In the early 19th century, Greenwich Village was rich with different cultures and ethnicities. As slavery in New York would not be outlawed until 1827, the area had a mixture of free and enslaved Black people. Many free Black people lived along the no longer extant Minetta Creek, in an area that came to be […]
The story of Abstract Expressionism has heretofore been primarily seen through the prism of the male-dominated world of post-War America. In that “official” history, the narrative centers around the traditional story of the man as the creator while his female counterpart is the muse. Fortunately, Joan Mitchell was not your typical female. Mitchell, as well […]
Village Preservation’s Annual Village Awards, this year on June 16th, have come to be known fondly as “the Oscars of the Village.” The very first Village Awards were held on June 10th, 1991 at Casa Italiana Zerilli Marino of NYU, at 24 West 12th Street, an historic landmark that was formerly the home of General […]
Each year, Village Preservation honors the invaluable people, businesses, and organizations that make a special contribution to our neighborhoods at our Annual Meeting and Village Awards. This year, on June 16th, 2020 at 6 PM we will be celebrating seven outstanding awardees — RSVP here to participate virtually. Tucked away on one of the most […]
Today we welcome Sarah Eccles as our new Research and Preservation Associate. Sarah is a historic preservationist with a keen interest in the relationship between communities, people, and the built environment. She is a recent graduate of the Pratt Institute Historic Preservation program. Much of her research dealt with the representation of people in historic […]
814 Broadway is a five-story masonry structure built in 1854.
Bob Dylan (born May 24, 1941) began his legendary career in Greenwich Village. The storied clubs and coffee houses in the neighborhood were the incubators for his formidable talent and work. You’ll find some surprises about him and his connections to the Village in our list of 80 Things We Love About Bob Dylan. We […]
It’s that time of year again…time for Village Preservation’s Annual Meeting and Village Awards! The Village Awards recognize and honor some of the businesses, organizations, and institutions that make our neighborhoods such special places, while our Annual Meeting also includes a review of Village Preservation’s activities and accomplishments over the past year. This year’s event […]
Each year, Village Preservation honors the invaluable people, businesses, and organizations that make a special contribution to our neighborhoods at our Annual Meeting and Village Awards. This year, on June 16th, 2020 at 6 PM we will be celebrating seven outstanding awardees — RSVP here to participate virtually. The Village Awards is really one of our very […]
Matt Umanov may have closed his shop at 273 Bleecker Street back in 2017, but he didn’t stop working. Umanov is still selling guitars online and providing essential guitar repair services by appointment. Umanov’s work is known far and wide, and his guitars have likely been to every country in the world. But it’s Bleecker […]
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 […]
In 2015, Village Preservation conducted an oral history with community organizer Carlos “Chino” García, one of the co-founders of the legendary community organization CHARAS. CHARAS for many years occupied the landmarked former P.S. 64 building on East 9th Street in the East Village. That interview gave some unique, first person insights into one of the […]
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 […]
Greenwich Village is, in some circles, considered the “Capital of Jazz.” As jazz critic, author, and president of the Jazz Journalists Association Howard Mandel put it: “Greenwich Village is the capital of jazz because it has welcomed adventurous thinking, artistic expression, and audiences eager to hear the best of what’s exciting and new.” Some things […]
The Greenwich Village Historic District is one of New York City’s oldest historic districts.
Samuel Finley Breese Morse was an artist, inventor, and would-be-politician. While there was much to admire about his legacy and accomplishments, there was also much to condemn and deplore. Reading his biography, one might think (or even wish) that there were actually several different Morses. One was an inventor who helped bring telegraph technology and […]
Novelist Bernard Malamud is considered by many critics to be one of the finest American novelists of the 20th century. Born on April 26, 1914, in Brooklyn to a poor Russian Jewish immigrant family who ran a small grocery store, he attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, City College of New York, and Columbia for […]
On April 15, 2001, Rock and Roll lost a true legend. On that day, Joey Ramone died of lymphatic cancer. That night, U2’s Bono told the audience at a concert in Portland Oregon how Joey and the Ramones had changed his life. He sang “Amazing Grace” in his honor, and then went into “I Remember […]
Richmond Hill was a Colonial estate built on a 26-acre parcel of the “King’s Farm” in 1767 by Major Abraham Mortier, paymaster of the British army in the colony. Located southeast of the modern intersection of Varick and Charlton Streets, it served as George Washington’s headquarters in April-May and June-August of 1776, a period of […]
Our interactive tool “Virtual Village” brings users on unique and unexpected journeys.
