Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation


The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation 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.
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. 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.
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. 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, such as the Preservation League of New York State's "Excellence in Historic Preservation Award" for organizational excellence, and Executive Director Andrew Berman's inclusion in The New York Observer's "The 100 Most Powerful People in New York Real Estate."

History

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation was founded in 1980 as the Greenwich Village Trust for Historic Preservation. 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
Throughout the 1980s, GVSHP initiated research on the history and architecture of Greenwich Village, including subjects like the Gansevoort Meat Market, 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. 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.
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.
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; 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.” The group consistently testifies before the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and monitors applications for alterations to protected buildings.

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. 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. As the Real Estate Board of New York has increasingly faulted preservation protections for New York City's housing affordability crisis, GVSHP has consistently rebutted those claims.
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.
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. 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.
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. A continuing education program for real estate professionals includes lectures, slide shows and walking tours on aspects of architecture, zoning, and planning history. 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 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

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.
Some of its more notable efforts include:
The following designated historic districts fall within the society's purview, followed by the year in which they were designated in parentheses: