Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) is a non-profit membership organization that documents, honors and preserves the architectural heritage and cultural history of several neighborhoods in Lower Manhattan, New York City: Greenwich Village, the Far West Village, the Meatpacking District, the South Village, NoHo, and the East Village. In 2019, it was rebranded, but not renamed, as Village Preservation.

Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
Formation1980
HeadquartersNew York, New York, U.S.
Websitewww.gvshp.org

In these historic neighborhoods, GVSHP seeks both to protect historic resources and to monitor new development via an array of advocacy and outreach efforts, involvement in governmental process and public discourse, and educational programs for adults and children. Its work toward securing historic district and landmarks protections, saving significant buildings from demolition, securing contextual zoning for sections of neighborhoods, and right-sizing plans for new construction has earned wide praise from preservation leaders.[1] The society has helped secure designation of eleven new historic districts or district extensions covering approximately 1,250 buildings, individual landmark status for dozens of buildings, and four contextual rezonings covering nearly one hundred blocks.[2]

Among their notable accomplishments are the listing of the Stonewall Inn on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999 and designation as part of the Stonewall National Monument in 2016, the first U.S. national monument or city landmark based upon LGBT history.[3] Their other accomplishments include landmark designation for the Meatpacking District and most of the South Village; the first extensions of the Greenwich Village Historic District since 1969; first-of-their-kind landmark designation of sites such as Webster Hall, I.M. Pei’s Silver Towers, and the former Bell Telephone Labs/Westbeth Artist Housing, and saving homes and studios of artists such as Frank Stella and Willem de Kooning from demolition.

The society has received numerous distinctions in preservation and real estate circles,[4] such as the Preservation League of New York State's "Excellence in Historic Preservation Award" for organizational excellence,[5] and Executive Director Andrew Berman's inclusion in The New York Observer's "The 100 Most Powerful People in New York Real Estate." [6]

History
GVSHP is currently operating from the Neighborhood Preservation Center, an incubator for preservation and advocacy groups.
GVSHP Executive Director Andrew Berman speaks at a rally against NYU 2031 at New York City Hall.

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation was founded in 1980 as the Greenwich Village Trust for Historic Preservation (GVT). In 1982, Regina Kellerman, a prominent architectural historian and co-founder of GVT, was named as its first executive director, and GVT moved its operations to the Salmagundi Club at 47 Fifth Avenue. In 1984, GVT changed its name to Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, and began using the brand "Village Preservation" in 2019 [7]

Throughout the 1980s, GVSHP initiated research on the history and architecture of Greenwich Village, including subjects like the Gansevoort Meat Market (a joint study with Columbia University), Bleecker Street, Broadway, and maritime history of the Greenwich Village waterfront.

In 1991, GVSHP launched its first educational program, “Greenwich Village: History and Historic Preservation,” as a joint effort with the Merchant's House Museum, and, in 1995, designed and published a 12-page children's workbook, “Discovering Greenwich Village,” for distribution to children in the school program.[8] The education program has since been expanded to include field-trip style walking tours of Greenwich Village, encouraging students to examine the architectural form of Greenwich Village as a manifestation of its social history and context.[9]

In the mid-1990s, the society initiated an oral history project to document the experiences of Greenwich Village preservationists of the twentieth century, many of whom were involved in defeating Robert Moses's Lower Manhattan Expressway. The participants in the oral history project include famous Village residents such as Jane Jacobs, Edwin Fancher, and Doris Diether.[10]

Since 1999, GVSHP has operated from the Neighborhood Preservation Center, the former rectory of St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, on East 11th Street, and increased its focus on the East Village since moving its office to that neighborhood.

Major ongoing efforts include advocacy around the proposed transfer of development rights in Greenwich Village along the Hudson River Park;[11] supporting local independent businesses; and opposing NYU's expansion plans, as by being a co-plaintiff in a lawsuit to overturn approvals granted for “NYU 2031.”[12] The group consistently testifies before the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and monitors applications for alterations to protected buildings.[13]

Work

The society has taken the lead in advocating for designation of the South Village as a historic district. The first section of this historic district was designated in 2010, and a second in 2013, but the group continues to press for a third section to be landmarked.[14] In the West Village, the group celebrates the singular role the area has played in the LGBT civil rights movement, and has advocated for several official recognitions of this history.[15] As the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) has increasingly faulted preservation protections for New York City's housing affordability crisis, GVSHP has consistently rebutted those claims.[16]