Our neighborhoods are not only places where great literature was written. It’s also where great literature was published, sometimes at great legal peril, and where tectonic-shifting battles against censorship were led and won. Nowhere is that more true than in the area South of Union Square, where art, commerce, and activism collided. And perhaps no […]
There are many important takeaways from Village Preservation’s 19th Amendment Centennial StoryMap; there are a remarkable number of people and places in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo who played key roles in the women’s suffrage movement. That these neighborhoods were long centers of political ferment and progressive social change, and people here played […]
Samuel R. (Chip) Delany, born on April 1, 1942, is an acclaimed author of both non-fiction and science fiction. He grew up in Harlem, at 2250 Seventh Ave above his father’s business, Levy & Delany Funeral Home, which appeared in stories by Langston Hughes and other black writers chronicling Harlem in the 1940s and ’50s. His […]
Women’s History Month gives us yet another opportunity to celebrate the marvelous and groundbreaking women who have lived and worked in our neighborhoods. Today we look at two pioneering women who lived and worked on Bank Street: Willa Cather and Lucy Sprague Mitchell. Bank Street Many of our streets are beloved by their residents and […]
On March 23, 1857 the first Otis commercial passenger elevator was installed at 488 Broadway at Broome Street at the E.V. Haughwout Building. This technological breakthrough, along with developments in steel-frame construction, allowed buildings to grow ever taller. The modern era elevator traces its roots to Louis XV’s Versailles palace in 1743. An elevator system […]
The neighborhood south of Union Square holds a unique place in the history of women’s rights and women’s suffrage movements.
Ada Louise Huxtable (March 14, 1921 – January 7, 2013) loved architecture, New York and its neighborhoods, preservation, and the gifts to society that built environments shape. It is this love, and her incredible skill as a writer, that earned Huxtable her job at the New York Times as the first-ever architecture critic, her reputation, […]
Irish American figures defined the blocks where Greenwich Village meets the East Village.
175 MacDougal Street holds far more history than is visible upon first glance.
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. […]
Today we’re looking at the historic plaques that Village Preservation has placed throughout our neighborhoods commemorating some of the amazing women who have lived, worked, and changed history here. Historic plaques are a great tool to educate the public about the remarkable history of our neighborhoods, and the incredible people, events, and movements connected to sites […]
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. Every nook and […]
The singer-songwriter Gone Marshall recently celebrated a bit of vintage Greenwich Village which might be familiar to you, over on the corner of MacDougal and Houston Street. If you’re thinking fondly of some of the old-school neighborhood heroes, you might find meaning in the new song, “Bazooka Joe Don’t Live There Anymore.” Marshall, known for a […]
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.
A lot can happen in ten years — pop culture references grow old, new technology emerges, and the stories we tell continue to evolve. Village Preservation’s blog Off The Grid celebrates a momentous milestone today, thanks in part to all who have contributed to it over the years and our amazing supporters who continue to […]
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.
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. Do you wear […]
On February 8th, 1915, D.W. Griffith’s acutely racist film The Birth of a Nation debuted.
Café Le Metro, now the 13th Step Sports Bar, was located at 149 Second Avenue. A four-story Greek Revival row house, it is the oldest on its block front and currently retains its original stoop, entryway and upper façade. Constructed in 1850 for original owner Joseph Kirnichon, the building was “tenementized,” or converted to house […]
The University Place Book Shop was one of the longest-running “Book Row” shops.
Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman in the United States to receive a medical degree, which she put to great use when she opened in NoHo the first infirmary run by women for women. Born on February 3, 1821, in Bristol England, Blackwell and her family moved to the United States in 1832. Following the […]
2021 is the year we realize more than ever the need to shop local as much as we can. We know you love to support small, local, independent businesses. And we do too. 2021 is here and Village Preservation continues to add new local independent businesses to our “Small Business/Big History” signage program, in which we […]
Village Preservation shares our oral history collection with the public, highlighting some of the people and stories that make Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo such unique and vibrant neighborhoods. Each includes the experiences and insights of leaders or long-time participants in the arts, culture, preservation, business, or civic life. Michael E. Levine 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. Having our clothes […]
In 1900, the Social Reform Club hosted a lecture by labor leader Edward King.
In her manuscript for the novel People in Trouble, lesbian author and activist Sarah Schulman tells of a fictionalized AIDS activist organization called JUSTICE. By the time People in Trouble reached the shelves a couple years later, however, the real-life activist group ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) of which Schulman became an active […]
Around 1907, after recovering from a chronic backache, the 24 year old Max Eastman moved to New York City.
On December 22, 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian and Jewish descent, was court-martialed, convicted of treason, and sentenced to life in prison at the notorious Devil’s Island prison for allegedly sharing military secrets with the German Embassy in Paris. Two years later, an investigation into the already closed case […]
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 […]
Some of our favorite local small businesses were recently prominently featured in the New York Times. Longtime neighborhood anchors Veselka (‘rainbow’ in Ukrainian) and (the former) Dinosaur Hill were the focus of a long form article that many people shared with me. The latter is closing as a result of a well-earned retirement, while the […]
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, […]
We know you love to support small, local, independent businesses. And we do too. And as the recent NY Times editorial put it this past weekend: “In the darkest days of the pandemic this year, it was New York’s small businesses — its coffee shops and restaurants, groceries and bakeries — that remained open, serving […]
Tennessee Williams’ A Street Car Named Desire, one of the most critically acclaimed plays of the 20th century, opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. And while shocking its mid-20th century audience with its unabashed brutality and sexuality, when the curtain closed on opening night, the audience erupted into 30 […]
We’ve added several new local independent businesses to our “Small Business/Big History” signage program, where we partner with great local businesses to promote neighborhood history and the wonderful services and products they offer. Take a tour in person or virtually, and learn a thing or two about the history of these buildings, streets, and neighborhoods, […]
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. This has always […]
The poets and New York natives Anne Waldman and Lewis Warsh met at the Berkeley Poetry Conference in 1965, while absorbing the Zen-influenced poems of San Francisco-based writer Robert Duncan. This chance encounter begat a romantic and creative partnership that, back across the country in the East Village, lit a spark within the Downtown poetry […]
In 1804, New York City had already celebrated 190 years since its founding. Comparatively, the United States was only 28 years young. In order to honor the already rich history of the city, John Pintard, then the secretary of the American Academy of Fine Arts, drew up plans for an institution that would include a […]
On November 19, 1969, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated 326 Spring Street, also known as the James Brown House, a NYC Landmark. The James Brown House was built in 1817 and, as the designation reports notes, retains its original gambrel roof, second story lintels and dormers. Perhaps even more than its architecture and age, the […]
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 out in […]
In 1754, there was no library in New York. Can you believe it? Today we are taking a wonderful journey through our neighborhoods to trace the beginnings of the New York Public Library which came to light through several important institutions, philanthropists, and buildings. With the help of our new Virtual Village map and its […]
On October 28, 2014, the structure at 334 E. 14th Street that architectural historian Francis Morrone calls “one of the most important buildings in the East Village” was designated a New York City landmark. Designed in 1866 by Julius Boekell, creator of a wide variety of significant buildings around the city, it serves as both a […]
Village Preservation is committed to supporting, protecting, and promoting small businesses. When we were lucky enough to be introduced to chef, author, and Village entrepreneur Fany Gerson, we were overjoyed. Fany is the consummate cook and a great example of an intrepid small business owner who is valiantly carrying on through the tough times. She […]
On October 22, 1820, a group of Greenwich Village residents gathered at the home of Catherine Ritter.
