Last week the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to landmark the LaMama Theater at 74 East 4th Street, built in 1873 for the Aschenbroedel Verein, a German cultural organization, at a time when much of the Lower East Side was called “Kleindeutschland,” and New York had the largest German-speaking population of any city outside of Berlin or Vienna. GVSHP strongly supported landmark designation, which recognizes the building’s impressive architecture, as well as its cultural significance from the late 19th century through the present.
GVSHP continues to push for expanded landmark designations in the East Village to recognize and protect its great cultural and architectural heritage. GVSHP continues to push for landmark designation of 101 Avenue A, a model tenement which housed German social clubs and the Pyramid Club throughout its history; 128 East 13th Street, the city’s last surviving horse auction mart building and former studio to artist Frank Stella and World War II women’s assembly-line training center; and Congregation Mezritch Synagogue at 415 East 6th Street, the East Village’s last operating tenement synagogue. With a grant from Preserve NY, a grant program of the Preservation League of NY State and the NY State Council on the Arts, GVSHP also continues to compile research and documentation on the history of every building in the East Village, which will lead towards eventual proposals for expanded landmark and historic district protections for the neighborhood.
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