GVSHP responds to development and preservation issues as they arise, but also hosts a full yearly calendar of community, educational and commemorative programs. Each month, the group offers several free programs, including lectures, walking tours, panel discussions, house tours, and more. The organization's primary annual fundraiser is the Village House Tour, held on the first Sunday each May. Its major members’ event is the Village Awards and Annual Meeting in June, at which important local citizens, businesses, and civic groups are recognized for their work benefiting the community.[17]

In 2014, the organization produced a book of stories and artworks entitled “Greenwich Village Stories,” published by Rizzoli. This collection of art and text by contributors including Nat Hentoff, Lou Reed, Hettie Jones, Saul Leiter and Jane Freilicher is sold through mainstream booksellers as a partial fundraiser for the society.[18] In partnership with a local business, the group places two historic plaques per year on sites of cultural or historic importance, such as the former location of the San Remo Café in July 2013 and the former home of poet Frank O’Hara in June 2014.[19]

GVSHP also runs a children's program through local schools, employing trained educators to teach students how history can be understood through the built environment, using Greenwich Village as a living museum.[20] A continuing education program for real estate professionals includes lectures, slide shows and walking tours on aspects of architecture, zoning, and planning history.[21] The society's Historic Image Archive has a wide range of donated collections showing the historiy and built environment of Greenwich Village. The GVHSP's Oral History Project[22] collects the reflections of preservation pioneers and Westbeth leaders, as well as residents of the South and East Village. The organization also publishes a daily blog of local and historical interest called “Off the Grid,” as well as a semiannual newsletter detailing the status of its advocacy and other projects.

Landmarks designation efforts
Village House Tour-goers enter a 19th-century townhouse on Commerce Street.

Although a large portion of the Village was designated in 1969 as part of the Greenwich Village Historic District, many buildings outside the district's boundaries are unprotected. During the decade between 2003 and 2013, GVSHP helped secure landmark designation of over 1,250 buildings, as well as community-scaled "contextual rezonings" of nearly 100 blocks.[2]

Some of its more notable efforts include:

  • 2019 – Three more LGBT historic site proposed for designation by the society are granted individual landmark status — The LGBT Community Services Center, the for Gay Activists Alliance Firehouse, and the former home of Caffé Cino
  • 2017 – 827-831 Broadway designated as an individual landmark by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission.
  • 2016 – Sullivan-Thompson Historic District designated by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission.
  • 2016 – Secured protections against any future "air rights" transfers from the Hudson River Park that would have had the potential to increase, by 1.5 million square feet, the amount of development permitted in Greenwich Village's westernmost blocks.
  • 2015 - Stonewall Inn designated as an individual landmark by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, the first landmark to be designated based on LGBT history.
  • 2012 – East Village/Lower East Side and East 10th Street Historic District designated the first new historic districts in the East Village since 1969.
  • 2011 – Westbeth Building declared an official City landmark (added to State & National Register of Historic Places since 2009)
  • 2009 – East Village rezoning passed by NYC Council
  • 2009 – Silver Towers designated as an individual landmark by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
  • 2009 – Webster Hall designated as an individual landmark by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
  • 1999, 2002, 2009 – NoHo Historic District (Main, East, and Extension, respecticely) designated by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
  • 2006 – Weehawken Street Historic District designated by NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
  • 2004 – Hamilton-Holly House at 4 St. Marks Place and 127-131 MacDougal Street designated as individual landmarks by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
  • 2003 – Gansevoort Market Historic District designated by NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
  • 2002 – Gansevoort Market named one of Seven to Save by Preservation League of New York State
  • 1999 – Stonewall Inn added to National Register of Historic Places (joint effort with Organization of Lesbian and Gay Architects and Designers)