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. Greenwich Village has […]
Not everyone knows its name or its history, but few have passed the incredibly impressive red brick building at the northeast corner of Lafayette Street and East 4th Street and not marveled at the stunning work of architecture located there. The De Vinne Press Building was designated a NYC Landmark on October 19, 1966 — […]
Over 2.4 million New Yorkers, or nearly one-third of its population, identify as Hispanic or Latino, including myself. National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15) is one of many occasions that allows us to reflect on the impact that Hispanic and Latino residents and revolutionaries have had on our neighborhoods for over 400 years. Juan […]
NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer has recently weighed into the debate about upzoning SoHo and NoHo, expressing his unequivocal support for a change which would allow larger development in these neighborhoods, where current rules allow new structures 300 feet tall or greater. Various groups, in some cases backed by developers with vested interests and potential development sites in SoHo and […]
One of New York’s most historic but least known landmarks is the Bowne House, built ca. 1661 at 37-01 Bowne Street in Flushing, Queens. The two-and-a-half story wood house is the oldest building in the Borough of Queens and one of the oldest in New York City.
The Trump SoHo was approved for construction by the City on May 8, 2007, over the objections of dozens of elected officials and a broad coalition of community and business groups from across New York led by Village Preservation. Unfortunately, the City decided that the interests of deep-pocketed developers “trump” zoning protections for our neighborhoods, […]
Quiet, reserved Perry Street has been home to some very not-quiet and reserved types over the years, including Frank Serpico, Margaret Mead, James Agee, Margaret Sanger, and Dawn Powell. Appropriately enough, the street’s namesake was also someone who was not afraid to make a little noise and shake things up either. And he did a […]
Responding to the census and participating in the upcoming national elections are critical to ensuring our communities are represented, our voices heard, and our democracy maintained. However, doing each is a little different this time around. If you haven’t already, please fill out the 2020 Census, and make a plan for voting in November, including arranging […]
Archeologist Elizabeth D. Meade, PhD has created an amazing map of the hundreds of cemeteries and burial grounds, past and present, in NYC. Over 35 such sites can be found in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and Noho, although according to the map, none are still active. Dr. Meade created this map because “Cemeteries are […]
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.
Director Nicholas Ray (August 7th, 1911-June 16, 1979) most noted for his celebrated 1955 film Rebel Without A Cause and a string of celebrated and influential (if not always commercially successful) films, was born in Galesville, Wisconsin as Raymond Nicholas Kienzle, Jr. Though not from Greenwich Village, his professional career both began and ended here, […]
Greenwich Village is known as the home and birthplace of many a cultural movement — The New York School of Painters and Writers, the modern LGBTQ Civil Rights Movement, many notable advances in African American and women’s rights, the Ashcan School of painters, and so much more. One popular art form less strongly associated with […]
Ira Frederick Aldridge is today remembered as one of the most renowned actors of the nineteenth century.
In 1626, Paulo d’Angola arrived to New Amsterdam on the first ship bringing enslaved people to this region.
Civil War Major General Daniel E. Sickles had one of history’s most contentious, strange, and multifarious biographies.
Where do folk music and gothic poetry come together? In Greenwich Village, of course! Two beloved but very different figures in the Village’s history are united in a surprising twist — the activist and folk singer Phil Ochs set a poem penned by the notoriously morbid Edgar Allan Poe, “The Bells,” to music. This unexpected […]
Each year, Village Preservation honors the invaluable people, businesses, and organizations that make a special contribution to our neighborhoods at our Annual Meeting and Village Awards. This year, on June 17th, 2020 we will be celebrating nine outstanding awardees — RSVP here to participate virtually.
Each year, Village Preservation honors the invaluable people, businesses, and organizations that make a special contribution to our neighborhoods at our Annual Meeting and Village Awards. This year, on June 17th, 2020 we will be celebrating nine outstanding awardees — RSVP here to participate virtually. Thompson Alchemists is not just a regular neighborhood pharmacy. This […]
In recent weeks, probably more than ever, New Yorkers have come to cherish their local pharmacies. Already places of community comfort where the local pharmacist knows your name, they were friendly and sometimes lifesaving places, even in less tumultuous times. While the city is re-opening in phases, pharmacies have stayed open through this whole pandemic. And while that may be easily taken for granted given their professionalism and dedication, that does not obscure the risks they took in opening every day to serve us. An example: Ali Yasin, the founder of New York City Pharmacy, located at 206 1st Avenue between 12th and 13th Street, lost his life at the age of 67 in May from Covid. In recognition of his service and sacrifice, and all his pharmacy continues to do, New York City Pharmacy is our June Business of the Month.
