The crisp chill of autumn hasn’t arrived quite yet, but as summer winds down and New York begins its slow transition into sweater weather, we have a full slate of programs exploring the people, places, stories, and ideas that have shaped Greenwich Village, the East Village, NoHo, and New York City. From the Revolutionary era […]
August public programs showcase the remarkable people, places, and stories that have shaped Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo. This month’s lineup spans 250 years of history, from the Revolutionary War, the fight for women’s rights, and the immigrant experience to LGBTQ+ activism and three decades of documenting our neighborhoods through photography. As part […]
George Washington slept here. So did John Adams and Aaron Burr, in the same 18th-century mansion, just not at the same time. One site and three key figures in the fight for independence and beyond form one of many historic highlights revealed in our new map covering the American Revolution in our communities. “The Revolutionary […]
Two important events in New York history took place that, while separated by nearly two centuries, are deeply connected through one of the city’s most historic thoroughfares: Lafayette Street. In June 1825, the Marquis de Lafayette returned once more to New York City for a final visit during his triumphant farewell tour of the United […]
As the United States celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding in 1776, Village Preservation’s “Revolutionary Village” initiative asks us to consider revolution not as a single historical moment, but as an ongoing process rooted in ideas, dissent, and the persistent reimagining of democracy. Few figures embody that tradition more powerfully than Thomas Paine, born […]
Every so often, a researcher has the joy of stumbling upon a detail so small, so quiet, that it almost feels like a secret whispered across time. At Village Preservation, we’ve grown used to finding delight in the margins, footnotes, and parenthetical asides of the landmark designation reports for sites that have been selected for […]
On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress declared independence from Great Britain, and in New York City the news quickly electrified both Patriots and Loyalists. Only five days later, on July 9, General George Washington had the Declaration read aloud to his troops assembled at the Commons (today’s City Hall Park). The mood turned fiery: […]
“These are the times that try men’s souls…” so says the opening line of the first pamphlet of the series, The American Crisis, written by Thomas Paine, which was published on December 19, 1776, in the Pennsylvania Journal. Paine, an eighteenth-century philosopher and author of the Enlightenment, was known as the ‘Father of the American Revolution,’ in large […]
