Letter of Support: 78-80 St. Mark’s Place (Theatre 80)

June 6, 2023

Hon. Eric Adams, Mayor
New York City Hall, New York, NY 10007

Hon. Sarah Carroll, Chair
NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1 Centre Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10007

Dear Mayor Adams and Chair Carroll:

On behalf of the Preservation League of New York State, I write to support Village Preservation’s request for an evaluation of 78-80 St. Mark’s Place, most recently home of Theatre 80.

As is well documented in Village Preservation’s Request for Evaluation, the building is linked to the early development of New York City, having been built in the 1840s when St. Mark’s Place was lined by spacious townhouses for prosperous New Yorkers. Later nineteenth- and early twentieth-century residents were associated with the waves of immigration that characterized the East Village in that period.

The building later housed a performance venue with roots in the Prohibition era. In 1959, the Jazz Gallery was opened in the building; in 1964 this was transformed into Theatre 80. As a jazz club and later Off-Off-Broadway theatre, it was associated with notable jazz musicians and actors who performed there, and notably with the premiere of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. More recently, the space has served as a revival movie house, then again as a venue for live theater.

I encourage the Landmarks Preservation Commission to carefully consider the notable history and cultural significance of the building at 78-80 St. Mark’s Place. The architecture of this building reflects not architectural purity, but rather the singular quirks of its own history and the multiple, overlapping aspects of its significance; but it is primarily the contributions of this building and its occupants to the culture of the East Village that warrant its consideration for landmark status.

Sincerely,

Katie Eggers Comeau
Vice President for Policy and Preservation