Westbeth is the first subsidized housing for artists in the United States, offering affordable housing and work space in New York City.
Whenever a building is demolished, something is lost, even if the planned replacement is a worthy one. In the case of 268-272 East 2nd Street, currently a nondescript four-story building, one might never guess the outstanding century-and-a-half history of the property serving those in need in some pretty extraordinary ways from 1867 until today, with […]
Each year, Village Preservation honors the invaluable people, businesses, and organizations that make a special contribution to our neighborhoods at our Annual Meeting and Village Awards. On June 17th, 2020 we will be celebrating nine outstanding awardees — RSVP here to participate virtually. Chess Forum at 219 Thompson Street (West 3rd/Bleecker Streets) has been located in […]
Armand Hammer (May 21, 1898 — December 10, 1990), American industrialist most closely associated with Occidental Petroleum, was born on the Lower East Side to Russian immigrant parents and raised in the Bronx. He was, by all accounts, an eccentric person, prone to flights of extravagance and exaggeration, and well known for his art collection […]
Each year, Village Preservation honors the invaluable people, businesses, and organizations that make a special contribution to our neighborhoods at our Annual Meeting and Village Awards. On June 17th, 2020 we will be celebrating nine outstanding awardees at our— RSVP here to participate virtually. George Cominskie is a beloved longtime West Village and Westbeth community activist, […]
Each year, Village Preservation honors the invaluable people, businesses, and organizations that make a special contribution to our neighborhoods at our Annual Meeting and Village Awards. On June 17th, 2020 we will be celebrating nine outstanding awardees at our— RSVP here to participate virtually. Have you ever meandered into the bright little shop at 113 Avenue […]
Each year, Village Preservation honors the invaluable people, businesses, and organizations that make a special contribution to our neighborhoods at our Annual Meeting and Village Awards. On June 17th, 2020 we will be celebrating nine outstanding awardees at our Annual Village Awards — RSVP here to participate virtually. Idlewild Books is an independent New York bookstore and […]
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. More than ever, […]
The Cherry Lane Theatre is the oldest continuously operating off-Broadway theater in New York City. Almost as interesting and drama-filled as the incredible plays produced here is rich and varied history of the theater itself — a history that includes gay discos, Barbra Streisand, and thousands of turtles. Let’s dive in!:
For twenty four years, the entire existence of the organization, the International Workers Order (IWO) was headquartered at 80 Fifth Avenue (southeast corner of 14th Street), an elaborately-detailed Renaissance Revival style office building designed in 1908 by Buchman and Fox. This progressive mutual-benefit fraternal organization was a pioneering force in the U.S. labor movement, which […]
In 2007 the Chrysler Building was ranked ninth on the list of America’s Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects. Built in 1928-30 and designed by William Van Allen, it is a beacon in our rapidly changing New York City skyline, and in many ways the embodiment of the Art Deco style and the Roaring 20s’ exuberant building boom before the Depression.
As we continue to work through the reality of this new era in our lives, it’s important to remember the creative people in our world and our neighborhoods. They are striving to make sense out of the constrained circumstances we find ourselves in, and still are finding and creating new ways to keep us thinking […]
Village Preservation has now developed online resources for students from our acclaimed children’s education program, History and Historic Preservation. These videos and activities are designed for children ages 5-7. During this time of remote learning these are a great resource and a way to keep children engaged and expand their horizons from home. Watch the videos […]
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. Deli is short […]
Located on the north shore of Staten Island not far from the Staten Island Ferry Terminal lies an oasis like none other in New York, recognized by local, state, and federal government for its extraordinary architectural and cultural significance.
