2014 Year In Review: GVSHP Programs

As we near the end of 2014, we thought we’d look back on the several dozen exciting lectures, book talks, exhibitions, walking tours, forums, panels, and community meetings conducted by GVSHP over the past year.  All are shown on our Past Programs page, and many have links to video or photos of the events, in case you missed them or want to relive them.

Celebrating Holidays: Immigrants to Greenwich Village
A Presentation by the NYU Archives & Public History Program Master’s Degree Candidates

Co-sponsored by the NYU History Department

Wednesday, December 17
6:30 – 8:30 P.M.
Free; reservations required
The King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center at NYU
53 Washington Square South (West 4th Street), between Sullivan and Thompson Streets)

So many different ethnic immigrant groups have come to Greenwich Village and the East Village over the years. In many cases, we see them reflected in the architecture and in the place names. Of course each group brought with them language and culture from their place of origin, and many of those have been woven into our cultural fabric as well.

This program will focus on how different immigrant groups celebrated holidays. Three teams of graduate students from the NYU Archives & Public History Program have spent the semester studying and researching this topic, and they will present their findings in this lecture/slideshow.

GVSHP members-only program:  Historic Libraries of the West Village
A Walking Tour with NYPL’s John Bacon

Friday, December 12
10:00 A.M. – noon
Free; reservations required
Meeting location will be provided after reservation is confirmed
John Bacon, Director of Planned Giving at New York Public Library, and former GVSHP Trustee, will lead us on a walking tour to explore historic libraries in Greenwich Village. John has already led us on walking tours of sites in the East Village, but now the focus will be on the west side. We’ll wander from St. Luke’s Place to Jefferson Market to Jackson Square in this two-hour journey.

Of course John adds a lot of detail to his tours about all the places along the way from one library to the next. So you will be sure to learn a lot more than you already know about our beloved Greenwich Village. Be sure to wear comfortable shoes and dress appropriately for the weather.

Significant walking and standing are required, and space is extremely limited.

Dawn Powell – Portrait of an Often Overlooked Literary Great
A talk with historian John Joseph

Thursday, December 11
6:30 – 8:30 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Jefferson Market Library, Sixth Avenue at West 10th Street

Join archivist and NYC literary history junkie John Joseph for the story of an often overlooked literary great of the 20th century – Dawn Powell. Growing up in Ohio and relocating to Greenwich Village in the late 1910s, Powell wrote stories that chronicled the lives of Midwest transplants as they joined the migration of new bohemians making the Village their home.

John will talk about Powell’s days as a literary gadabout within the neighborhood that would always be a consistent character in her work and her life, while highlighting such legendary places as the Cedar Tavern and the El Faro Restaurant and the legendary writers and artists that frequented them.

Greenwich Village Stories:
The Art of Frederick Brosen
A slideshow and talk with the artist

Tuesday, December 9
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Theatre 80, 80 St. Marks Place, between 1st and 2nd Avenues
Frederick Brosen’s native New York is his primary subject as he celebrates the built environment – its architecture, monuments, and public spaces. He paints the city we know and love, inviting us in, to walk familiar streets with him and to appreciate the richness that we oftentimes miss.

Brosen’s take on New York is instantly appealing. With his brush he brings to life a myriad of urban detail to frame the stuff of our lives and return it to us as art. Some of his work is featured in our new book, Greenwich Village Stories, which will be available for purchase and signing.

[Frederick Brosen is represented by Hirschl & Adler Galleries.]

Community Meeting on Preserving & Protecting University Place/Broadway Corridors

Thursday, December 4
6:00 P.M.
Baha’i Center
53 East 11th Street (east of University Place)

Please join GVSHP for a public meeting we’re hosting about preserving the scale and character of the University Place and Broadway corridors, and protecting them from overdevelopment.

Plans have recently been announced to replace Bowlmor Lanes at University Place and 12th Street with a 23-story, 308 ft. tall residential tower — one of the tallest buildings ever constructed in the Village (NYU’s controversial “mega-dorm” erected a few years ago on 12th Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues is, by contrast, about 250 ft. tall). Sadly, this speaks to the almost total lack of landmark or zoning protections for the University Place and Broadway corridors (see MAP), where the zoning allows and encourages residential, hotel, and dorm towers even taller than the one planned for the Bowlmor site.

GVSHP has been in conversation with local elected officials and community leaders about potentially proposing and pursuing zoning changes for the area and an expansion of historic district and landmark protections. Zoning changes could reinforce the residential character of the neighborhood and limit the height, size, and scale of new development. Expanded landmark and historic district protections could help preserve existing historic buildings while requiring public hearings and approval by the Landmarks Preservation Commission for the design of any proposed changes, additions, demolition, or new construction within a designated area — protections which most of the rest of the Village currently enjoys (see MAP). The meeting on December 4th will allow for further conversation about what such proposals might look like, what they would do, and what would be involved in pursuing them.

Capturing the Disappearing Storefronts of Greenwich Village and the East Village
With photographers and authors James & Karla Murray

Tuesday, December 2
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Sixth Street Community Center,
638 East 6th Street, between Avenue B and Avenue C

East Village-based photographers and authors James and Karla Murray will share photographs and interviews from their books, STORE FRONT- The Disappearing Face of New York and NEW YORK NIGHTS, presenting an intimate view of mom-and-pop small businesses in Greenwich Village and the East Village.  Their beautiful storefront images and proprietors’ stories reveal how neighborhood stores help set the pulse, life, and texture of their communities.  Since they began their project in 2001, over half of their subjects have closed, and many more have been threatened with closure in recent months.

James and Karla Murray have been photographing the streets of New York for years. Their work has been exhibited at the Brooklyn Historical Society and Clic Gallery, and has appeared in group shows at the New-York Historical Society. Their photographs are included in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, the New York Public Library, and the Brooklyn Historical Society.

Both books will be available for purchase and signing.

Point of View New York City
A book talk with Janko Puls

Monday, November 17
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Salmagundi Club, 47 5th Avenue, near 12th Street

Upon moving to the East Village in 2006, Janko Puls quickly realized that New York City was changing faster than he could get to know it. Being a photographer, it was natural for him to use his camera as a tool towards understanding and documenting the city around him. He began taking photos from unusual angles or catching some easily missed architectural element. The results not only offered a profound perspective on a locale, but playfully challenged the viewer’s understanding of it.

Collected in the new book Point of View New York City, these images form the map of “The City” that the author has created from his explorations. From this he offers an illustrated lecture that will describe his creative process and invite the audience to join in the riddle game he has created through his photography.

Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing.

Town Hall to Save Charas / PS 64
A rally to save the historic building and former community center

Monday, November 17
6:30 – 8:30 P.M.
Free
Casa Victoria Community Room
308 East 8th Street, between Avenue B and Avenue C

Join Council member Rosie Mendez and elected officials, neighbors, activists, and community organizations in an important discussion about the status of former P.S. 64 at 605 East 9th Street and organize to return the building to community use!

