 Two Federal Houses Face Landmarks Guillotine
206 Bowery (l.) and 22 East Broadway
Two federal rowhouses at 206 Bowery and 22 East Broadway on the Lower East Side, which have been under consideration for landmark designation for several years, will be removed from the list of sites being considered for landmark designation if the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) does not act by the end of the year. Once this happens, they lose all protections, and can be altered or demolished. So far the LPC does not appear inclined to act, and will allow the buildings to simply fall off the calendar without a vote or decision.
The situation is a consequence of the City Council’s passing and Mayor de Blasio signing Intro. 775, which puts a deadline on decisions by the LPC. If the LPC does not make a decision within the prescribed time period, the buildings are automatically removed from the list of those under consideration, which enjoy some preliminary protections. GVSHP lobbied furiously against the bill, which was modified from its original, much more onerous form, but still contains this troubling provision.
206 Bowery and 22 East Broadway date to 1825 and 1832 respectively, and are among an increasingly small number of federal-era (1790-1835) houses that survive in Lower Manhattan. GVSHP considers preservation of federal houses a special part of our mission extending beyond the boundaries of our neighborhood, and over the last twenty years we have secured landmark designation for one hundred twenty such houses in Lower Manhattan.
To help save these historic houses, urge the LPC to move ahead with landmark designation and not let them fall off the landmarks calendar.
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