Today marks the last day in 2012 of public hearings for the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), the City agency in charge of regulating designated landmarks and historic districts across the five boroughs. At each public hearing, the LPC hears a number of applications from property owners who wish to make changes to their landmarked buildings. […]
The holiday season is well underway and our neighborhoods have wonderful events going on to help ring in the Christmas spirit. Today we thought we’d highlight a couple of upcoming events for you. Washington Square Park This past Wednesday, the Washington Square Association held the 88th annual tree lighting ceremony in Washington Square Park. The […]
Curbed New York recently posted an engaging photo montage on their site featuring vintage real estate images. The article reminded us here at Off the Grid about a most useful collection for researchers interested in the development of housing across New York City, the New York State Real Estate Brochure Collection at Avery Library at […]
The eastern- and western-most areas of the Village were among the areas of Manhattan hard hit by Sandy. We recently reported how small business in the neighborhood were stepping up to get back on their feet post-Sandy, but there are others that are still out of commission. Last week Eater compiled a list of restaurants […]
Do you remember the fake ivy saga involving the storefront of 47 West 8th Street in the Greenwich Village Historic District? It first came to our attention in early 2010 when we noticed the property had violated the Landmarks Law by not filing for a Certificate of Appropriateness (C of A) application before it made […]
It’s easy to see much of the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy. But one of the biggest impacts from the storm was the loss of income suffered by hourly employees due to businesses closed because of power outages, or the inability to get to work. Businesses are not required to pay hourly employees when they […]
“Brownstones occupy a unique place in the New York psyche, as one of the city’s most prototypical signposts, like yellow cabs and fast walkers, yet are able to stir aching desire and teeth-baring jealousy. Everybody wants one.”
This morning, just before Appalachian Spring played on the radio, I learned that today would have been composer Aaron Copland’s 112th birthday. This struck a particular chord with me as I grew up listening to his music. His pieces always brought to mind images of rural America, but, actually, Copland was born and raised in […]
Tonight’s program, Greenwich Village Catholics: A Lecture by Thomas J. Shelley, is cancelled. This evening’s program, Greenwich Village Catholics, with Thomas J. Shelley is cancelled because of complications from the storm. GVSHP plans to reschedule this program as soon as we possibly can. Thank you for your understanding while we continue to recover from Sandy.In […]
Many residents in and near our area are still without power, heat, or water. Some are elderly or infirmed, and some have small children. Two complexes in need are Westbeth in the West Village and Fulton Houses between 16th and 19th Streets in Chelsea. To help at Fulton Houses: Come at noon or 3pm to […]
We hope you have weathered the hurricane as best as possible. Our office is still closed due to power outages that have affected most buildings south of 31st Street, but we thought we’d share some of our visual resources we have for you on the site: photos and maps. This seems to be a theme […]
Following up on our earlier post discussing public hearings at the Landmarks Preservation Commission, we thought we’d focus our attention on another important part of the landmarks public review process: community board hearings. Alterations to landmarked buildings that require an LPC public hearing must also be presented to the local community board. GVSHP attends all […]
Promoting and celebrating local, small businesses in the neighborhood has always been a top priority for GVSHP. Such establishments create a valuable and unique presence in our neighborhoods, vital to their character. This November, we are offering three exciting lectures that will focus on historic local businesses in the Village. Each event is distinct in […]
Tomorrow will be our one and only chance to speak directly to the City Council before they decide whether or not to upzone Chelsea Market to allow two large towers to be built atop the historic complex. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 9:30 am at the City Council Chambers in City Hall (map […]
Irish writer Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born October 16, 1854. The author of many short stories, plays such as The Importance of Being Ernest and The Duchess of Padua, and the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde was a popular writer during his lifetime, and continues to be so today. To celebrate […]
It’s one of the quaintest and most intriguing streets in the West Village. It’s located just a block from the Stonewall Inn, the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement. And as Off the Grid favorite Jerry Seinfeld would say, it’s thin, clean, and neat. So in honor of Thursday’s National Coming Out Day, Off […]
The New School’s new building at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 14th Street is getting closer and closer to being completed. After topping out back in May, the patinated brass and glass cladding has been steadily climbing the sides of the new sixteen-story building (full view below) which will house dorm units and library and […]
In September of 2011, Off the Grid reported the discovery of a sign during changes to a storefront at 15 8th Avenue (between West 12th & Jane Streets). The sign, which was made in stained glass, read J. Yormark Shoes. We here at Off the Grid were thrilled to hear from members of the Yormark […]
In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, which takes place each year from September 15th to October 15th, we wanted to highlight an institution in our neighborhood that has dedicated itself to the promotion of Spanish culture for nearly 150 years.