Sponsored by: SOCCC-64; Charas, Inc; East Village Community Coalition; 9BC Tompkins Square Block Association; Time’s Up; CB3 Manhattan; La Plaza Cultural de Armando Perez; Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space; Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation; Save Cooper Union; Cooper Square Committee and Cooper Square MHA.

Eating Fire
A book talk with Kelly Cogswell

Wednesday, November 12
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Hudson Park Library, 66 Leroy Street
(Between Hudson Street and 7th Avenue South)

Kelly Cogswell set out from Kentucky armed only with an electric typewriter, a stack of poems, and willingness to do the bare minimum as a maid, dishwasher, prep cook and temporary secretary.

In New York, following an unscheduled (and naked) performance that stunned the NYU Department of Performance Studies, she decided to put her Medusa-like powers to good use, first as a lesbian activist, and later, as an independent journalist and monger of extremely underground art.

Now, a twenty year resident of 1st Street, Kelly Cogswell will present her new book Eating Fire: My Life as a Lesbian Avenger, spanning the twenty years from the culture wars to the war on terror. She will focus in particular on the importance of neighborhood to that pioneering group born in 1992 from the queer arts and activist scene of the East Village.

Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing.

Hidden History of the Progressive East Village
A Walking Tour with Sheryl Woodruff

This program has reached capacity and we are no longer accepting reservations.

Saturday, November 8 (re-scheduled from 11/1)
1:00 – 3:00- P.M.
Free; reservations required
Meeting location will be provided after reservation is confirmed

Join GVSHP staff member Sheryl Woodruff as she leads a walking tour of the East Village, stopping at sites that reveal the neighborhood’s contributions to activism, reform, and social change. The walk will focus on some of the men and women who have consciously—and sometimes through chance—contributed to the neighborhood’s progressive history. We’ll explore both well-known contributors to our shared past and the contributions of those lost to the historical record. Stops will include, among others, Webster Hall, the First Street Community Garden, and the Sixth Street Community Synagogue.

We’ll be walking outdoors for 2 hours, so please wear weather-appropriate clothing and footwear, and it’s a good idea to bring a bottle of water with you.

Greenwich Village in the 1960s:
The Photography of Robert Otter

This program is at capacity and we are no longer accepting reservations.

Monday, November 3rd
6:30 – 8:30 PM
King Juan Carlos Center
53 Washington Square South
Free; reservations required at rsvp@gvshp.org

He made his living as a commercial photographer, but his soul yearned for something more… Robert (Bob) Otter captured Greenwich Village unlike any other photographer of his era. He was a native New Yorker as well as a Village resident, and preserved the neighborhood through his masterful imagery: a vibrant, bohemian community perceived by many as the “eye of the hurricane” that was the Sixties. A haven for an unusual assortment of artists, families, counter-culture types, philosophers, working folks, and various oddballs, Otter’s lens caught it all. His photographs were recently featured in GVSHP’s Greenwich Village Stories, a collection of vignettes and images by Villagers about the Village.

More than ten years after the introduction of Otter’s photographic collection to the public, rare treasures of historic Greenwich Village continue to be unearthed. His son, Ned Otter, who archived the collection, will present a slide lecture that explores both newly discovered and iconic images of Otter’s 1960s Greenwich Village.

Robert Otter prints and copies of Greenwich Village Stories will be available for sale.

If you’d like to purchase a copy of Greenwich Village Stories now, click here

Commemorate the Fillmore East!
Plaque Unveiling and Celebration

Wednesday, October 29
5:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
105 Second Avenue at East 6th Street
Please join GVSHP, Two Boots and Apple Bank to unveil a historic plaque marking the site of the Fillmore East, the beloved concert hall that filled this corner with music from 1968-1971.  The building is located in the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District. The event will include appearances by guitarist Lenny Kaye and Joshua White, founder of the Joshua Light Show, which splashed the concert hall with psychedelic color.

Despite its brief life, the Fillmore East is remembered with tremendous affection by both the artists who played there and the concertgoers who enjoyed it, as a place of warmth, spirit, innovation and the finest popular music.  The great impresario Bill Graham opened the hall as a sibling to his Fillmore West in San Francisco, and brought in performers including The Doors, B.B. King, Roberta Flack, The Byrds, Richie Havens, Taj Mahal, Jefferson Airplane, Pink Floyd, Joan Baez, Jeff Beck, the Staple Singers, and many more.

The building was a destination for entertainment both before and after the Fillmore East. It opened in 1926 as a Yiddish theater, soon becoming the Loew’s Commodore movie house, followed by the Village Theater.  In the 1980s it was the trendsetting gay nightclub The Saint, becoming Emigrant Bank in 1995, and Apple Bank in 2013.  While the façade retains much of its original Medieval Revival style, the rear of the building, which housed the auditorium, was demolished and replaced by the Fillmore apartment building in 1997.

Water Works!
A history of the New York City water supply with Gina Pollara

This program has reached capacity and we are no longer accepting reservations.

Tuesday, October 28
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Hudson Park Library, 66 Leroy Street (Between Hudson Street and 7th Avenue South)

The early residents of Greenwich Village relied on rain water, wells, and a few fresh-water streams such as Minetta Brook for their drinking water. But the creation of the New York City municipal water supply was a turning point in the development of this great city.

Join Gina Pollara, co-editor of the book Water-Works: The Architecture and Engineering of the New York City Water Supply for the fascinating story of this massive construction project that led to a reliable source of clean drinking water for New York. In particular, we will look at how this affected architecture throughout the Village – in buildings we can still see today, thanks in many cases to historic preservation.

Members-only program – A visit to the Morris-Jumel Mansion

Tuesday, October 21
2:00 – 3:30 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Meeting location provided after reservation is confirmed

Greenwich Village has the Washington Square Arch, but in the fall of 1776 General George Washington located his military headquarters in a mansion in present-day Washington Heights.  The Morris-Jumel Mansion was built by British Colonel Roger Morris in 1765. He and his wealthy American wife, Mary Philipse Morris, used it as a summer country house, but fled when the American Revolution began. Washington chose this property for its strategic view of lower Manhattan, the Hudson River, the Bronx, Westchester, Long Island Sound and the Harlem River.

Stephen Jumel and his wife Eliza purchased the house in 1810. Stephen Jumel died in 1832 and the following year Eliza married former Vice-President Aaron Burr. The city of New York acquired the property in 1903.

The staff of Morris-Jumel Mansion will lead us on a guided tour of the house and property.
Space is limited and there will be significant walking and standing.

Footprints in New York
with authors James and Michelle Nevius

This program has reached capacity and we are no longer accepting reservations.

Monday, October 13
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Washington Square Institute
41 East 11th Street between Broadway and University Place

Join authors and noted tour guides James and Michelle Nevius for a presentation on their latest book, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers. In a talk illustrated with vintage photos and old maps, James and Michelle will focus on the stories in Footprints in New York that are connected to Greenwich Village, from Peter Stuyvesant’s bowery to Bob Dylan’s MacDougal Street.

One part history, one part urban exploration, Footprints in New York follows in the steps of such dynamic Village residents as Edgar Allan Poe, Gertrude Tredwell (of the Merchant’s House Museum), Henry James, John Reed, and many more.

The authors will take audience questions, and books will be available for purchase and signing following the talk.

Greenmarkets
A presentation by Barry Benepe
Co-sponsored by GrowNYC

Tuesday, October 7
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Church of St. Brigid, Avenue B at East 8th Street

In 1976, planner and architect Barry Benepe co-founded the Greenmarket program in New York City with a fellow planner, Bob Lewis.  Their open air markets offered a solution to two pressing problems: regional farmers were struggling to make a living and losing farmland to development, and New York City consumers had a hard time finding good, fresh produce.

Barry will join us to discuss the history and development of several iconic open air farmers markets in and around Greenwich Village, including the Union Square Greenmarket, Tompkins Square Greenmarket and the Saint Mark’s Church Greenmarket.

Tompkins Square Park:  From Bouwerie to Greenmarket
A pop-up exhibit

Sunday, September 28 and Sunday, October 5
11:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Tompkins Square Park Greenmarket, at Avenue A and East 7th Street; Free

Join the East Village Parks Conservancy, GrowNYC and GVSHP as we explore the history of Tompkins Square Park in images, from its location on the Bouwerie (or farm) of Peter Stuyvesant through today, where a vibrant market sets up shop every Sunday, selling produce, providing composting, and collecting recyclables. Images will explore the Park’s historic development, the site’s history as a place of revolt, and the Greenmarket past and present. Drop by during Greenmarket hours, peruse this pop-up exhibit, shop the bounty of the market, and enjoy some samples straight from the farms.  Representatives from GrowNYC and the GVSHP will also be available throughout the day.

The East Village Parks Conservancy is a volunteer community-based organization committed to the restoration, care and expansion of green spaces in the East Village of New York City.

GrowNYC is a hands-on non-profit which improves New York City’s quality of life through environmental programs that transform communities block by block and empower all New Yorkers to secure a clean and healthy environment for future generations.

My Great Great Aunt Rose of the Lower East Side
A Family Story by Kate Pastor

Thursday, October 2
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Jefferson Market Library, 6th Avenue at 10th Street

“Cinderella of the Sweatshops.” “Rose of the Ghetto.” “The Socialist Socialite.”

Before Rose Pastor Stokes was so-named, she rolled stogies in an Ohio factory and wrote letters to the Jewish Daily News between and during shifts. She was hired as a reporter and moved to New York’s Lower East Side, marrying a rich philanthropist she had interviewed for a story. But this was no fairytale.

When a newspaper reported that she had been arrested, it added the word “again.” She was as stoic when being convicted of violating the Espionage Act as she had been gushing in her girlish adoration of her husband-to-be.

Kate Pastor, a Bronx-based journalist, will explore the life of this socialist, feminist activist — also known as Aunt Rose — with this lecture/slideshow.

OMG!:  Churches and Synagogues of Greenwich Village
Shrine Church of St. Anthony of Padua
A lecture by Father Joseph Lorenzo, O.F. M.

Thursday, September 25
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Shrine Church of St. Anthony of Padua
154 Sullivan Street (corner of West Houston Street)
The Shrine Church of Saint Anthony of Padua on West Houston and Sullivan Streets in the South Village stands proudly as the first Italian parish in New York State, the second Italian parish founded in the United States, the oldest existing Italian parish in the U.S. and the first parish church building built by Italian immigrants in the United States. Saint Anthony’s has been popularly called “The Italian Cathedral” and has appeared in movies such as “The Pope of Greenwich Village,” “Godfather II,” and “Moonstruck.”

Join Father Joseph F. Lorenzo, O.F.M., Pastor, for an evening of history and historic images and artifacts as we present the latest installment of our series “OMG! Churches and Synagogues of Greenwich Village.”

The Story of Caffé Cino
A talk and book reading with Magie Dominic

This program has already reached capacity and we are no longer accepting reservations.

Thursday, September 18
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Jefferson Market Library, 6th Avenue at West 10th Street
Joe Cino was proprietor of the Caffé Cino, located at 31 Cornelia Street, from 1958 to 1968. Despite not having a theater or cabaret license, Cino enthusiastically provided a venue for emerging playwrights and performers to hone their craft and bring new works to an audience, at a time when venues were not available. Lanford Wilson, Sam Shepard, John Guare, Tom Eyen and Bernadette Peters are just a few of the people who are a part of Caffé Cino history.

Magie Dominic, a writer and artist who performed and was an assistant director at Caffé Cino in the 1960’s, will share her experiences at the legendary place commonly referred to as the birthplace of Off-Off-Broadway theater. In 2011, she donated a treasure trove of Caffé Cino memorabilia to the NYPL’s Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center and established The Magie Dominic Caffé Cino Archives. She will also read from her just released book, Street Angel.

Affordable Housing / Historic Preservation: A Roundtable Discussion
Presented by Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, Historic Districts Council, & The New School Center for New York City Affairs Article in The Villager:

This program is already at capacity and we can no longer accept reservations.

Tuesday, September 16
6:00 P.M.
Theresa Lang Community and Student Center
Arnhold Hall, 2nd Floor
55 West 13th Street, Room I202
Free; reservations required

The affordable housing crisis in New York has impacted the entire city. As activists concerned with maintaining and nourishing New York City’s diverse neighborhoods, we ask you to join us in taking back this important public conversation about affordable housing and neighborhood preservation from the real estate lobbyists.

Speakers:

• Councilmember Rosie Mendez, former Chair of the NYC Council Public Housing Committee
• Hon. Gale Brewer Manhattan Borough President
• Harvey Epstein Project Director of the Community Development Project of the Urban Justice Center and NYC Rent Guidelines Board Member
• Nadine Maleh Director of the Inspiring Places program at Community Solutions
• Rachel Meltzer Assistant Professor of Urban Policy at The New School

Moderated by:

• Andrew Berman, Executive Director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

To watch the live stream of this event, visit here.

If you can’t attend, you can tweet in questions to the panelists – send them to @gvshp, using the #AffHsngPrez. 

For questions, contact bharmon@hdc.org

Community Co-Sponsors:Friends of Sunset Park Ron Schweiger, Brooklyn Borough Historian Coalition To Save The East Village Morningside Heights Historic District Committee Friends of Brook Park Bowery Alliance of Neighbors Fort Independence Park Neighborhood Association Fiske Terrace Association Sunnyside Gardens Preservation Alliance WE ACT for Environmental Justice

Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy Friends of Petrosino Square Friends of West Park Crown Heights North Association Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts Prospect Park East Network 10th & Stuyvesant Streets Block Association Flatbush Development Corporation Greenwich Village Community Task Force Murray Hill Neighborhood Association Lefferts Manor Association Hamilton Heights – West Harlem Community Preservation Organization

404 East 14th Street and the East Village Art Scene
A slideshow and talk with Tom Burckhardt

Tuesday, September 9
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Theatre 80, 80 St. Marks Place

The building at 404 East 14th Street began its life as a factory and a warehouse before being converted in the mid-1960s to one of New York’s first “artist loft” buildings. Among the early tenants were Claes Oldenburg & Patty Mucha, Larry Rivers, Yayoi Kusama, On Kawara, John Chamberlain, and Herb Aach. Even poet Allen Ginsberg lived here for a short time.

Artist and resident Tom Burckhardt, who last summer organized a show for Tibor de Nagy Gallery of the building’s artist-residents, will present a slideshow and discussion of the microcosm art scene of fifty years at this one special address.

New York 1969
A book talk with Richard Blair

Thursday, September 4
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Washington Square Institute
41 East 11th Street, between Broadway and University Place
The 1960s were a time of great change. Richard Blair was wandering the streets of New York, taking dramatic photos, while his father, poet Ed Blair, was living with the Beats in the East Village, performing in off-off Broadway plays and reading his poetry to the avant-garde.

In the new book, New York 1969 the father’s poems and the son’s photographs are paired in a loving collaboration that emphasizes what they had in common: a love and respect for the common man, whimsy and humor, and a subtle underlying sense of the blues.

Richard Blair will share readings and images from the book, which will be available for purchase and signing.

Historic East Village Libraries – & more!
A members-only walking tour with NYPL’s John Bacon

Free; reservations required
Friday, August 22 (rain date Friday, August 29)
10 A.M – noon
Meeting location will be provided after reservation is confirmed.

While the iconic Jefferson Market Library in the West Village is well known to preservationists, this tour will focus on historic libraries, both past and present, in the East Village.

John Bacon, former GVSHP trustee and Director of Planned Giving at NYPL, will lead us on an exploration of 3 historic libraries and many other sights along the way.

Our tour will conclude at the Ottendorfer Library on Second Avenue which is the City’s oldest free public library, having opened in 1884, a full decade before NYPL itself was chartered.

Space is limited; significant walking and standing.

Looking Back and Looking Ahead:
The State of Preservation with GVSHP Executive Director Andrew Berman

Monday, August 18
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Salmagundi Club, 47 5th Avenue, near 12th Street
GVSHP’s Executive Director Andrew Berman will guide us through a survey of recent preservation victories in the Village, East Village, and NoHo – what’s been landmarked, what’s been downzoned, what’s been saved, and what’s been stopped – as well as the main challenges currently facing preservation efforts in our neighborhoods.

We’ll look at the dozen new historic districts in the Village, East Village, and NoHo and the dozens of new individual landmarks, as well as the nearly one hundred blocks that have been downzoned.  We’ll also look at areas like University Place and Broadway, the Greenwich Village waterfront, the southern end of the South Village, and much of the East Village, that still face danger from a lack of landmark and zoning protections.  We’ll discuss the latest on Hudson River Park air rights plans and attacks by the Real Estate Board of New York on the landmarking process.

And we’ll look at new plans and proposals for new historic districts in the East Village, rezonings in the South Village, and caps on air rights transfers in the Far West Village to see what can be done to protect these areas.  Questions and answers will follow.

Family Life on the Lower East Side
Photos by John Milisenda

Tuesday, August 12
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Sixth Street Community Center,
638 East 6th Street between Avenue B and Avenue C

John Milisenda grew up in the East Village/Lower East Side and has been photographing his neighborhood and his family for 50 years. For a GVSHP program in March, he showed a collection of his photos featuring images of his school friends and others in the neighborhood. Many wanted to see more, so we are pleased that John could offer this new collection of photographs of his mother, father and developmentally disabled brother, showing a unique perspective of one family’s life in the neighborhood.

John’s photography has appeared in over 130 shows. He has taught photography at Drexel University, the New School For Social Research, and Parsons School of Design. His photographs are in many collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New Orleans Museum of Modern Art and the Harry Ransom Museum. He has received numerous grants and awards including a National Endowment of the Arts Award.

Historic Preservation, Meet Restaurant Preservation
A panel discussion moderated by GVSHP’s Karen Loew

Tuesday, August 5
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South

There are restaurants, bars, and food shops we all miss. From University Diner to Rocco Ristorante, Holiday Cocktail Lounge to Havana Chelsea – and next up, Union Square Café – insert your heartache here. Can we stanch the bleeding? In London, San Francisco, and Barcelona, people are trying to preserve “uses” as well as architecture. Maybe New York City will be next to create a model for small business preservation.

Join food, real estate and retail experts for a panel discussion on the issues and possible solutions. We’ll hear from Eater.com restaurant critic Robert Sietsema, who proposed this preservation plan, plus former New York Times restaurant critic and longtime Villager Mimi Sheraton, Columbia University assistant professor of urban planning Stacey Sutton, and Tower Brokerage president Robert Perl. We’ll look at all sides of the issue, from rent hikes to owner retirement, to explore what can be done to save our favorite cafes and bars: our hangouts, our clubhouses, the places that feed our souls as well as our stomachs.

Edna St. Vincent Millay: From City Lights to Simple Stone

Wednesday, July 30
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Jefferson Market Library, Sixth Avenue at West 10th Street

This program is already at capacity and we can no longer accept reservations.

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950), recipient of the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, was a daring, versatile writer who lived in Greenwich Village in the early 1920’s.  Her poems about social equality and personal freedom brought new hope to a generation of youth disillusioned by the social and political upheaval of the First World War.  Her work adds a vibrant personal dimension to the era’s social history by illuminating the bohemian lifestyle she and her friends enjoyed.

Holly Peppe, Millay’s Literary Executor, and Mark O’Berski, Vice President of the Millay Society, will present an illustrated talk about Millay’s life and career from her early days in the Village to her country life at Steepletop in Austerlitz, NY, where her house and gardens are now open for visitors. Dr. Peppe, who edited the Penguin and Harper’s editions of Millay’s poems, will also share stories about her friendship with the poet’s sister and include selected readings from the poet’s work.

Information about Steepletop, Edna St. Vincent Millay’s country home, will be available. Steepletop is open to visitors and is an ideal location for a scenic day trip from New York City.

Walking Tour of East Village Community Gardens
Co-sponsored by Green Guerillas
So popular, we’re doing it again! But space is extremely limited.

This program is already at capacity and we can no longer accept reservations.

Saturday, July 26
Noon – 2:00 P.M
Free; reservations required
Location will be provided after reservation is confirmed

Join us on a tour of distinct community gardens that showcase the plants, people, and cultures that make these East Village oases such a vital part of the fabric of the neighborhood. Learn about the history, maintenance, and importance of these gardens, and also meet the gardeners who make it possible to enjoy their beauty.

