Village Preservation - Greenwich Village Society For Historic Preservation

Village Preservation - Greenwich Village Society For Historic Preservation Preserving the Village, East Village and NoHo since 1980! Check out www.villagepreservation.org for m

Village Preservation was founded in 1980 to preserve the architectural heritage and cultural history of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo. We are a leader in protecting the sense of place and human scale that define the Village’s unique community. Our programs include: Educational outreach in the form of public lectures, tours, exhibitions, and publications; a school program that teaches children about Greenwich Village history and architecture; leadership on expanding landmark and zoning protections in our neighborhoods and fighting inappropriate development; preservation projects that promote an understanding of the Village's historic importance, such as the Village Preservation Archive, our Oral History Project, and our Historic Plaques Program; small business promotion, through our business of the month program; recognition of the community leaders, institutions, businesses, and additions to our streetscapes which add to the special quality of our neighborhoods through our Annual Village Awards; and our Continuing Education program, which teaches real estate professionals about the value of historic preservation. Village Preservation has successfully advocated for the landmark designation of more than 1,250 buildings in our neighborhoods, and has helped secure zoning protections for nearly 100 blocks. Each day we monitor more than 6,500 building lots in our neighborhood for demolition, alteration, or new construction permits, so the organization can notify the public and respond if necessary. And each day we also monitor the more than 3,000 landmarked properties in our neighborhood for applications for changes which must go through a public review and approval process, to also notify the public and respond as needed. We also report and advocate for appropriate resolution of landmarks and zoning violations in our neighborhood, to help protect the special built environment and character. Each year on the first Sunday in May, Village Preservation holds an Annual Village House Tour and reception, both to raise funds to support our work and to highlight and celebrate the incredible irreplaceable architecture of our neighborhoods.

Watch our recent program:Long before Hollywood, America’s celebrities flocked to the Union Square studio of Napoleon Sar...
10/11/2026

Watch our recent program:

Long before Hollywood, America’s celebrities flocked to the Union Square studio of Napoleon Sarony, the most famous photographer of the Gilded Age and a member of the Salmagundi Club. Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, and countless others sat for portraits that became the definitive images by which generations of Americans came to know them.

Drawing on her book, “Napoleon Sarony’s Living Pictures: The Celebrity Photograph in Gilded Age New York,” Dr. Erin Pauwels explored the remarkable career of this eccentric artist and entrepreneur whose theatrical approach to photography transformed portraiture into performance. Through lavish staging, carefully directed poses, and an instinctive understanding of public image, Sarony helped shape the modern celebrity portrait while influencing ideas about fame, artistic identity, branding, and copyright that continue to shape how public figures cultivate their images today.

Video HERE:
https://youtu.be/tUkbLKAdY50?si=y7-_BvdxDAG5wtqR

Following the Trump Administration’s proposals to gut longstanding regulations that protect historic and environmentally...
10/10/2026

Following the Trump Administration’s proposals to gut longstanding regulations that protect historic and environmentally sensitive sites as well as Tribal lands, the Senate has introduced legislation to implement these changes, and more. The Orwellian-named “Bipartisan Affordability and Jobs Act” (S.5653) would gut public participation in the process, hand more power to developers and big business, reduce accountability, and give the federal government a freer hand to give away or destroy sites with value and meaning to all Americans. We and hundreds of organizations from across the country representing millions of Americans adamantly oppose this bill.

The Senate is likely to vote on the bill by November 9, and if it passes, a House vote will follow soon after. It’s CRITICAL that legislators hear from us NOW that this bill to gut Section 106 is unacceptable and MUST be voted down!

TO HELP, go to https://villagepreservation.quorum.us/campaign/171024/ to tell your Senators and Congressmembers to oppose the so-called “Bipartisan Affordability and Jobs Act”

On this day in 2008, Village Preservation began a campaign to seek landmark designation of the Russian Orthodox Cathedra...
10/10/2026

On this day in 2008, Village Preservation began a campaign to seek landmark designation of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral at 59 East 2nd Street (1st/2nd Aves.) which was then threatened with a plan to erect a condo tower atop it. Built in 1891 as the Mount Olivet Memorial Church, the striking Romanesque Revival structure was designed by renowned architect Josiah Cleveland Cady, who also designed the Museum of Natural History and original Metropolitan Opera House.

It took four years, but we were able to secure landmark designation of the building, along with 330 other buildings, as part of the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District.

Read more about the church’s rich history and architecture, and the effort to preserve it, at https://villagepreservation.org/campaign/russian-orthodox-cathedral/

Happy birthday, John Lennon, born on this day in 1940. He may be best remembered in New York for his Upper West Side hom...
10/09/2026

Happy birthday, John Lennon, born on this day in 1940. He may be best remembered in New York for his Upper West Side home at the Dakota, but his connection to Greenwich Village was an important chapter in his life and work. After arriving in the city in 1971, Lennon immersed himself in Village life and culture, from a rowhouse home at 105 Bank Street to Electric Lady Studios and beyond. On what would have been his 86th birthday, learn why Lennon once said, “I should have been born in New York, man. I should have been born in the Village”: https://villagepreservation.org/2026/10/09/why-wasnt-john-lennon-born-in-the-village/

There is a Greenwich Village bar inside “Howl.”Its name is Fugazzi’s. Once located at 305 Sixth Avenue, this vanished ga...
10/08/2026

There is a Greenwich Village bar inside “Howl.”

Its name is Fugazzi’s. Once located at 305 Sixth Avenue, this vanished gathering place survives in Allen Ginsberg’s poetry.

Ginsberg wrote Part I in San Francisco in 1955, yet a piece of the Village lives inside the poem. From the San Remo Café to his East Village apartments, our latest blog follows the friendships, gathering places, and homes that bring his downtown world into focus.

