In honor of Pride Month, today, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), announced the launch of Pride: Celebrating LGBTQ+ Landmarks, an interactive story map highlighting individual landmarks designated for their association with people and organizations that made significant contributions to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) cultural and civil rights movements. Through narrative text, photos, maps, and multimedia content, the public can learn more about the important history behind these landmarks.
West Park Presbyterian Church (WPPC), 165 West 86th Street, NYC. Image courtesy NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
Today, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing on an application to demolish the individual landmarked West-Park Presbyterian Church, located at 541 Amsterdam Avenue in NYC, on the grounds of financial hardship. Speakers lined up on Zoom, on all sides of the issue, with the meeting lasting more than four-hours. Below is a little background and a thumbnail sketch of today’s meeting. Decision will follow in one month.
From our archives, during World Pride 2019 & Stonewall 50
Pride Month commemorates the Stonewall riots, which occurred at the end of June in 1969. All five boroughs of NYC will celebrate this June, 2022 with a plethora of actives, ending with the historic Pride March on June 26th. Below are just a few suggestions, and we will continue to add to the list.
The award winners were announced for the 32nd Lucy G. Moses Preservation Awards for 2022. The Moses Awards are the Conservancy’s highest honor for outstanding preservation.
This year the Conservancy honors Yuien Chin (Director, Harlem One Stop, Alex Herrera, and the Prospect Park Alliance. Preservation Project Awards are bestowed the the fourteen listed below.
The Schinasi Mansion, located at 351 Riverside Drive, is the last remaining detached single-family home in Manhattan used as a residence. Built in 1907, the 12,000 square-foot, neo-French-Renaissance style structure was designed by William Tuthill – the architect who designed Carnegie Hall. It was commissioned by the Turkish tobacco baron, Morris Schinasi. Schinasi, who lived there until his death in 1928.
NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission voted on June 22, 2021 to designate the Aakawaxung Munahanung (Island Protected from the Wind) Archeological Site on Staten Island as an Individual New York City Landmark.
Located in Tottenville at the southern-most point of Staten Island, the Conference House Park Archaeological Site contains the region’s largest known prehistoric burial ground and the largest and best-preserved known archaeological site documenting Native American life beginning about 8,000 years ago and continuing through the Colonial period. The proposed landmark site includes approximately 20 acres of highly archaeologically sensitive land located within the city’s Conference House Park. Designation would recognize the over-8,000-year history of Native American occupation of the site and protect its below-ground archaeological resources.
This week, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) announced the launch of its Open Office Hours initiative for homeowners considering work on their designated buildings. This initiative will enable property owners to virtually meet one-on-one with preservation staff to discuss their potential projects and ask questions about LPC permitting.
Kimlau War Memorial at Kimlau Square in Chinatown. Image via NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
NYC Landmarks Preservation commission voted June 22, 2021 to designate the Kimlau War Memorial in Chinatown a New York City Landmark. The Kimlau War Memorial is significant for its association with the architect Pay G. Lee, and for its importance as a monument dedicated to the contributions of Chinese American veterans.
Grand Central Terminal is a major destination when visiting New York, and a welcome historic site for all who move through it every day. Some points of interest ~ The ceiling in the main concourse featuring 12 constellations painted in gold leaf plus 2,500 stars ~ Information Booth Clock, the crown jewel of Grand Central ~ Whispering Gallery in the low, Guastavino ceramic arches ~ Grand Central market including a wonderful gift section at Eli Zabar’s ~ The Tiffany Clock at the Park Avenue Viaduct ~ The Campbell Bar with its 25-foot hand painted ceilings, grand stone fireplace, and century-old leaded glass window with original millwork ~ Oak leaf and acorn finishes, symbols of the Vanderbilt family ~ Vanderbilts symbol of the age of electricity, exposed light bulbs still on view + more.
Richmond Barthé’s Green Pastures: The Walls of Jericho (1938), a sculpture located at the Kingsborough Houses (also in Crown Heights). Barthé, who identified as homosexual, is considered the most important sculptor of African-American modernism in the first half of the twentieth century. Photos via NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project
As we approached Black History Month 2021, the Fulton Art Fair, in celebration of its 100th birthday of artist Richmond Barthé, announced the restoration of the much loved relief, ‘Exodus and Dance.’
Endale Arch Restoration. Photo credit: Paul Martinka.
Prospect Park’s historic Endale Arch has been restored to its original splendor with a $500,000 restoration funded by Tiger Baron Foundation and Council Member Brad Lander’s District 39 Participatory Budgeting.
The restoration of this historic arch, one of the first architectural elements in Prospect Park, reveals hidden details not seen in more than a century. Take a look at some pictures at the ribbon-cutting today.
The Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue at 66th Street, NYC
In present day, New Yorkers enjoy a plethora of activities at the Park Avenue Armory, including live performances, concerts, art and antique shows. But the Armory enjoys a history just as exciting ~ completed in 1881, designed and decorated by some of the most sought-after masters of the American Aesthetic Movement during the Gilded Age, and home to the prestigious National Guard’s Seventh Regiment ~ also known as the ‘Silk Stocking Bragade.’ Take a look back in time.
Behind the Cathedral is the Greek Revival building ~ Textile Conservation Lab
The Cathedral of St. John the Divine received a donation of twelve 17th Century Italian Barberini tapestries in 1891, a year before construction began on the Cathedral itself. In time, the acquisition of a collection of Raphael designed tapestries depicting scenes of the Acts of the Apostles drawn from the New Testament Book of Acts, and nine Mortlake tapestries were acquired. So it should not be surprising that, in 1981, a textile conservation lab was established, by the Cathedral, as a way to care and conserve the collection.
Buildings of Tin Pan Alley, c. 1910. Image via Historic Districts Council
On Sunday, October 22, 2017, preservationists and historians rallied to protect the cultural treasure known as Tin Pan Alley along 28th Street between Broadway and 6th Avenue ~ with musical performances and a tour. It was a day to learn about the rich history of the historic one block, known asTin Pan Alley, and the efforts to preserve its heritage, along with many of its 19th-century structures still in tact.
On Tuesday, December 10, 2019, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated five historic buildings on West 28th Street in Manhattan: 47 West 28th Street, 49 West 28th Street, 51 West 28th Street, 53 West 28th Street and 55 West 28th Street. These buildings are an intact part of a block known as Tin Pan Alley, home of the most significant concentration of sheet music publishers in New York City. While on this block — so named to describe the audible racket of piano music that made 28th St. sound “like a tin pan alley” — these firms revolutionized the music-publishing industry’s practices for the creation, promotion and consumption of popular music as we know it today.
The landmarked 120 Broadway, also know as the Equitable Building, has undergone a two-year, $50 million renovation. We were pleased to be invited to take a look inside, from the historic Banker’s Club space on the 40th floor to the newly created mural project on the third floor, and beautifully restored lobby. Come along, as we take in the new, while reflecting on the old.
NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver, FAICP, today joined Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, Queens Community Board 7 Parks Chair Kim Ohanian, and members of People for the Pavilion, Flushing Meadows Corona Park Conservancy and Alliance for Flushing Meadows Corona Park, to break ground on the reconstruction of the New York State Pavilion Observation Towers.
The long-awaited ribbon-cutting for the restoration and unveiling of the historic Harlem Fire Watchtower took place on Saturday, October 26, 2019, to the delight of the entire community. Come along with us as we walk up to the Acropolis and celebrate the watchtower’s return.
On the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission agenda in December, 2018, was a discussion on the 1st Spanish United Methodist Church becoming an Individual Landmark. Also known as The People’s Church, the discussion is not for its architectural merit, but for its historic cultural significance, located in the heart of El Barrio, associated with theYoung Lords occupation in 1969 and 1970. On Tuesday, December 12, 2018, it was determined that the history of the Young Lords still divides the community, and both the Church and the local Council Member would like more time to allow for more community dialogue. The 1st Spanish United Methodist Church will be removed from the calendar, per time limits established by Section 25-303(1) of the Landmarks Law, and can be considered for designation at a future date.
Join the First Spanish Methodist Church on May 21st and 22nd, 2022 for its 100th Anniversary!
Each year, the Historic Districts Council celebrates community preservationists with its Annual Grassroots Preservation Awards. The awards are given to individuals and groups dedicated to working in public service and online to bring attention and resources to saving the “heart and souls of New York City.”
Connie Lee, Landmark East Harlem, President of the Marcus Garvey Park Alliance, and Public Art Initiative, December 2014 in front of Richard Webber Harlem Packing House, 207-215 East 119th Street in East Harlem
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) scheduled a public hearing for February 13, 2018, on three buildings in East Harlem ~ and unanimously voted to Landmark all three.
Mural entitled “A Memory of 14th Street and Sixth Avenue” located at 101 West 14th Street painted by Julien Binford in 1954
Preservationists familiar with the building recognized it right away as the original home of the historic Julien Binford murals located at 101 West 14th Street. They were alerted to the murals by Andrew Cronson, who spotted the murals, but also noticed a demolition notice on the door. The murals at the 14th street location appeared to still be intact. The building, a shuttered HSBC bank branch, was built in 1952, designed by Halsey, McCormack & Helmer. The website nysonglines states that the Binford murals at that location were painted in 1954, and could gloriously be seen from the street.
Cronson’s alert took place in 2017, setting in motion a plethora of efforts by the non-profit organization Save Chelsea, the primary historic preservation advocate in that area. Council Member Corey Johnson’s office was also onboard, as was Jamestown, and soon after, a newcomer to the area ~ Google.