About Green Guerillas: Green Guerillas uses a unique mix of education, organizing and advocacy to help people cultivate community gardens, sustain grassroots groups, grow food, engage youth, and address issues critical to the future of their gardens. As community garden leaders serve their communities and act as catalysts for community change, they face organizing and organizational challenges that can be daunting. Green Guerillas helps them take on these challenges and cultivate community all year long. Green Guerillas helps garden leaders reach out to their neighbors, recruit new members, create group structures, organize events, and make important alliances with each other and with other grassroots groups in their neighborhoods.

This is a 2-hour walking tour, please wear comfortable shoes and weather-appropriate clothing. You should bring water to stay hydrated. We will be on our feet the entire time!

The Story of Sanitation on the Hudson River
A talk with Dr. Robin Nagle, anthropologist-in-residence NYC Department of Sanitation

Thursday, July 17
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
NYU Lecture Hall, 13-19 University Place, just below 8th Street

Dr. Robin Nagle is author of the book Picking Up: On the Streets and Behind the Trucks With the Sanitation Workers of New York City. She has presented programs for GVSHP on the history of sanitation and snow removal.

The facilities on Pier 52, located on the Gansevoort Peninsula near 14th Street, are currently operated by the New York City Department of Sanitation, and are not part of the current Hudson River Park. But once there was a 13th Avenue running along the Hudson River, and an entire additional blockfront along the waterfront of which this peninsula is the sole surviving element.

Dr. Nagle will explore the history of this area, its current use, and discuss plans for the future.

Metamorphosis
Photos of Gansevoort Market / Meatpacking District by Brian Rose

Wednesday, July 9
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Washington Square Institute
41 East 11th Street, near University Place

In the winter of 1985 Brian Rose spent several days wandering the streets of the Meatpacking District with his 4×5 view camera. It was different city then; edgier and less peopled. While the Meatpacking District bustled in the early morning hours as the city’s primary meat market, it slumbered, almost abandoned, during the day.  He never printed those photographs of the Meatpacking District, and went on to other projects. But last year he retrieved the box of negatives from his archive and began scanning. He was stunned to rediscover these images, made with little artifice, unforced in their clarity. It was like looking at New York as a stage set while the actors were away taking a break.

In the summer and fall of last year he re-photographed the Meatpacking District, repeating many of the earlier images and making a number of new ones. The result is this new book, Metamorphosis, that shows the profound transformation of the neighborhood. Books will be available for purchase and signing.

Stonewall 45: Windows into LGBT History
An exhibition in storefront windows along Christopher Street between
Greenwich Street and Greenwich Avenue

June 16th to the 29th

Co-sponsored by the Arcus Foundation

June is LGBT Pride and History Month, and GVSHP is proud to co-sponsor this educational exhibit in more than two dozen storefronts along Christopher Street – a street which, like Greenwich Village, played a crucial role for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community and its struggle for equality.

Stonewall 45 is made up of panels that combine text and imagery to tell the story of the Stonewall Riots and their significance: the context of anti-LGBT discrimination in the 1960s; the actual events of June, 1969; and the political response that Stonewall unleashed, which has now earned its place in history.

Produced by Susanna Aaron and designed by Janean Lesyk, the text on the two dozen displays is written by David Carter, author of Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution. Each includes photos, newspaper clippings, and historic visual documentation that tell the story of the struggle for LGBT rights across the country up to, including, and in the wake of the Stonewall Riots.  A website, stonewall45.org, will go live starting June 16.

Exhibition guides will be available in all of the participating shops.  At a time when hundreds of thousands will be coming to New York for annual LGBT Pride celebrations, Stonewall 45 will educate visitors and locals alike about the shared history which brought us to this point, and invite everyone to take a closer look at Christopher Street and its merchants.

Read press coverage in The Advocate and The Villager.

Fighting Westway
Environmental Law, Citizen Activism, and the Regulatory War that Transformed New York City
A book talk with author William W. Buzbee

Tuesday, June 24
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Westbeth Community Room
55 Bethune Street
or enter on Bank Street between West Street and Washington Street

William W. Buzbee is a professor of law who is joining Georgetown’s law school next year.  He is currently the director of the Emory Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program, and regularly assists with environmental and regulatory matters in courts, Congress, and agencies.   He teaches environmental law, administrative law, legislation and regulation, and seminars on environmental, regulatory, and constitutional law subjects. His new book, Fighting Westway: Environmental Law, Citizen Activism, and the Regulatory War that Transformed New York City was recently published by Cornell University Press.

Of Fighting Westway, John H. Adams, Founding Director of Natural Resources Defense Council and co-author of A Force for Nature said,“Finally! The first thorough, truthful account of one of the great environmental battles of the twentieth century! William W. Buzbee captures in rigorous detail the successful fight a group of dedicated citizens waged against the major economic and political powers of the day. Westway was a victory for honesty, principle, and the rule of law. Long live the Clean Water Act and the Hudson River striped bass!”

GVSHP Brokers Partnership
Celebrate the richness of the South Village & Washington Square Park

Monday, June 23
5:30 – 7:45 P.M.

SOLD OUT!

End your day enjoying a glass of wine and hors d’oeuvres in the solarium garden of La Lanterna di Vittorio, a third generation beloved, Italian restaurant. Learn about this historical eatery and meet the family.

Afterwards, depart for a tour of Washington Square Park and the South Village…Do you know what event the Washington Square Arch commemorates or who’s buried at Washington Square Park?

On the South Village and Washington Square Park Tour, learn interesting facts that every broker ought to know in a fun, enjoyable evening.

The 34th GVSHP Annual Meeting and Presentation of the Village Awards
Co-sponsored by The New School

Monday, June 16
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
The Auditorium at The New School
66 West 12th Street

This special evening will look back on GVSHP’s work over the last year to protect the architectural heritage and cultural history of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo. Current GVSHP members will vote on a slate of new and renewing trustees.

The Village Awards were established 23 years ago to honor the people, businesses, and organizations that help to make our neighborhoods so special. All are welcome to join the awards ceremony at the Auditorium at The New School, a beautiful interior New York City landmark.

This year’s honorees were selected by a committee of GVSHP Trustees, past honorees, and community leaders:

LaMaMa
New York Central Art Supply
New York Marble Cemetery, Inc.
Pino Prime Meats
Unoppressive Non-Imperialist Bargain Books
Village Community Boathouse
& Kathy Donaldson (Regina Kellerman Award)

Congratulations to all awardees!

OMG!: Churches and Synagogues of Greenwich Village
St. John’s Lutheran Church

Thursday, June 12
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
St. John’s Lutheran Church
81 Christopher Street

St. John ’s Lutheran Church at 81 Christopher Street has been a fixture of the West Village since 1821. Religious worship on the site dates back even further than that.

Join us for an evening to explore the history of this site. St. John’s was the location of the first Lutheran seminary in America, housed three different congregations over the years, and was the headquarters of the local Saint George Association, among other interesting facets of its history. Current and historic images of the church will be featured at the talk, as well as a piece of art displayed at the 1964 World’s Fair.

The evening will be led by the current pastor of St. John’s, the Rev. Mark Erson.

