In the East Village today, it’s out with the old, in with the new, and whatcha gonna do? Last night movers loaded a giant urn and a whole bunch of other stuff into the Schwimmer mansion; today, demolition of a 96-year-old church facade commenced.
Both of these events are sure to pain the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, which mourned the loss of the 160-year-old house on East 6th Street before it was replaced by the Schwimmer manse, and tried unsuccessfully to landmark the church on East 12th Street.
Mary Help of Christians got scaffed up last month, and demolition has been ongoing (see the current state of its backside below), but the facade remained untouched until this afternoon, when a construction worker repeatedly drove a pole through its central window, in effect poking Mary’s eyeball out. Glass has been shattering intermittently throughout the day.
Watch the video if you’re a Greenpoint black metalist who gets off on sacrilege or if you’re an East Village preservationist in need of a good cry.
