Improvement District and City Lore, and many more, GVSHP is excited to participate in the unveiling of the Astor Place […]

Reform Housing in the South Village

The newly calendared Sullivan-Thompson Historic District contains some of the oldest and most historically significant buildings in the South Village, including St. Anthony of Padua, the oldest extant Italian-American Church in the country, 57 Sullivan Street, built in 1817 and the oldest extant house in the South Village, and a unique set of early reform housing/model […]