Next in the Map It! series is an unusual quirk in our streetscapes that few people may have noticed. In fact, it wasn’t until last week when I was looking at the Sanborn map for block 576 that I happened to spot this strange deviation in a neighborhood where idiosyncracies are already the norm. So […]
Bettye Lane, a photojournalist who lived at Westbeth, died last Wednesday at the age of 82. She has been called the official photographer of the women’s movement and was one of the few photographers who captured the 1969 Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village. She has worked for Time and Life magazines and her work has […]
The Reverend Howard R. Moody, Minister Emeritus of Judson Memorial Church was born on April 13, 1921, and died on Tuesday, September 12, 2012 at the age of 91. Moody’s 35-year ministry at Judson had an enormous impact on Greenwich Village and New York City. He worked for social justice for those outside the system, reformed […]
When I was home recently I looked through one of my parents’ photo albums and happened to find this photo of Seventh Avenue South taken at some point in the 1970s. I thought it would make for a great then and now. Even though not that much time has passed, there have been a number […]
With Fashion Week ending yesterday, we thought we’d wrap up our week with a look at some fashions of yesteryear in which the Village played a supporting role. The urban landscape of our neighborhoods has long been a favorite for photographers both as a subject in its own right and as a character-filled backdrop.
The seminal tome of the Beat generation, Jack Kerouac’s novel, “On the Road,” was published on September 5, 1957. Though written in 1951 on a continuous 120 foot roll of paper it took many years and many revisions to finally get published in 1957.
Off the Grid will be going, well, off the grid for the holiday weekend. While we’ll be celebrating the last days of summer, we must note that this Monday not only marks Labor Day, but the 50th anniversary of the passing of quintessential Village poet ee cummings. To do so, we are re-posting our salute […]
GVSHP recently received an inquiry from a researcher looking for information about the historic 1966 “Sip In” that took place at the bar Julius’. This seminal protest, which challenged the regulation that bars were not allowed to serve homosexuals, took place three years before the historic Stonewall Rebellion. While there are many resources for those […]
As most everyone knows, we’re kind of map and statistics geeks here at Off The Grid. Thus it’s no surprise that a handy little tool put together by WNYC in the wake of the Republican National Convention, mapping the levels of Republican voter registration throughout New York City, caught our attention. The interactive map (below) […]
In our continuing efforts to save 186 Spring Street in the South Village, we’ve highlighted the significant role the building played in the early LGBT rights movement. In the immediate post-Stonewall era, 186 Spring Street was home to an array of critical figures of this era. From this house, they helped establish some of the […]
Today, we think of Times Square when we think of the theatre district, but over 100 years ago, 14th Street centered around Union Square was full of theatre houses. The photo above shows what 136 East 14th Street looked like in 1908 when it was occupied by the Theatre Unique. It’s hard to believe that […]
Blue Hill, the one-star Michelin rated restaurant located on Washington Place between Washington Square Park and Sixth Avenue, just added another star to its roster. On August 10, actor-screenwriter Justin Theroux proposed to Jennifer Aniston during a quiet dinner at the Greenwich Village restaurant. Blue Hill, which features farm-to-table dining, has been featured in […]
So, why do we start this blog post with a photo of the Municipal Building located downtown across from City Hall? We thought we would dedicate some time here at Off the Grid to understanding the workings of the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), the city agency charged with the task of safeguarding historic buildings across […]
The familiar view above, taken in 1933, looks north on Greenwich Avenue (at Horatio Street) toward 14th Street and features the striking art deco Substation 235 of the New York City Transit Authority.
Although more and more of the research that GVSHP documents and shares is done online today, we also house a modest non-circulating resource library which contains fiction and non-fiction books, reports and guides on the subject areas of Greenwich Village, Historic Preservation, and New York City history. The library also contains hard copies of designation […]
Earlier this week, the world noted the passing of Gore Vidal, one of the great novelists, commentators, and agitators of the 20th century. Like almost every other figure to whom that description can be applied, Vidal had a Greenwich Village connection.
