On Monday, August 15, the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation (OPRHP) issued an official determination that the former Willard State Hospital complex is eligible for the State and National Registers of Historic Places. The Finger Lakes campus, which straddles the town lines of Ovid and Romulus, is one of the League’s 2022-2023 Seven to Save sites.
Read MoreSummer is here. And that means trips to the beach, picnics, and hikes. Summer is also a good time to plan your charitable giving for the rest of the year.
One tax-smart approach is to set up a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) from your IRA. Because the money goes directly to charity – I hope you’ll consider the League – a QCD counts as a Required Minimum Distribution without adding to your adjusted gross income. You must be at least 70½ years old to make a QCD, which can be as much as $100,000 each year.
Read MoreAt its 2022 meeting, an independent grant panel selected 22 applicants in 18 counties to receive support totaling $235,920.
Read MoreA public survey, open through July, seeks to understand workforce development challenges, barriers, opportunities, and successes in the Northeast region. The Northeast Regional Initiative for the Preservation Trades is a cooperative project between the Preservation League of New York State, Preservation Trust of Vermont, the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance, and Maine Preservation.
Read MoreThe proposed Pennsylvania Station Civic and Land Use Project (the "Penn Area Plan") would demolish multiple blocks of historic buildings in New York City in the vicinity of Pennsylvania Station while displacing thousands of residents and businesses. The devastating plan put forward by New York State's Empire State Development Corporation is an eerie echo of the loss of the original Pennsylvania Station, coming as it does 60 years after the famous 1962 sidewalk picket by the Action Group for Better Architecture in New York (AGBANY), which included Jane Jacobs and a host of notable architects and preservationists fighting to prevent the demise of that great train station.
Read MoreThe Parrott Hall Coalition, a working group that includes the Landmark Society of Western NY, Friends of Parrott Hall, City of Geneva, and the Preservation League of NYS, has been watching with excitement as Massa Construction nears completion of their masonry and roof stabilization project at Parrott Hall in Elmira. Work began in December 2021; after a winter hiatus, work resumed in May 2022 and has progressed quickly in the last several weeks.
Read MoreExplore the artistic legacy of the neighborhood #SouthOfUnionSquare, including a building home to a series of leading Abstract Expressionist and Pop Artists; the residence and studio of a great Chinese American modernist avant-garde painter; the office of a groundbreaking labor organization that pioneered contraceptive coverage through health insurance; and dance studios run by important choreographers.
Read MoreMusic and the Village are synonymous, perhaps no place more so than where Greenwich Village and the East Village meet, south of Union Square. Today we’re taking a wonderful journey through this area to look at several notable musicians, music venues, and recording studios that found a home here, from jazz to punk, blues to folk. With the help of our new South of Union Square map and its music tour, we can explore some incredible spots where the course of music history was changed in this endangered area for which we are seeking landmark protections, and listen to some of the great sounds that emerged from this creative cauldron while we’re at it.
Read MoreBringing contemporary artists into historic spaces drives dialogue and helps bring the past into the present. In this webinar, our panelists highlight how public art and preservation can work together, from public monuments to historic house museums.
Read MoreThe neighborhood South of Union Square holds a unique place in the history of women’s rights and women’s suffrage movements. In the very same University Place building where a prominent 19th-century philanthropist donated to women’s causes, a famed lesbian bar attracted trailblazing women writers. In two buildings on Fifth Avenue, numerous progressive organizations were founded and blossomed: the first organization to insure contraception, the first African American magazine, and a chapter of the oldest women’s peace organization — the latter two under female leadership. On East 14th Street, the headquarters of the New York City Woman Suffrage League led the organizing effort for achieving women’s suffrage in New York State; and back on University Place the first woman doctor in America established her home and office.
Read MoreIn her book Historic Real Estate: Market Morality and the Politics of Preservation in the Early United States, Dr. Whitney Martinko takes a look at how historic preservation played out following the Revolutionary War. She discusses the ways in which people debated whether and what to save of their built environment, and how preservation balanced (or tried to) the relationship between the public good and private profit.
Read MoreThe 2022-2023 inclusion of the Proposed South of Union Square Historic District on the League’s Seven to Save list marks the third time the League has worked with our colleagues at Village Preservation through the STS program. First in 2002 with the Gansevoort Market District and then in 2012 with South Village, the League’s support helped turn the tide for both in securing their much-deserved landmark designations.
Read MoreJames Renwick, Jr. (November 1, 1818 — June 23, 1895) was one of the 19th century’s most prolific and successful American architects. Renwick is best known for his mastery of the Gothic Revival and Romanesque styles, as evidenced in his masterworks Grace Church (1843-1858), St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue (1859-1878), and the Smithsonian Institute on Washington D.C.’s Mall (1846). James Renwick, Jr.’s New York roots are in the area south of Union Square. Descended from the Brevoort family who held a great deal of land in the neighborhood, it is no surprise that Renwick left his mark on the built environment of this neighborhood.
Read More2022 marks the bicentennial of Frederick Law Olmsted’s birth. To help mark the occasion, we reached out to our friends at Highland Park Conservancy to collaborate on a walking tour of the jewel of Rochester’s park system.
Read MoreBeautifully detailed 1899 “Mail & Express” Broadway Streetscape Illustrations demonstrate the urgency of Village Preservation’s campaign to landmark the area #SouthOfUnionSquare.
Read MoreWe got the @syracusehistory tour of Syracuse and now we share our knowledge with you. Spend a weekend in Syracuse — you won’t regret it!
Read MoreMany families own a home that has been a gathering place for the family over generations. We are often asked how to keep such a property in the family and there are several techniques to consider, all of which have pluses and minuses, and may have financial costs as well. Most importantly, it is essential that you confirm with your children and their families that they wish to retain the property – with due respect, they may have other plans!
Read MorePresented in partnership with the Tenement Museum, this webinar explored the intersection of social justice and preservation. How can the act of preserving and stewarding a building tie directly into a broader social justice mission? We wanted to explore the idea that preserving, restoring, rehabilitating, and stewarding a physical place can be integral to social justice work. In this conversation, we dig into how different kinds of organizations can incorporate preservation practices, without necessarily being a “preservation” organization.
Read MoreJames Brooks and Charlotte Park’s Home and Studios in East Hampton has been included on the 2022-2023 Seven to Save list. The Brooks-Park site belonged to Abstract Expressionist painters James Brooks and Charlotte Park who were foundational members of the AbEx Art movement. The site has been vacant since 2010 and has fallen into significant disrepair. A group of grassroots advocates have sprung up to fight to save this important historic site and the natural landscape on which it sits. The League is eager to assist this efforts and bring much-deserved attention to the artists who made this place their home.
Read MoreWillard State Hospital is one of this year’s Seven to Save. Situated on Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes village of Romulus, Willard State has been a key part of the community since it first opened as a psychiatric hospital in the late 1800s. It began a second life as a correctional facility in 1995, but the complex has just recently been completely abandoned. The League is eager to work with local stakeholders to stabilize the buildings and grounds and explore potential new uses for this sprawling historic complex.
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