E-BULLETIN OF THE HISTORIC DISTRICTS COUNCIL
April 2014, Volume 11, Number 1
In this issue:
• 2014 Grassroots Awards and Preservation Party Save The Date
• Preserving South Street Seaport: A Book Talk
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Preserving South Street Seaport: A Book Talk
Sail into spring with a book talk by James M. Lindgren, author of the recently published Preserving South Street Seaport: The Dream and Reality of a New York Urban Renewal District. This illustrated lecture will be held at The Paris Café, first opened in 1873, frequented by such personages as Thomas Edison and Teddy Roosevelt, and nearly closed after sustaining damage from Superstorm Sandy. Join us for a special evening exploring the changing fortunes of this distinctive waterfront neighborhood!
Preserving South Street Seaport recounts the complex and fascinating struggle to preserve the character of Lower Manhattan’s South Street Seaport. Soon after the enactment of the New York City Landmarks Law in 1965, preservationists mobilized to protect this remnant of the City’s fabled 19th-century port by transforming it into a living, community-based museum. From the designation of the historic district in 1977 to the crushing blows of 9/11 and Superstorm Sandy, author James M. Lindgren will chronicle the tenuous rebirth of the neighborhood, including the story of the South Street Seaport Museum, real estate market booms and collapses, controversial developments, and years of efforts by preservationists, developers, bankers, politicians, and museum administrators. Lindgren’s investigations into the area reveal unique lessons in urban renewal and detail how a decrepit piece of waterfront was transformed into a “street of ships” and the dynamic neighborhood we continue to fight for today.
James M. Lindgren is Professor of History at SUNY Plattsburgh and the author of Preserving the Old Dominion: Historic Preservation and Virginia Traditionalism; Preserving Historic New England: Preservation, Progressivism, and the Remaking of Memory; and over two dozen essays.
Preserving South Street Seaport: The Dream and Reality of a New York Urban Renewal District is published by NYU Press and supported by grants from the J. Aron Charitable Foundation and Furthermore, a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund.
Monday, April 21st
Doors open at 6:00 p.m. / Book Talk at 7:00 p.m.
Program is free and open to the public but reservations are required.
To register, please call 212-988-8379 or email [email protected].
The Paris Café
119 South Street (at Peck Slip)
*Food and drinks will be available for purchase
Co-sponsored by the New York Preservation Archive Project, the New York Landmarks Conservancy, the Historic Districts Council, and NYU Press.