Selected honors and awards
  • 2013 – Vanity Fair's “Hall of Fame”: GVSHP's Executive Director Andrew Berman was named to the magazine's “Hall of Fame” for being “the pesky David to the Goliath developers who have come to define post-millennial Manhattan … savvy and pugnacious enough to recognize that there is no respite for the preservationist, ever, from those who would make the Village ‘bigger, glassier, newer.’”
  • 2008 – The New York Observer's “100 Most Powerful People in New York Real Estate”: The soicety's Executive Director Andrew Berman was recognized by the Observer in 2008 for work in standing up to overdevelopment within Greenwich Village and its environs. Among the list of real estate developers, financiers, brokers, and government officials, Berman was the only neighborhood preservation advocate chosen to make the list of the “100 Most Powerful People in Real Estate.”
  • 2007 – The Preservation League of New York State's Excellence in Historic Preservation Award: Of GVSHP, PLNYS said, “The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation’s efforts to build grassroots support, and to monitor and inform the decisions of New York City agencies should serve as an inspiration to other preservation organizations. The society recently achieved a number of preservation goals that for decades had proved elusive. From the implementation of measures to protect the historic buildings and character of the Far West Village and Greenwich Village waterfront, to the designation of the Gansevoort Market Historic District, once-endangered buildings are now protected.”
  • 2006 – The Village Voice's “Best Greenwich Village Defender” in “Best of NYC 2006": The Village Voice writes that “It’s been a big year in the push to preserve the Village, thanks largely to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. The group’s vigilant director, Andrew Berman, has exhibited a knack for stopping 'out of context' buildings from sprouting up on quaint, historic streets, despite the red-hot development pressures."
  • 2006 – New York Magazine’s “Influentials 2006”: New York Magazine says of Berman, "He persuaded the City Council to stop a spate of 'out of context' buildings in their tracks. Now he’s taking on NYU, determined not to let the university take over the neighborhood in its expansion.”
  • 2006 – New York Landmarks Conservancy's Lucy G. Moses Organizational Excellence Award: The NYLC established the Lucy G. Moses award to "recognize the property owners, builders, artisans, and designers who renew the beauty and utility of New York City’s distinctive architecture."

Research and Resources
  • In 2017, GVSHP launched a Civil Rights and Social Justice map, which marks notable sites relevant to various social justice movements over the years.[23]
  • GVSHP launched the East Village Building Blocks interactive map after 10 years of research, which documents construction information on every building in the East Village.[24]
  • In 2019, The society released an interactive map for the 50th anniversary of the Greenwich Village Historic District designation in 1969. The map shows historic images of buildings in Greenwich Village compared to what they look like in the present day.[25]
  • In 2019, GVSHP collaborated with Google Arts & Culture to create virtual reality walking tours including themes of Latinx History, Social Justice, LGBTQ+ and Trailblazing Women.[26]

Historic districts
A map of the boundaries for the proposed South Village Historic District.

The following designated historic districts fall within the society's purview, followed by the year in which they were designated in parentheses:

See also

References
  1. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. "What they're saying about GVSHP". Retrieved 2014-07-09.
  2. Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. "Mission and History". Retrieved 2019-08-07.
  3. "New York City Makes Stonewall Inn a Landmark". The New York Times. June 24, 2015. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
  4. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. "Honors for GVSHP". Retrieved 2009-04-22.
  5. Preservation League of New York State. "PLNYS Award Recipients 2007". Archived from the original on 2013-09-01. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
  6. The New York Observer. "The 100 Most Powerful People in New York Real Estate". Retrieved 2009-04-22.
  7. "Introducing Village Preservation". Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  8. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. "GVSHP Milestones and Victories". Retrieved 2009-04-17.
  9. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. "Kid's Ed". Retrieved 2009-04-29.
  10. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. "Oral History Collection". Retrieved 2009-04-29.
  11. Spokony, Sam. "Community confronts park air rights issue as Cuomo O.K.'s bill". The Villager. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
  12. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. "New York University". Retrieved 2014-07-09.
  13. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. "Landmarks Application Webpage". Retrieved 2014-07-09.
  14. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. "Protecting the South Village". Retrieved 2014-07-09.
  15. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. "LPC Celebrates Gay Pride, Doesn't Designate Gay Landmarks". Retrieved 2014-07-09.
  16. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. "Preservation Can Help Affordability". Retrieved 2014-07-09.
  17. Amateau, Albert. "Society honors butcher, boats, bookstore, B.B.C., burial ground". The Villager. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
  18. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. "Greenwich Village Stories". Retrieved 2014-07-09.
  19. Epstein, Andrew. "New Frank O'Hara Plaque Unveiled in New York". Locus Solus: The New York School of Poets. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
  20. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. "Kid's Ed". Retrieved 2014-07-09.
  21. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. "Continuing Education". Retrieved 2014-07-09.
  22. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. "Oral History Collection". Retrieved 2014-07-09.
  23. "civil rights and social justice map". Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  24. "East Village Building Blocks". Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  25. "Greenwich Village Historic District, 1969-2019: Photos and Tours". Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  26. "Immersive Village History in your Pocket: Google Arts & Culture". Retrieved 7 August 2019.
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