Nicknamed “The Empress of Blues,” Bessie Smith was one of the most popular female blues singers of the 1920s and 30s. She influenced many vocalists who followed her, from Janis Joplin to Anita Baker. Her songs spoke to and about working people, African Americans, liberated women, and their (and anyone else’s) everyday troubles. Her “spoken […]
For its entire existence over twenty years, the International Worker’s Order’s (IWO) New York City headquarters was located at 80 Fifth Avenue. 80 Fifth Avenue, at 14th Street, is located in the historically rich but endangered area south of Union Square for which Village Preservation is seeking landmark protections. Our ongoing research about the area has […]
814 Broadway is a five-story masonry structure built in 1854.
Dr. Bruce Raymond Voeller, a pioneer of AIDS research and a significant early gay rights activist, was born on May 12, 1934 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He’s no household name, and his early biography would provide few hints as to why he should be. He graduated from Reed College in 1956, was awarded a five-year fellowship […]
We are constantly making new discoveries about the architecturally and culturally rich area south of Union Square, where Greenwich Village meets the East Village. While further researching one building in the area, 60-62 East 11th Street (already identified on our South of Union Square map for its incredible architecture and part of the architectural tour), […]
In honor of Small Business Week, we’re delving into the history of Alabaster Books, at 122 Fourth Avenue. Alabaster Books shines as a cultural remnant of Fourth Avenue Book Row and of bookselling in New York City. It continues to provide its patrons and New York with a wide range of wonderful books, both new […]
The Asian-American and Pacific Islander community has a more than 150-year-long history in the United States, dating back to the first wave of Chinese and Japanese immigrants settling on the West Coast. And while nearby neighborhoods like Chinatown or the Lower East Side may have been much more prominent hubs for Asian-Americans, Greenwich Village and […]
Our interactive tool “Virtual Village” brings users on unique and unexpected journeys.
The neighborhood south of Union Square holds a unique place in the history of women’s rights and women’s suffrage movements.
Irish American figures defined the blocks where Greenwich Village meets the East Village.
For more than a quarter century, Rob Mason (the subject of a recent Village Preservation Oral History) operated RPM Studios from his live/work loft at 12 East 12th Street, south of Union Square. RPM was one of the first boutique recording studios in the city during a golden age of music and recording here from 1976-2004. […]
The Police Athletic League Building at 34 1/2 East 12th Street between University Place and Broadway was built in 1855 for the New York City Board of Education, and designated an individual New York City landmark in 1998. The building has an amazing history in relation to the education of women and girls in our […]
Selma Hortense Burke lived and worked at 88 East 10th Street from 1944 until at least 1949.
March is Women’s History Month, and we’re celebrating, honoring, and advocating, and you can too!
In 1909, the activist, scholar, educator, writer, editor W.E.B. Du Bois co-founded the NAACP.
As a young filmmaker and a new New Yorker, the legendary filmmaker Miloš Forman lived in an apartment on Leroy Street in Greenwich Village.
For over 100 years, the NAACP has been fighting to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons, and to eliminate race-based discrimination. Though their headquarters is now located in Baltimore, Maryland, the organization called our neighborhood home for decades, and held its first public meeting here as well. Founded […]
On February 8th, 1915, D.W. Griffith’s acutely racist film The Birth of a Nation debuted.
The University Place Book Shop was one of the longest-running “Book Row” shops.
The anti-war and civil rights activist Igal Roodenko was a leader in a number of the most significant social movements of the twentieth century.
In 1900, the Social Reform Club hosted a lecture by labor leader Edward King.
Butterfly McQueen — it’s an unusual name, but in many ways perfect for the woman to whom it is attached, as it evokes both flight and royalty. Born in Florida, McQueen was a dancer and actor who was made famous by her role as Prissy in Gone With The Wind — followed by many similar […]
This has been a year like no other. We lost friends, loved ones, and local small businesses. We had to find new ways to reach our members, the public, and decision-makers. Education programs and fundraisers went virtual. But COVID-19 wasn’t the only source of challenges we faced. The Mayor put forward an unprecedented upzoning plan […]
Despite all the challenges of the year, Village Preservation proudly hosted 76 programs (most of which were virtual), reaching over 9,000 people in 2020. How does one choose favorites? It’s nearly impossible, especially given that each program represents, at minimum, someone’s research, passion, skill, life’s work, book, or all of the above. So, in wrap-up […]
Small businesses have been on everyone’s mind, and it’s no secret that Village Preservation is working hard to support our local small businesses — from our Small Business/Big History campaign, to our work supporting the ‘Save Our Storefronts’ Legislation for Small Business Relief, to our ongoing Businesses of the Month program, and much more. Recently, […]
Following a huge backlash from neighborhood residents, the City has withdrawn its much criticized rezoning plan to require special permits for new hotels in the area of Greenwich Village and the East Village south of Union Square. Village Preservation had led the criticism of the plan, citing the broad range of mistakes and oversights in […]
Our new interactive tool “Virtual Village” brings users on a multitude of virtual explorations.
