Preservation News... Landmarks on the Lower East Side?

Jarmulovsky Bank Building, via Greenwich Village Daily Photo.

In July, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission met to discuss landmark designation for 17 individual historic properties, including:

- 143 Allen Street House, at Rivington Street in Manhattan, a two-story intact Federal style residence constructed c. 1831.

- The Hebrew Actors’ Union, at 31 East 7th Street between Second and Third avenues, constructed in the late 19th century

- The former Germania Fire Insurance Company building, at 357 Bowery, south of Cooper Square, a Second Empire style, 3 ½ story building completed in 1870

- 97 Bowery building, near Hester Street, a five-story Italianate commercial structure with a cast-iron façade constructed c. 1869

- Ridley & Sons Department Store, 319-321 Grand Street between Orchard and Allen streets, one of a pair of five-story, cast-iron buildings constructed c. 1886.

- Jarmulowsky Bank, 54 Canal St. at Orchard Street, a 12-story limestone and brick Beaux Arts style building built 1911-1912

You may remember reading about the Jarmulowsky clan in a past blog post. The Ridleys were just as nutty; read about them on the Inside the Apple blog.

The Ridley & Sons Department Store was a major neighborhood landmark, providing jobs for young immigrant women and fashionable clothes for a fraction of the cost of the stores uptown. The large windows are a sign of the times when indoor lighting was minimal. You can also see where the building was chopped up after Allen Street was widened in the early 20th century. All interesting stuff.

Former Ridley Department Store. Note where the arch in the brown windows abruptly ends - the building was sheared off when the El was torn down and the street was widened.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission recently let us know that they've added these properties to the calendar and will review their historic merit at an upcoming meeting. As it turns out, they are discussing Jarmulowsky at a meeting today. Too bad they don't have a live blogger or a Twitter feed... we'll have to wait to find out how it's going.

This is all good news; while the Commission is waiting to review the buildings, the owners can't alter them or tear them down. The Grand Street property that was once Ridley's is currently up for sale, as was Jarmulowsky's in the spring, so it's definitely a positive step for these properties to have protection.

- Posted by Kate Stober

Historic Preservation Update- Syrian Church Granted Landmark Designation

The Landmark's Commission calls St. George's Syrian Catholic Church on Washington Street, which it designated as a historic landmark last month, "the most significant remnant of the Lower Manhattan immigrant enclave known as 'the Syrian Quarter,' the 'Mother Colony' of Syrians and Lebanese in New York." About half of Manhattan's Middle Eastern community, which began settling on the lower west side in the late 1800s, were Melkite Greek Catholics. The church was built in 1812 and served as an immigrant boarding house until the mid 1920s, when it was purchased by a wealthy linen merchant. It was given a stunning neo-Gothic makeover, and served as a center of Melkite worship until the end of World War II, when the neighborhood's Middle Eastern population dwindled. The church currently houses Moran's Restaurant and Bar, whose owners took care to preserve the building's historical facade.


St. George's Church, left, and New York's Syrian Quarter - now TriBeCa and the western half of the Financial District- in the first half of the 20th century.

-posted by Liana Grey

Historic Preservation Update - Manhattan and Brooklyn Buildings Receive Landmark Status

In a single day last week, the Landmarks Commission scheduled hearings on 1,100 buildings seeking landmark designation and took several sites under its wing- a record for the agency that's been protecting New York's historic structures for over four decades, following the demolition of Stanford White's grand, original Penn Station in 1963. On June 23rd, it named an 850-building section of Prospect Heights a historic district, and granted landmark status to several buildings in Manhattan: a four story red brick apartment house on the corner of Greenwich and Rector Streets (built in 1799 as a private residence in what was then one of New York's most fashionable neighborhoods, and converted over the years into a men's boarding house, pub, hotel, and mixed use space), a five and a half story townhouse on East 51st Street occupied at the turn of the century by a wealthy granite contractor, and a 19th century Harlem church. For more details, check out this press release.



Early 20th Century row houses in the newly declared Prospect Heights Historic District

-posted by Liana Grey