Today the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to landmark the 1838 Isaac T. Hopper House at 110 Second Avenue in the East Village, a designation strongly supported by GVSHP. This impressive Greek Revival house located between 6th and 7th Streets is a rare intact vestige of the earliest stages of the East Village’s urban development. Since 1874 it has also served as the home of the Women’s Prison Association (WPA), a reform organization seeking to better the lives of women who have been through the criminal justice system. The house is named for Isaac T. Hopper, the Quaker Abolitionist and reformer who founded the WPA. Hopper’s daughter, Abigail Hopper Gibbons, was the first president of the WPA.
Earlier this year GVSHP gave the former Hopper House an annual “Village Award” in recognition of the house’s tremendously important history, the care given it by current owners the Women’s Prison Association, and the potential landmark designation under consideration. The house had previously been listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places, but today’s landmark designation will help ensure the building’s preservation well into the future.
