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Williamsburg’s Dime Savings Bank Is a Newly Minted Landmark

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(Photo via CharneyConstruction.com)

Williamsburg’s Dime Savings Bank has been declared a New York City landmark. The unanimous vote at a Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing today was cast two weeks after a public hearing in which the historical designation was supported by individuals such as the property owner and City Council member Antonio Reynoso. As an LPC staff member noted, the building’s elegant design along with the history associated with Williamsburg’s historic financial center were significant reasons to justify the building as a landmark.  More →

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New Millennial-Friendly Hotel Threatens Historic East Village Tenements

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Protestors organized against the new Moxy Hotel and demolition of historic buildings (Photo: Nicole Disser)

Protestors organized against the new Moxy Hotel and demolition of historic buildings (Photo: Nicole Disser)

Yesterday afternoon a group of vocal protesters gathered along East 11th Street, facing a row of historic brick buildings they’re intent on saving from demolition at the hands of one of the city’s most prolific developers. The structures in question are a streak of five residential buildings, all of them five-story, Old Law tenements that, according to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, have changed little since they were built between 1887 and 1892.

GVSHP and the other preservation groups that organized yesterday’s protest– including the Historic Districts Council, the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative and the East Village Community Coalition– are appealing to the city’s Landmarks and Preservation Commission to come through with an eleventh-hour historic district designation that would thwart plans for a 300-room hotel.

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Merchant’s House Desperately Needs You to Nominate Its Plaster For an Award

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merchanthouse1The Merchant’s House Museum suffered a blow on Tuesday when the Landmarks Preservation Commission finally signed off on the design of a controversial nine-story building that’s due to be erected next to the 182-year-old house. Today the museum sends out an e-mail indicating that it’s still concerned that the new building’s construction could damage the meticulously preserved East Fourth Street residence, and its custodians will soon be taking steps “to secure the necessary legal and engineering protective measures.”
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Someone Who Hates NYU and/or Loves Philip Seymour Hoffman Paid Almost $10K For an Acting Lesson With Him

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The new South Village Historic District.

The new South Village Historic District. (Map: Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation)

While the St. Mark’s Bookshop has extended its auction to Dec. 22, Faculty Against the Sexton Plan’s fundraising auction is now over, and someone has paid a whopping $9,950 for an hour-and-a-half-long acting lesson with Philip Seymour Hoffman. For that kind of dough, you presumably have the right to request a sex scene (sorry for that image).
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Dis-Astor Averted! John Jacob’s Row House Is Set to Be Landmarked

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(Photo: Courtesy of Friends of the Lower East Side)

(Photo: Courtesy of Friends of the Lower East Side)

An unassuming Grand Street row house built in 1833 was designated a landmark Tuesday, following a five-month push from neighborhood preservation activists.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to landmark the three-and-a-half story building at 339 Grand Street. According to the Commission, the row house is one of a row of five constructed by John Jacob Astor, a German immigrant who was the richest man in the United States at the time of his death in 1848. Astor Place was named in his honor.
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