E-BULLETIN OF THE HISTORIC DISTRICTS COUNCIL
May 2014, Volume 11, Number 2
In This Issue:
- HDC Film Series
- Murals Of New York City
- Grassroots Preservation Awards
- Six to Celebrate Tours
- View this e-mail in your browser by clicking here
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Life in Reel New York:
An HDC Film Series
Join HDC and James Sanders for a unique look into the New York City of the movies.
This three part series will include a lecture and short film and two feature length films curated by James Sanders, author of Celluloid Skyline. Focusing on the theme of life in the public world of the streets and the private world of residential spaces, the series will present early depictions of New York streetscapes, before going behind the closed doors of tenement houses and loft apartments later in the 20th century.
In the Loft
Tuesday May 20, 2014 at 6:30 PM
Join us for the final film of the 2014 series, which looks into the tall windows and high ceiling of the Soho Cast Iron district. An Unmarried Woman tells the tale of a wealthy New York woman whose life is turned upside down when her husband leaves her for a younger woman. As the protagonist navigates the challenges of her new life, she begins to spend time with roguish painter who lives downtown. Set in an era of the city when the transformation of formerly industrial spaces into versatile artists’ lofts is booming, the movie introduces audiences to a New York City residence never before portrayed on film.
Tickets: $5 friends, students, and seniors/ $10 general public
Click here to purchase tickets
Each screening will take place at the landmarked former Engine Co. 31
Downtown Community Television Center
87 Lafayette Street Between Walker and White Streets TriBeCa
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Murals of New York City:
Book Talk
Collector’s Room in the Alexander Hamilton Custom House
Murals of New York, authored by Glenn Palmer-Smith and photographed by Joshua McHugh, is a richly presented collection of New York’s most well-loved and iconic murals. Spanning the five boroughs, more than one hundred years and locations as diverse as federal buildings, public schools, historic bars and street corners, these murals display the vibrant and ever-changing cultural and artistic tastes of New Yorkers in the 20th century. Presenting among the ornate wood paneling and beautiful maritime murals of the U.S. Customs House Collector’s room (usually closed to the public), Glenn Palmer-Smith will discuss the creation, life, and ongoing preservation of these New York treasures. After the talk, attendees will have a chance to explore the Custom House Rotunda, which boasts its own beautiful murals featured in the book.
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All attendees MUST RSVP prior to the talk.
Space is very limited.
Click here for more information
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Grassroots Preservation Party
Grace Church, the 165-year-old Richard Upjohn building has just finished a fantastic restoration, revealing thousands of red, yellow and gold-painted stars of its ceiling for the first time in a century. It’s a perfect place to celebrate the brightest stars of preservation, and we hope you’ll join us.
This years awardees are:
- Michael Perlman
- Beaumont Apartment Tenants
- Friends of First Avenue Estate Coalition
- Lola Finkelstein and the Multi-Board Task Force on East Midtown.
- Friend in High Places- Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer
- Friend from the Media- The Lo-Down
To purchase tickets click here
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All tours are $5 friends, students and seniors/ $10 for general public
Meeting location will be provided a week before the tour to those who have registered
Click here to purchase tickets
Library Tours Added
Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn
Saturday, June 14, 11:00 AM (WALKING TOUR)
A commercial thoroughfare for more than one hundred years, Atlantic Avenue is a diverse retail and dining destination connecting the historic neighborhoods of Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill. Join us as tour guide Joe Svehlak leads this walking tour between 4th Avenue and Hicks Street, discussing Atlantic Avenue’s architecture, social and commercial history, as well as areas that have been more recently redeveloped.
From Yiddish to Chinese and Beyond: A Walking Tour of Historic Libraries in Chinatown
Thursday, July 10, 6:00 PM
(WALKING TOUR)
Seward Park Branch, exterior, south façade, c.2007 (HDC)
Visit two of the busiest Carnegie libraries in the New York Public Library system as well as other sites of interest between and near them, including one of the oldest graveyards in New York, Al Smith’s childhood home, and Knickerbocker Village, a forerunner of later urban renewal projects. The tour, led by John Bacon, HDC board member and Director of Planned Giving at The New York Public Library, will start at the McKim, Mead and White-designed Chatham Square Library and conclude at the Seward Park Library, which became a New York City landmark in 2013.
Madison Square North, Manhattan
Sunday, September 14, 11:00 AM (WALKING TOUR)
This architecturally diverse neighborhood includes pre-Civil War rowhouses, late 19th century hotels, early 20th century loft and commercial structures, and the remaining buildings of the famous Tin Pan Alley. To better reflect the neighborhood’s boundaries, local residents and advocates have submitted a Request for Evaluation to the Landmarks Preservation Commission to expand the Madison Square North Historic District. Join us as HDC Board member and Madison Square North expert Marissa Marvelli leads a walking tour of this fascinating neighborhood.
Staten Island’s Historic Cemeteries
Saturday, September 27, 11:00 AM (TROLLEY TOUR)
Celebrate Halloween early with a visit to Staten Island’s historic places of memory and rest. Led by Lynn Rogers, executive director of the Friends of Abandoned Cemeteries of Staten Island, this trolley tour will explore three cemeteries dating to the early 19th century. Stops will include the Marine Hospital/Quarantine Station Cemetery, where thousands of Irish Famine Immigrants were reinterred in April 2014; the Staten Island/Fountain Cemetery & Native American Burial Ground, a haunted site and the city’s largest abandoned cemetery (8 acres); and Lake Cemetery, a working class cemetery where many Civil War and WWI Veterans were buried.
A Tale of Three Carnegies: A Tour of Historic Libraries in Harlem and the South Bronx
Saturday, October 18, 2:00PM (WALKING TOUR)
Following the July tour of Carnegie libraries in Chinatown, John Bacon, HDC board member and Director of Planned Giving at The New York Public Library, will return to lead another tour of Carnegie libraries in Harlem and Mott Haven. In Harlem, we will visit the Aguilar and 125th Street Libraries, especially noting new renovations at the latter. Bring your Metrocard, as we will then hop on the subway to the South Bronx to visit the beautiful Mott Haven Library and take in its notable children’s floor.
Sunday, June 22, 2014 10:00AM 2 hours.
$10 per person.
Tour the heart of Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
Learn how Sunset Park’s history makes it special and wonderfully different from other Brownstone Brooklyn nabes. Learn about how its built environment shaped Sunset Park: from the history of Bush Terminal, the 4th Avenue subway, and the first coops in the U.S. in the early 1900s, to the Section 8 housing of the 1980s, which stabilized the neighborhood and helped it transition out of blight.
The tour begins at 10:00 am at the landmarked old courthouse on the northeast corner of 43rd Street and 4th Avenue and ends on 8th Avenue in Sunset Park’s Chinatown. Just in time for you to head off and indulge in some amazing dim sum!
THIS TOUR IS LED BY THE SUNSET PARK LANDMARKS COMMITTEE FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK HERE
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Historic Districts Council
[email protected] | http://www.hdc.org
212-614-9107
232 East 11th Street New York, NY 10003