NEWS: Far West Village Designated a Historic District
From NY1 News: http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=59070
Far West Village Area Earns Landmark StatusMay 02, 2006
Score one for the underdogs in the ongoing battle over preserving the character of historic Greenwich Village.
NY1’s Rebecca Spitz was at a hearing Tuesday over landmarking another part of the area and she filed the following report.
It was 10 a.m., but it was not too early to celebrate an historic day for an historic district. Moments earlier, the Far West Village was awarded landmark designations. “The merits of this were incontestable,” says Robert Tierney. Tierney is Commissioner of the Landmarks Preservation Commission which voted unanimously to protect more than 55 buildings. Included within the new historic district: Weehawken Street and 5-city blocks, including parts of Washington, Greenwich, Perry, Christopher, Charles and West 10th Streets. The decision also extends the district 3 blocks to the west, the first expansion since it was created in 1969. “It’s so wonderful after 40 years of work to finally arrive at this day when we can say ‘we did it,’ ” says Andrew Berman of the Greenwich Village Historic Preservation Society. The quaint character of the Village is something that residents have fought tirelessly to protect. Specifically, they’ve railed against modern high-rise buildings they say are at odds with the neighborhood’s charm. This time, they found an ally in the landmarks commissioner who’s lived in the Village for almost 40 years. “I’ve loved walking through the West Village over the years, through this great historic district, and now I have even further to go and see those great brown street signs that signify landmarks,” says Tierney. “Whether you live in the Village or not people love this neighborhood. They feel a part of it, they feel connected to it; that’s one of the things that make it so great,” says Berman. Preservationists are happy but say they aren’t finished – yet. They’ll be back before the commission fighting to have individual buildings landmarked as well as some streets in the South Village that border Little Italy. – Rebecca Spitz