1824 South Village House To Be Demolished Without Landmark Protections!
 GVSHP has uncovered a plan by a developer to demolish a rare surviving 1824 house in the proposed South Village Historic District.
We have immediately brought the threat to the attention of the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), and asked them to move ahead with designation of the proposed district, or at least of this immediately endangered site, as soon as possible (read our letter HERE).
But amazingly, so far, they are refusing.
This is deeply disturbing for so many reasons.
The nearly 190 year old house is a rare historic survivor. The LPC promised years ago to consider the South Village Historic District we proposed in 2006 for landmark designation, but have thus far only considered 1/3 of it. The South Village was listed as one of the seven most historically significant endangered sites in NY State. The entire neighborhood was determined eligible for the State and National Registers of Historic Places. GVSHP provided the LPC with detailed historic research on every one of the buildings in the neighborhood, doing much of their work for them to make designation easier. And the LPC itself determined the entire South Village “landmark-eligible” in its legally-required environmental review of proposed rezonings in the surrounding area.
 State Senator Tom Duane and the Preservation League of NY State have both joined GVSHP in calling upon the LPC to protect 186 Spring Street and to move ahead with the long-overdue designation of the proposed South Village Historic District. The fight to save threatened building and the entire South Village has garnered attention in the Village Voice, NY Press/Our Town Downtown, and the NY Observer.
We have lost too many historic sites in the South Village while waiting for the LPC to act – the Provincetown Playhouse and Apartments, the Circle in the Square Theater, the Sullivan Street Playhouse, the Tunnel Garage, and the 1861 house at 178 Bleecker Street, right in the heart of the South Village.
The City is moving ahead with consideration of developer-requested upzonings for NYU and in Hudson Square, both of which border and would increase development pressure upon the South Village. BUT THEY ARE REFUSING TO ACT UPON THEIR LONG-OUTSTANDING COMMITMENT TO CONSIDER THE ENTIRE SOUTH VILLAGE FOR LANDMARK DESIGNATION.
HOW TO HELP:
You can find out more about the South Village and the fight to preserve it HERE; support this and other GVSHP preservation efforts HERE.
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