Home : Resources : Preservation History Archive Now Live 8/28/19

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Village Preservation is proud to announce the launching of our Preservation History Archive – an online resource dedicated to maintaining and making available to the public the history of preservation efforts in our neighborhoods. Access it here.

The archive currently consists of three collections – the West Village Committee Collection, the Otis Pratt Pearsall Collection, and the Greenwich Village Trust/Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation Collection.

The West Village Committee Collection includes hundreds of pages of newsletters, clippings, letters, and articles from the West Village Committee from 1961 to 1997. The Committee was formed to fight the Robert Moses urban renewal plan for demolition and high-rise construction in the West Village and was originally led by activists including Jane Jacobs. They later worked to realize the development of the West Village Houses and to stop Westway, a huge proposed underground highway and landfill project for the Greenwich Village waterfront that would have included huge high-rise construction along the Hudson River. Access the collection here.

Otis Pratt Pearsall is an attorney and Brooklyn Heights resident who spearheaded that neighborhood’s successful effort to become New York City’s first historic (landmark) district in 1965. This archive includes correspondences with leading Village preservation figures and other information from 1965-68 about Greenwich Village prior to the designation of the Greenwich Village Historic District in 1969 and the efforts to landmark and protect this neighborhood. Access the collection here.

The Greenwich Village Trust/Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation Collection contains the earliest printed newsletters of Village Preservation after its founding in the 1980s and through the 1990s, when it was known as the Greenwich Village Trust and then the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. These early newsletters focus on efforts to research and preserve the non-landmarked sections of the Greenwich Village waterfront, archaeological digs at Sheridan Square, the competition to design the wrought-iron fence around the Jefferson Market Garden, and the early efforts to protect and pursue landmark designation for the Meatpacking District, among other issues. Access the collection here.

View other visual aids that GVSHP has created to map the architectural and cultural heritage of Greenwich Village, East Village, and NoHo.

Home : Resources: Preservation History Archive Now Live 8/28/19