E-BULLETIN OF THE HISTORIC DISTRICTS COUNCIL
May 2013, Volume 10, Number 9
Thank You to everyone who made the Grassroots Preservation Awards 2013 an AMAZING event! We could not have done it with your help and support! Special thanks especially to the Village Community School and its architect Leo Blackman for hosting us and the New Amsterdam Market and its vendors, Saxelby Cheesemongers, Hot Bread Kitchen, La Newyorkina Mexican Ice & Sweets, and Lone Star Taco for providing the food!
To view more pictures visit the here.
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The City Council’s Committee on Parks and Recreation will hold an oversight meeting for Flushing Meadows Corona Park on June 7th. The meeting is intended to address the condition and needs of this important park as well as recent issues of selling of large swaths of park land for private use. Plans for an expansion of the National Tennis Center, the construction of a shopping center, and a Major League Soccer stadium has rightfully angered many Queens’ residents. The Bloomberg administration who supports the stadium claims that the park is underused and in disrepair due to lack of upkeep, and therefore justifies the re-appropriation of public land for profit. Testimony will be allowed at the meeting, so come to 250 Broadway 16th floor at 1pm and show your support to protect our parklands.
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The June 3rd coffee talk has been postponed until September; enjoy your summer and we’ll see you in the fall!——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
WORLD FAIR – A documentary and discussion with the filmmaker and a special guest historian
Wednesday – June 12th at the Neighborhood Preservation Center 232 East 11th Street
6-7:30pm
Cost: $5 – Space is limited and you must rsvp for the event
VIEW a trailer of the film on their website HERE!
WORLD FAIR is a new documentary film that celebrates personal memory, innovative architecture, and amateur cinematography through a singular, spectacular event: the 1939 New York World’s Fair. On the heels of the Great Depression and with war mounting overseas, millions of people traveled to a former ash dump in Queens, New York, to catch a fleeting glimpse of a better future. WORLD FAIR weaves together the impressionistic memories of former fairgoers—now in their eighties and nineties—with vibrant archival footage, transporting viewers to the futuristic and hopeful realm of the 1939 New York World’s Fair. As a meditation on the ways we remember and preserve the past, WORLD FAIR explores the stories contained in photographs and home movies, in illustrations, and in the objects we collect and save. WORLD FAIR premiered in April at the 2013 Independent Film Festival Boston, where it won the Audience Award for Best Short Film.
Filmmaker Bio:
Amanda Murray (director/producer, WORLD FAIR) is a filmmaker with the independent documentary production company Wicked Delicate Films in Brooklyn, NY. Trained in public history and humanities, she was a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, and has worked with the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, National Building Museum, and National Trust for Historic Preservation. She holds a B.A. in American Studies from the College of William and Mary, and an M.A. in Public Humanities from Brown University. WORLD FAIR is her first film and premiered at the 2013 Independent Film Festival Boston, where it won the Audience Award for Best Short Film. Amanda is a producer of the forthcoming documentary films THE SEARCH FOR GENERAL TSO, MISSING MODERNIST, and THE GREENING OF QATAR.
RSVP TO [email protected]
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Have you been wondering how you’re going to explore and discover this great city over the summer? Well here’s your answer!
Join HDC on our fantastic walking/ bike tours of the Six To Celebrate neighborhoods. The tours will run from May through October.
BIKE TOUR (north Bronx loop) les by Richard Gans, Bronx bike advocate
Saturday, June 15, 9:30AM
Bronx Parks System, The Bronx ; Rocking Stone, Bronx Park, about 1895
photo credit : JFGryphon, Flickr
In 1888, more than four thousand acres was designated as parkland in The Bronx in anticipation of New York City’s northern growth. This enormous public investment guided the development and planning of the borough to become a livable place for people of modest means. Please join us for two bike tours of the magnificent parks that have shaped The Bronx since their conception 125 years ago. The first will explore the parks of the northern Bronx, beginning with a visit to the Van Cortlandt Mansion at Van Cortlandt Park and meandering eastward to Pelham Bay Park with stops at the Valentine-Varian House, the Bronx River Forest and the Bartow Pell Mansion. The second will explore the parks in the south, including Bronx Park, Crotona Park and St. Mary’s Park. Bikes will not be provided.
For more information about the tours click here
For information about the 2013 STC click here
For information about the STC program click here
Don’t forget we have the 2012Walking Tour Brochures are now available for sale on our website!!!!
Only $10 for all six brochures (shipping included).
To purchase the brochures click here.
Six to Celebrate is generously supported by The New York Community Trust. Support for the Six to Celebrate Tours and walking tour brochures is provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Additional support is provided by Councilmembers Margaret Chin, Inez Dickens, Vincent Gentile, Daniel Garodnick, Stephen Levin and Rosie Mendez.
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If you’re receiving this, then you know that HDC is working hard throughout the city to protect and preserve the neighborhoods which make New York great. Please consider contributing and becoming part of the movement to preserve our city’s irreplaceable architecture and history. There are a lot of buildings to cover, and we can only do it with a lot of people.
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tel: 212-614-9107 fax: 212-614-9127 email:[email protected]