Amid the cast-iron facades of commercial and converted residential buildings between Broadway and University Place in the Village resides a large brick and brownstone institutional building. With its Police Athletic League (PAL) banners and Police Department signage over the door, it looks like it could have been an old station house re-purposed for PAL uses. […]
It’s the dog days of summer here in New York City, so here at Off the Grid we thought we would share some “cool” images from the GVSHP archive.
GVSHP recently came across a great website called 1940s New York. In 1943, four local newspapers published a New York City Market Analysis, which provided hundreds of photos & color-coded maps, statistics, and short narratives about neighborhoods across the city, all based on the 1940 census. According to the site, “The Center for Urban Research […]
On Wednesday the City Council voted 44-1 in favor of the NYU 2031 Plan. Since the very beginning GVSHP has advocated for a rejection of this plan and instead suggested that the University, the community, and the city of New York would be better served if the University pursued an alternative plan of locating new […]
Simply put, adaptive reuse is defined as the process of adapting old structure for new uses. From a preservation perspective, adaptive reuse is often a wonderful way to preserve historic buildings while still updating them for modern living or working. It is also an effective way to reduce urban sprawl and environmental impact. There are […]
In 2008 NYU planned to demolish the Provincetown Playhouse to make way for a new law school building. Located at 133-139 MacDougal Street the Provincetown Playhouse was an incredibly significant site in the history of American theater. The theater was a launching pad for works of Eugene O’Neill, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Edward Albee, Sam […]
As Off the Grid chronicled last year, today is the anniversary of New York City’s draft riots, five days of rioting, looting, burning, and wanton violence that erupted after the Federal government instituted the Draft Act of 1863, the first instance of compulsory service in the federal military services. The riots began on July 13, […]
The New School recently “topped out” its new “University Center” at 65 Fifth Avenue at 14th Street. With the building now having reached its full height and bulk, and the facade beginning to take shape, it’s worth comparing this project, The New School’s ambitious look toward its future, with NYU’s proposed developments under its twenty-year […]
This week, the Fourth of July holiday has us here at Off the Grid thinking about the connections the Village has to the Revolutionary War. While the Village remained a pastoral suburb of the city proper during the war, there are some reminders of the fight for independence in the neighborhood.
The food world is abuzz with anticipation of Joey Chestnut and the 97th annual Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest which takes place tomorrow. Although we love a good frank here at GVSHP, no one on staff can throw them back quite at that level. To make up for our lack of eating competition skills, […]
A little over two months ago, Off the Grid covered a meeting regarding the proposed AIDS Memorial in the triangle park next to the former St. Vincent’s Hospital. The proposal, spearheaded by AIDS Memorial Park, was presented to Community Board 2’s Parks Committee and the public, at which time public feedback was taken into consideration […]
As June comes to a close, we wanted to celebrate Pride Month with a look at one of the great resources of our community, the LGBT Community Center. Located at 208 West 13th Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues, the Center “provides a home for the birth, nurture and celebration of our organizations, institutions and […]
Jonathan Kuhn, a long-time Village resident who is also the Director of Art & Antiquities at the Department of Parks and Recreation, has curated an exhibition at Central Park’s Arsenal Gallery. Parkcentric: Photographs from the Museum of the City of New York, 1890-1940, features 68 images of 24 parks by the likes of Berenice Abbott, […]
Fifty years ago, in May of 1962, folk group Peter, Paul and Mary released their self-titled debut album. The group went on to become one of the most, if not the most, successful folk groups in recording history. Songs like “If I Had A Hammer”, “Leaving on a Jet Plane”, and “Puff, The Magic Dragon”, […]
Yesterday, the real estate and architecture blog-o-sphere was abuzz with Property Shark’s new interactive timeline, NYC Homes: Two Centuries of Architecture, spanning 1821 to 2011. They created this feature in honor of the 145th birthday of Frank Llyod Wright and, much to our excitement, featured many houses in early historic districts such as Greenwich […]
Last evening, 400 guests celebrated the accomplishments of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and eight Village businesses, people, and organizations at GVSHP’s Annual Meeting at The New School’s Tishman Auditorium.
Completed in the spring of this year, the spectacular renovation of the small park at the corner of Bleecker and West 11th streets was the result of a true community effort. The renovation would not have become a reality without the advocacy and action of Village resident Clifford Ross, the receptiveness of the Parks Department, […]