Discover Allen Ginsberg and the Village inside “Howl”:
https://villagepreservation.org/2026/10/08/allen-ginsberg-and-the-village-inside-howl/

On this day in 2007, Village Preservation releases its report “The Italians of the South Village,” documenting the deep ...
10/08/2026

On this day in 2007, Village Preservation releases its report “The Italians of the South Village,” documenting the deep roots in and profound impact of Italian Americans in the southern part of Greenwich Village. It was part of a years-long campaign to highlight and preserve the special history of this area, which ultimately led to three historic district designations and multiple individual landmark designations. These historic districts were the first in the city to recognize and protect immigrant history, and also honored significant countercultural, African-American, and LGBTQ+history embedded in these blocks.

Read the full and fascinating “The Italians of the South Village” at https://media.villagepreservation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/15074230/19_The-Italians-of-the-South-Village-10-08-2007.pdf.

And learn more about the South Village and our efforts to preserve it at https://villagepreservation.org/campaign/south-village/.

What do you get if you cross rowdy biker gangs with fine art? In at least one case, you get one of the Village's most be...
10/07/2026

What do you get if you cross rowdy biker gangs with fine art? In at least one case, you get one of the Village's most beloved bars.

Our October Business of the Month, Art Bar at 52 Eighth Avenue (between Jane and Horatio Streets), has been a happy hour spot, an unorthodox art gallery, and a living room away from home for over three decades. Come for the backroom mural of the Last Supper, starring Jim Morrison as Jesus and Richard Nixon as Judas. Stay for the fireplace, the jello shots and the seven-day happy hour. As longtime manager Alexis El Sayed puts it, Art Bar is "either the gayest straight bar or the straightest gay bar around," and all the better for it. Read more: https://villagepreservation.org/2026/10/07/business-of-the-month-art-bar-52-eighth-avenue/

Join us for the unveiling of a plaque honoring lawyer and civil liberties champion Arthur Garfield Hays in front of his ...
10/07/2026

Join us for the unveiling of a plaque honoring lawyer and civil liberties champion Arthur Garfield Hays in front of his former home at 24 East 10th Street (between Fifth Avenue and University Place) on Thursday, October 15 at 6pm. Hays co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union and litigated groundbreaking cases including the Scopes Monkey Trial, the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti, and the case against the Scottsboro Boys, and wrote the ACLU’s brief in Brown v. Board of Education. We will hear about Hays’ work, legacy, and life in the Village from distinguished law, history, and civil liberties scholars

This is our 29th plaque unveiling. Our plaque program has honored and marked the homes of local figures from Jane Jacobs to James Baldwin; Allen Ginsberg to Charles Mingus; Frank O’Hara to Frank Stella; and Martha Graham to Lorraine Hansberry, as well as historically significant sites such as the former NAACP headquarters, Julius’ Bar, and the Fillmore East. All unveilings are open to the public, but you must register to attend.

Go to https://villagepreservation.my.site.com/s/event-detail?eventId=a1wQP000004AG2n to learn more and register.

WE STAND is coming to Washington Square Park.This fall, Village Preservation will unveil WE STAND, a public art and hist...
10/06/2026

WE STAND is coming to Washington Square Park.

This fall, Village Preservation will unveil WE STAND, a public art and history installation celebrating remarkable women who lived and worked in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo, and whose lives and work have had an impact far beyond our neighborhoods.

From Abigail Adams, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Marsha P. Johnson, Patti Smith, Jane Jacobs, and Sonia Sotomayor to countless other women, celebrated and less well-known, WE STAND lifts up the extraordinary contributions women have made to our communities, our country, and the world.

As we mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States in 2016, the project invites us to look at history in a different way: through the women whose ideas, creativity, courage, and determination helped shape it.

Learn more: https://villagepreservation.org/2026/10/06/we-stand-celebrating-the-women-who-changed-the-world-from-our-neighborhoods/

Each quarter, Village Preservation updates its chronological catalogue of every designated landmark in New York City sin...
10/06/2026

Each quarter, Village Preservation updates its chronological catalogue of every designated landmark in New York City since landmarking began in 1965. It’s the only place where landmark designations are shown by date in chronological order, revealing when and how designations have taken place over time. Village Preservation first compiled the list in 2024 when we noticed what appeared to be a precipitous drop in new landmark designations under Mayor Adams, but no comprehensive information existed to allow temporal comparisons. Our compilation of this data and analysis of it showed that Mayor Adams was the worst Mayor for landmark designations in NYC history, designating at the lowest rate by far of any of his predecessors.

Unfortunately, the news from the latest update is not good. There have been no new landmark designations in NYC, and no sites currently under consideration for landmark designation. In fact, no site has been calendared or formally placed under consideration for designation since 2025, and we are currently on track to have one of the barest years in NYC history for new landmark designations. Though it’s still very early in his term, at the current rate Mayor Mamdani will best Eric Adams as the mayor with the lowest rate of new landmark designations, in spite of the countless historic sites throughout NYC calling out for landmark designation. This includes endangered sites in our neighborhood for which we’re seeking designation, including Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, the city’s first Spanish-language church; the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, which would be the city’s first landmark recognizing people with disabilities; and Most Holy Redeemer Church, “the German Cathedral of the Lower East Side” and a monument to generations of immigration. It also includes sites like the former headquarters of the first national LGBTQ+ rights organization in the United States and the NYC Woman Suffrage League, all of which the City has so far refused to landmark, even though they fit the “Equity Framework” supposedly guiding new landmark designations.

Go to https://villagepreservation.org/campaign-update/landmarks-goes-another-quarter-without-any-designations-approaching-record/ to view the updated quarterly catalogue and send messages to the Mayor, Landmarks Chair, and city officials calling for action to ensure our city’s history is preserved.

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