GVSHP and Two Boots present
Frank O’Hara Lived Here:
Historic Plaque Unveiling and Community Celebration
at the Former Residence of Frank O’Hara, 441 East 9th Street
Co-sponsored by The Poetry Project

Tuesday, June 10
starting at 6:00 P.M.
Open to all, but RSVPs requested 

Frank O’Hara (1926-1966), a leader of the “New York School” of poets, was born in Baltimore and grew up in Massachusetts, but the place he is associated with most is New York City. His two dozen volumes of poetry, prose and plays are suffused with the city — as well as with art and artists, as O’Hara was also an art critic and a curator at the Museum of Modern Art.

He lived in several locations downtown, but it was here, on the edge of Tompkins Square Park, that he “probably reached the high point in his writing, both in productivity and quality,” wrote Joe LeSueur, who shared the apartment with O’Hara.

GVSHP and Two Boots continue their semi-annual program of plaque placement in the East and West Villages with the unveiling of a plaque honoring O’Hara at his residence from 1959 to 1963. Join us for readings by poets Tony Towle, who knew O’Hara, and Edmund Berrigan, plus other festivities.

Palaces for the People: Guastavino and the Art of Structural Tile
GVSHP Members-only program
co-sponsored by the Museum of the City of New York

This program is already at capacity and we can no longer accept reservations.

Monday, June 2
2:30 – 3:30 P.M..
Free; reservations required
Museum of the City of New York
1220 Fifth Avenue

Throughout the five boroughs are more than 200 marvels of engineering and architectural beauty—the interlocking tile vaults built by Spanish immigrants Rafael Guastavino, Sr. (1842-1908), and his son, Rafael Jr. (1872-1950). The system of structural tile vaults developed by the Guastavinos—lightweight, fireproof, low-maintenance, and capable of supporting significant loads—was used by architects including McKim, Mead & White and Carrere &Hastings. Carnegie Hall, the Bronx Zoo’s Elephant House, and Grand Central Terminal all contain Guastavino vaults.

Palaces for the People: Guastavino and the Art of Structural Tile is a major exhibition exploring the innovations the Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company (1889-1962) brought to the science and art of building. It was originally organized by MIT’s John Ochsendorf, who is a MacArthur Fellow; it is substantially expanded here to include some 20 key Guastavino spaces in the five boroughs.

MCNY staff will take GVSHP members on a private guided tour of this special exhibition.Space is extremely limited.

The Shape of Jazz to Come: Downtown Jazz in 1959 and Now
Co-sponsored by The New School for Public Engagement
Part of Lower East Side History Month

Wednesday, May 28
6:30 – 8:30 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Theresa Lang Community and Student Center at The New School
55 West 13th Street, 2nd Floor

In the 1950s and 60s, the Five Spot Café (in two locations on Cooper Square) was a major nexus, not only of top-notch jazz, but also of racial integration and artistic ferment. Leonard Bernstein, James Baldwin and Norman Mailer were all in the mix alongside Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus and John Coltrane. When saxophonist Ornette Coleman and his band played for several weeks in 1959, they disrupted the scene’s social status quo as well as altering the sound of jazz. What is the downtown jazz scene like today – are there any parallels?

This promises to be a fascinating conversation at the crossroads of sociology and musicology, with a performance by the Ornette Coleman Ensemble of the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, directed by Jane Ira Bloom. The Ornette Coleman Ensemble features: Allison Philips, trumpet; Alex Silver, tenor saxophone; Idan Morim, guitar; Antonio Mazzei Ocampo, piano; Daniel Durst, bass; Michael Dei Cont; bass; and Carter Bales, drums.

GVSHP’s Karen Loew will moderate a panel discussion with David Lee, author of The Battle of the Five Spot: Ornette Coleman and the New York Jazz Field; Stacy Dillard, saxophonist and composer; and jazz critic Howard Mandel. Lee will also sign and sell his books.

Chalk Up The East Village-Lower East Side!
Part of Lower East Side History Month

This program is already at capacity and we can no longer accept reservations.

Saturday, May 24
1:00 – 3:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Meet at the Neighborhood Preservation Center
232 East 11th Street

In honor of Lower East Side History Month, join GVSHP staffers as we fan out into the neighborhood and literally write the history of the neighborhood on the sidewalks. We’ll visit some of the East Village’s coolest landmarks, residences, and businesses and leave a memento (in chalk) of some of what we learned.

This walking tour is one of the many events of the inaugural Lower East Side History Month, an annual celebration of the rich, diverse history of New York City’s Lower East Side. Conceived and launched by LES-based cultural and community groups, LES History Month aims to connect our present to our past, exploring how our history can inform and inspire our future.

A Walking Tour of East Village Community Gardens
co-sponsored by Green Guerillas

This program is already at capacity and we can no longer accept reservations.

Saturday, May 17
11:00 A.M.– 1:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Meeting location provided after registration

Join us on a tour of distinct community gardens that showcase the plants, people, and cultures that make these East Village oases such a vital part of the fabric of the neighborhood. Learn about the history, maintenance, and importance of these gardens, and also meet the gardeners who make it possible to enjoy their beauty.

About Green Guerillas: Green Guerillas uses a unique mix of education, organizing and advocacy to help people cultivate community gardens, sustain grassroots groups, grow food, engage youth, and address issues critical to the future of their gardens. As community garden leaders serve their communities and act as catalysts for community change, they face organizing and organizational challenges that can be daunting. Green Guerillas helps them take on these challenges and cultivate community all year long. Green Guerillas helps garden leaders reach out to their neighbors, recruit new members, create group structures, organize events, and make important alliances with each other and with other grassroots groups in their neighborhoods.

Jews: A People’s History of the Lower East Side
A panel discussion and readings from Clayton Patterson’s
book, Volume 3

Co-sponsored by the Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy

Part of Lower East Side History Month

Tuesday, May 13
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Sixth Street Community Center
638 East 6th Street, between Avenues B and C

Join our panel of writers and editors, including Clayton Patterson, Eddy Portnoy, Elissa Sampson, Gerri Visco, and Thomas Walker for Jews: A People’s History of the Lower East Side, for a discussion of the book and its contributions to the field. An essential history of the great Jewish wave of immigration to Manhattan’s Lower East Side, this 3-volume book covers art, literature, food, religion, and so much more.

Topics slated for discussion with this panel include the Stanton Street Shul, Julian Beck and The Living Theatre, Cartoon Jews, Dr. Dave, Mosaic Tattoos, and more. Books will be available for purchase and signing.

To register, please call (212) 475-9585 ext. 35 or email.

Greenwich Village Stories book events:

OMG!: Churches and Synagogues of Greenwich Village
First Presbyterian Church

This program is already at capacity and we can no longer accept reservations.

Monday, April 28
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
First Presbyterian Church, Parlor
West 12th Street at 5th Avenue

As First Presbyterian Church begins celebration of its 300th anniversary – and 170 years in the Village – join church archivist and historian David Pultz for a presentation of the long and colorful history of this venerable Village institution.