Our new interactive tool “Virtual Village” brings users on unique and unexpected journeys.
De Blasio’s Just-Released SoHo/NoHo PlanWould Change the Face of Historic NeighborhoodsWith Massive UpzoningPlan Has Devastating Implications forNeighborhoods and Historic DistrictsAcross the City Late yesterday the de Blasio administration released details of their planned upzoning of SoHo and NoHo — and it’s even worse than we imagined. Here are some highlights: Virtually the entirety of the two […]
Village Preservation just released an incredible new tool, our #SouthOfUnionSquare “Virtual Village” site, which is an interactive map highlighting the architecture and histories of the area South of Union Square. In researching the voluminous history of the area, which surprisingly still largely lacks landmark protections, we discovered certain themes that we have turned into tours […]
Village Preservation is thrilled to share “Virtual Village”: a new online interactive tool.
The first public meeting on the city’s proposal to rezone and upzone SoHo and NoHo will be next Monday from 6-8 pm. This will be the first time further details of the city’s proposal will be made public – the first step before a months-long public hearing and approval process. Here’s what we do know: […]
Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century, the neighborhood south of Union Square was a hub for leftist and labor organizing.
The progressive mutual-benefit organization the International Workers Order (IWO) was located at 80 Fifth Avenue.
The A.T. Stewart Store, now better known as the Sun Building, was built in 1845-46 by New York architects Joseph Trench and John B. Snook for the prosperous and pioneering merchant Alexander Turney Stewart (October 12, 1803 – April 10, 1876). This magnificent Italian Renaissance “Marble Palace” at 280 Broadway, designated an NYC individual landmark on October 7, 1986, is one of Manhattan’s most significant 19th century structures.
The area south of Union Square is the center of an amazing and dynamic collection of histories.
A two-story firehouse stands in the middle of the rich historic neighborhood south of Union Square.
The five story Italianate style cast-iron loft building at 112 Fourth Avenue was constructed in 1872.
August 18th is the hundredth anniversary of the adoption of the 19th Amendment, which prohibited discrimination in voting in the United States based upon sex. It was the culmination of generations of effort by dedicated women and men, many of whom lived, worked, wrote, organized, protested, marched, and lobbied in Greenwich Village, the East Village, […]
On May 4, 1912, ten thousand people marched for women’s suffrage along Fifth Avenue.
Beginning in the 1890s and lasting for over 80 years, the area between Astor Place and Union Square was a hub of secondhand bookstores.
On July 10, 1925, what would come to be known as the “Scopes Monkey Trial” began in Dayton, Tennessee.
For nearly a quarter of a century, the International Workers Order fought relentlessly for racial equality.
We’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about things we used to do before the coronavirus outbreak, that we’re looking forward to hopefully doing again once things return to ‘normal.’ We’ve also been spending a lot of time going through our historic image archive, remembering some of those once-common activities, and just exploring the history of […]
Part of our blog series Why Isn’t This Landmarked?, where we look at buildings in our area we’re fighting to protect that are worthy of landmark designation, but somehow aren’t landmarked. The area south of Union Square is rich in architectural and social history which needs and deserves historic district (landmark) protections, which we have been […]
Part of our blog series Why Isn’t This Landmarked?, where we look at buildings in our area we’re fighting to protect that are worthy of landmark designation, but somehow aren’t landmarked. The area south of Union Square is rich in architectural and social history which needs and deserves historic district (landmark) protections, which we have […]
Part of our blog series Why Isn’t This Landmarked?, where we look at buildings in our area we’re fighting to protect that are worthy of landmark designation but somehow aren’t. The Erskine Press Building, 17 East 13th Street This charming and diminutive building bears a remarkable connection to the history of the surrounding area south of Union […]
The area south of Union Square, on the border between Greenwich Village and the East Village, is changing. The approval of the new 14th Street Tech Hub south of Union Square combined with an explosion of tech-related development in the area has resulted in the demolition of mid-19th-century hotels and Beaux-Arts style tenements, with new office towers like 809 Broadway taking […]
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 […]
Change in New York is an expected norm, sometimes so constant it almost goes unnoticed. It’s such an ingrained part of the New Yorker’s experience, we often forget just how much our city has transformed, and what we have left behind. To help us remember, we have Carole Teller. A Brooklyn-born artist who’s lived in the […]