With humble beginnings as a Presbyterian Meeting House on Wall Street in 1719, First Presbyterian steadily grew during the Colonial period.  Known as the “Church of the Patriots,” the congregation supported the America Revolution, as did its most famous pastor of the period, Rev. John Rodgers.  In the post-colonial period Rodgers supported progressive causes and organizations such as the anti-slavery Manumission Society.

As Wall Street became increasingly commercialized in the early 19th century, the church moved north in 1846 to newly developed property along Fifth Avenue between 11th and 12th streets. The decades that followed firmly established the church as an important voice within the neighborhood, featuring many talented, erudite and often controversial preachers such as the progressive and immensely popular Harry Emerson Fosdick.

Drawing upon a vast repository of the church’s archival holdings, Mr. Pultz will present a narrative in rich visuals of the long and prominent place it holds within the history of New York City.

GVSHP Members-Only Program: Reading with musician Lenny Kaye and performance artist Penny Arcade

Co-sponsored by Writers Room

April 16th at 7:00 P.M. at Writers Room
740 Broadway at Astor Place, 12th floor
Free; reservations required
Note: This program is open to GVSHP members only
Not a member? Join today!

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation will continue a series of readings of our new book, Greenwich Village Stories at The Writers Room. The reading will feature Lenny Kaye, renowned musician, songwriter, music producer, critic, and author, who has performed and recorded with Patti Smith since 1974, and celebrated performance artist Penny Arcade, who is also a playwright, director, actor, and a founder of the Lower East Side Biography Project. This event is for GVSHP members only.
Listen to Penny Arcade and Lenny Kaye recount their memories of the Village, from Penny’s wonderment as she first set eyes on it as a sixteen-year-old, to Lenny’s description of walking through the Village when Coltrane held court at the Vanguard and music was everywhere. Following the reading, Lenny Kaye and Penny Arcade will participate in a Q&A.
While at the event, discover The Writers Room, an organization that provides more than 200 writers with a quiet, affordable place in which to work in the Village. In addition to workspace, The Writers Room offers a reference and research library, seminars and workshops on subjects of interest to members, and readings of members’ works.

Developing an Opera about Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses
Composer Judd Greenstein and director Joshua Frankel discuss the process of creating their new opera with urbanist and author Karrie Jacobs

Thursday, April 10
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Village Community School, 272-278 West 10th Street
between Greenwich and Washington Streets

Jane Jacobs was the leader of epic struggles against Robert Moses, first stopping his destruction of Washington Square Park, and then his efforts to build the Lower Manhattan Expressway. Join composer Judd Greenstein and director Joshua Frankel in a conversation about the process of expressing this story as an opera and the translation of the ideas that run through it into music, text, visuals and stage movement. The conversation will be led by Karrie Jacobs, a frequent contributor to Architect, former architecture critic at New York Magazine and founding executive editor of Bennetton’s Colors Magazine. Greenstein and Frankel also will screen two short animated films: their previous collaboration, Plan Of The City, as well as Mannahatta, which premiered at the BAM Next Wave Festival this past fall and represents their first thematic exploration for the opera. More information about this opera can be found at mosesjacobsopera.com.

History in Asphalt
An illustrated talk about Greenwich Village and the forces that shaped its pattern of streets, with Manhattan historian Joyce Gold

Thursday, April 3
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Jefferson Market Library
6th Avenue and West 10th Street

Village streets can bring even seasoned New Yorkers to their knees. Streets bend, diagonals come out of nowhere, roads stop for no good reason, and thoroughfares change direction. Such intersections as Waverly Place & Waverly Place, and W 4th Street & W 10th, Street do little to help.

There are good reasons behind the confusion, but it takes some digging to uncover them. Joyce Gold will explain how topography, natural boundaries, Indian paths, and estate ownership carved the first convoluted pattern of roads. And she will also show the strange result of the city’s insisting upon connecting areas north and south of the Village. Joyce Gold is a legendary New York City tour guide, whose specialties include the women of Washington Square, the history of the Meatpacking District, and the streetscapes of Greenwich Village. Ms. Gold holds a Masters in Metropolitan Studies from New York University, and has taught courses about the history of New York at the New School and NYU for over thirty years.

Wooden Houses of Greenwich Village
A lecture by Elizabeth Finkelstein and Michael Devonshire

Wednesday, March 26
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Village Community School, 272-278 West 10th Street,
between Washington and Greenwich Streets

Greenwich Village is celebrated for its beautiful rows of brick and brownstone townhouses. But those who meander through the neighborhood’s winding, historic streets are usually surprised to encounter the occasional wooden house sandwiched between masonry houses and apartment buildings, channeling a bygone era. How and when did these houses arrive here? Why are there so few? And, perhaps most curiously, how on earth have they survived for so long? Join urban historian Elizabeth Finkelstein and preservation architect Michael Devonshire as they explore the history and mystery surrounding these fascinating wooden relics and discuss the challenges to their preservation.

East Village / Lower East Side photographs from the 1960s
Photography and commentary by John Milisenda

Tuesday, March 18
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Sixth Street Community Center, 638 East 6th Street

John Milisenda has taught basic photography, the Zone System and Photographic Chemistry at Drexel University, the New School For Social Research and Parsons School of Design. He has written for Modern Photography and Photo Methods magazine.

Milisenda made the images in this lecture when he was a teenager, before he attended Pratt Institute to study art. Many of the subjects in these photographs are teenagers with whom he grew up. These photographs have appeared on photo blogs and websites worldwide. His images are in both museums and private collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, the New Orleans Museum of Modern Art, and Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. He has self-published 17 books of his photography.

Jews: A People’s History of the Lower East Side
A panel discussion and selected readings from Clayton Patterson’s book (Volumes 1 & 2), featuring Laurie Tobias Cohen, Suzanne Wasserman, Joyce Mendelsohn, Zia Ziprin, and Steve Wishnia

Co-sponsored by Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy

Monday, March 10
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Sixth Street Community Synagogue
325 East 6th Street (bet 1st & 2nd Ave.)

Join our panel of writers and editors, Suzanne Wasserman (historian, filmmaker, and Director of The Gotham Center for New York City History), Laurie Tobias Cohen (Executive Director of the Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy), Zia Ziprin (fashion designer), Steve Wishnia (journalist and musician) and Joyce Mendelsohn (educator, historian and writer), for a discussion of the book and its contributions to the field.

An essential history of the great Jewish wave of immigration to Manhattan’s Lower East Side,
this 3-volume collection covers art, literature, food, religion, and so much more.

Topics slated for discussion include: the disappearing Jewish Lower East Side, the old public baths, music from klezmer to punk rock, and legendary food establishments such as Russ and Daughters.

Our Lady of Greenwich Village
A discussion of Irish Catholic immigration to Greenwich Village with authors Dermot McEvoy and John Strausbaugh

Tuesday, March 4
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Church of St. Brigid
Avenue B at East 8th Street

Authors Dermot McEvoy (Our Lady of Greenwich Village, Terrible Angel, and The 13th Apostle) and John Strausbaugh (The Village: 400 Years of Beats and Bohemians, Radicals and Rogues, Black Like You, Rock ‘Til You Drop) discuss the history and impact of Irish Catholic immigration in the Greenwich Village area.

McEvoy grew up in the Village when it was a working class neighborhood, populated with longshoremen, cops, firemen, and truck drivers. Their talk will range from the Irish waterfront that inspired On the Waterfront to the churches, like St. Brigid’s, that anchored the Irish community, to famous Irish New Yorkers such as Archbishop “Dagger John” Hughes, Mayor Jimmy “Gentleman Jim” Walker, world champion prizefighter Gene Tunney, and the Civil War Generals Michael Corcoran and Thomas Francis Meagher.

Farmers Markets from Gansevoort to Union Square to Abingdon Square
An evening with Greenmarket founder Barry Benepe

Co-sponsored by GrowNYC

Tuesday, February 25
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Jefferson Market Library
425 Sixth Avenue at West 10th Street

In 1976, planner and architect Barry Benepe cofounded the Greenmarket program in New York City with a fellow planner, Bob Lewis.  Their open air markets offered a solution to two pressing problems: regional farmers were struggling to make a living and losing farmland to development, and New York City consumers had a hard time finding good, fresh produce.

Barry will join us to discuss the history and development of several iconic open air farmers markets in and around Greenwich Village, including the Gansevoort Market, Union Square Greenmarket, and Abingdon Square Greenmarket.

From Thomas Wolfe to the Mamas and the Papas: The Venerable Hotel Albert in Greenwich Village
A lecture by historian Anthony W. Robins

Thursday, February 20
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Third Street Music School
235 East 11th Street

Everyone knows the Algonquin Hotel and the Chelsea Hotel, but the Hotel Albert on University Place and East 10th Street has hosted a riotously rich group of creative New Yorkers. Designed by Henry Hardenbergh, architect of the Plaza Hotel and the Dakota Apartments, the Albert was home to many famous writers in its early years, including Robert Louis Stevenson, Hart Crane, and Thomas Wolfe. Mark Twain lectured at the Albert in 1901, and Walt Whitman is said to have been sighted there.  Political radicals also found refuge in the Albert – and John Scopes stayed here while rounding up supporters for his famous “monkey trial” in Tennessee.

In the 1960’s, The Mamas & The Papas wrote “California Dreamin’ and Lovin’ Spoonful wrote “Do You Believe in Magic” here. Other musicians who spent time at the Albert included the Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell and James Taylor. Many of them used the Albert’s basement for rehearsals and impromptu jam sessions.

This illustrated lecture examines the Albert’s history and its illustrious roster of residents from the 1880s to the 1970s. It’s based on the history of the Albert written by Mr. Robins for the current co-op.

City Folk: English Country Dance and the Politics of the Folk in Modern America
A documentary film screening

Co-sponsored by the NYU History Department

Monday, February 3
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Jurow Lecture Hall at the Silver Center
100 Washington Square East

Daniel Walkowitz is a social and cultural historian who has worked to bring America’s past to both academic and broad public audiences.  In 2010 he published  City Folk: English Country Dance and the Politics of the Folk in Modern America, a transatlantic exploration into the related histories of English Country Dance and the folk dance movement in the United States (NYU Press).  The book also serves as the basis for his recent documentary film with the same title, made for public television as a production with the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

A screening of the film, which features Greenwich Village residents, will be followed by a question-&-answer period with Professor Walkowitz. The book and DVD will be available for purchase and signing.

Winter’s Here? Snow Way!
A history of snow removal in New York City with Dr. Robin Nagle

Thursday, January 30
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
NYU Lecture Hall
13 University Place, just below 8th Street

A New York City winter usually includes snow. It may look pretty while it’s coming down, but enough of it at once can paralyze the largest urban area in North America. What does it take for New York’s Department of Sanitation, the city agency in charge of snow response, to keep the streets clear when the white stuff falls?

Join Robin Nagle, the DSNY’s anthropologist-in-residence and author of the book Picking Up, for surprising stories about how snow has shaped life in the Big Apple.

Copies of Dr. Nagle’s book will be available for purchase and signing.

Looking Back and Looking Ahead:
Preservation Progress in the Village, East Village, and NoHo 2003-2013,
and the Road Ahead
A presentation by GVSHP Executive Director Andrew Berman

Tuesday, January 21
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
Location: Church of the Village, 7th Avenue at West 13th Street
The Bloomberg years were a challenging time for preservationists.  Development reached a fever pitch, real estate forces pushed back hard against landmarking efforts, and powerful individuals and institutions enjoyed unparalleled access to and consideration from decision-makers in government.  And yet in the ten years from 2003 to 2013, GVSHP and our allies managed to help secure landmark designation of more than one thousand buildings, and community-friendly “contextual” rezonings of nearly one hundred blocks – remarkable progress that will help preserve and shape the Village, East Village, and NoHo for years to come. And while there were losses, we actually helped stop four different plans for the tallest building ever in the Village – two in the Meatpacking District, one on Bleecker Street, and one on 13th Street and 5th Avenue – as well as chop down to size a slew of oversized, out-of-context projects.

Join GVSHP Executive Director Andrew Berman as we look at the best and the worst of the last ten years – the many buildings, streets, and neighborhoods we saved, the heartbreaking losses, and the terrible projects we either just plain stopped or made a little less bad. We’ll also look at the newest threats looming on the horizon, from air rights transfers along the Hudson River waterfront to new high-rises along the University Place, Broadway, and 14th Street corridors.  And we’ll take a look at the South and East Village, which still lack the comprehensive landmark protections they need and deserve, and talk about how to change that.

History of the Tompkins Market
A lecture by historian William Wander

Co-sponsored by The Cooper Union for the Advancement of
Science and Art

Tuesday, January 14
6:30 – 8:00 P.M.
Free; reservations required
The Frederick P. Rose Auditorium at Cooper Union
41 Cooper Square, on Third Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets

The Tompkins Market stood on the small city block bounded by Sixth Street, Seventh Street, Hall Place and Third Avenue, where the newest Cooper Union building 41 Cooper Square, now stands. The first Tompkins Market opened here in 1830, but the most famous was the 1860 cast iron building designed by James Bogardus. This building contained the public market on the first floor, and the armory and drill rooms of the Seventh Regiment of the New York State National Guard on the second and third floors – an unusual combination in the 19th century or today. The public markets were the place where the best meat and fish, butter, milk, and cheese, the freshest vegetables, fruits in season and “exotic fruits” – bananas and grapefruit – could be found. The inventory of the 1860’s market would astound the shopper of today.

In 1880, the Seventh Regiment moved out to their own armory, the Fighting Sixty-Ninth Regiment moved in, and stayed another 26 years. This landmark building stood for just over fifty years, before the market system faded from relevance. Torn down to make way for an expanding Cooper Union, it is all but forgotten – a simple but majestic, utilitarian, and once imposing presence at the end of the Bowery.