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NYC Landmarks Commission Rejects Half of a Building

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The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission voted 6-3 on Tuesday to designate the B. F. Goodrich Company Building (1780 Broadway) as a landmark and at the same time reject the B. F. Goodrich Company Building at 225 West 57th Street. Although the buildings face adjacent streets, they are on the same lot and were both developed in 1909 by the same architect, Howard Van Doren Shaw, for the B. F. Goodrich Company. They are Shaw’s only extant buildings in New York.

The Historic Districts Council issued the following Preservation Alert after the vote:

At today’s hearing, all nine commissioners present stated their support for the designation of 1780 Broadway, mentioning its architectural design but stressing its historic connection to Automobile Row. Six commissioners stated that 225 West 57th Street was of lesser significance because it did not have Broadway frontage and was “an accessory building” to the larger Goodrich headquarters. The other three commissioners defended the significance of the building and spoke highly of its architectural merit as well as its history of automobile-related uses.

225 West 57th Street, cureently under scaffolding and construction shroudOf particular interest was LPC Chair Robert Tierney’s statement referring to the City Council’s concerns about this designation. After the public hearing on August 11th, Council Members Daniel Garodnick, Melinda Katz, Jessica Lappin and Christine Quinn sent a joint letter to the Landmarks Preservation Commission opposing the designation of 225 West 57th Street based on “its drab appearance”, that “the company never occupied the building” and that “the designation of 225 West 57th Street could fatally compromise the footprint of the proposed development on this site”. This unprecedented message reframed deliberations about the significance-based worthiness of the buildings into “the argument for preservation against the economic development rationale… [of] allowing for new development on sites where buildings stand today”. Commissioner Tierney went on to state his belief that since there was a likelihood that the City Council would overturn the designation of 225 West 57th Street, the LPC should make a priority of designating 1780 Broadway which everyone agreed should be preserved.

The buildings’ preservation had been supported by HDC, other preservation groups and the local community boards on the basis of their significance to the development of New York City as the center for the nascent American automobile industry, as well as for the importance of the buildings’ architectural design. 225 West 57th Street specifically was a very early and unusual fusion of traditional and Modern design elements, using motifs and techniques from the Chicago and Viennese Secessionist Schools. These points were supported by research in the LPC’s files.

Representatives of the owner, Extell Development, as well as the American Institute of Architects/New York Chapter testified in favor of the designation of 1780 Broadway but opposed to 225 West 57th Street, stating that the buildings were only significant historically as they related to Automobile Row. Since West 57th Street was not on Automobile Row and the building was not occupied by the B. F. Goodrich Company, it was not worthy of being preserved. Additional owner’s representatives also stated that they might pursue a hardship application if 225 West 57th Street was designated (Extell is proposing to build a 60+-story building on the block including this site and has been assembling lots and air-rights to allow for this development for some time.)

In the end, it would appear that the developers won. Thanks to their lobbying efforts the City Council leadership was apparently convinced that this landmark designation was detrimental to the City. The Council’s opposition to the designation resulted in the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s rejection of the building. This is not how it should work.

HDC is exceptionally disappointed in the LPC’s yielding to political pressure. If the City Council was going to reject the designation of a worthy building, then the Council should have been put in a position of justifying that action. By ceding the designation of 225 West 25th Street, the LPC has set a terrible example for future designations.

HDC is also extraordinarily disturbed by the Council’s actions in this instance. While it is entirely appropriate for CM Daniel Garodnick to weigh in on a designation within his district, doing so before the community board has a chance to review the project is, at best, precipitous. The joint letter from the four council members, with its not-so-veiled threat, was a direct assault on the independence of the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the integrity of the Landmarks Law.

HDC has contacted these council members about our concerns over their involvement and we will be taking additional steps to make sure that the Landmarks Preservation Commission and their process remain transparent and independent. We look forward to updating you in the coming months.

Photo: 1780 Broadway, NYC

Sex and the City: The Early Years

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On Wednesday, November 18th, Bill Greer, the author of The Mevrouw Who Saved Manhattan, is giving a talk at the Brooklyn Public Library, Central Branch, at 7 p.m. The lecture, entitled &#8220Sex and the City: The Early Years,&#8221 looks at the bawdy world of Dutch New York from 1624 to 1664. Through anecdotes of real people and events, the talk examines the libertine culture Europeans brought to the Hudson Valley and how this culture engendered an independent streak that fueled a rebellion of the common people against their rulers. This conflict, many historians argue, laid the foundation for the pluralistic, freedom-loving society that America became.

Greer is also a Trustee and Treasurer of the New Netherland Institute based in Albany.

Date: November 18, 2009
Time: 7 p.m.
Place: Brooklyn Public Library, Central Branch, Grand Army Plaza, in the Brooklyn Collection Reserve Room

This Weeks New York History Web Highlights

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Each Friday New York History compiles for our readers the week’s best stories and links from the web about the history of New York. You can find all our weekly web highlights here.

Iroquois Indian Museums Free Fall Party, Nov. 14

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The Iroquois Indian Museum in Howes Cave, NY invites everyone to attend a FREE Fall Party on Saturday, November 14 from 3 to 6 P.M. This year’s annual Fall Party kicks off a celebration of the Museum’s 30th anniversary. Visitors can enjoy our current exhibit: &#8220Native Americans in the Performing Arts: From Ballet to Rock and Roll&#8221, view a special tribute display to the late Ray Fadden, play Clan Animal Bingo for prizes, and sample the tasty refreshments.

The Iroquois Indian Museum is a truly unique cultural destination, strategically located just minutes from Howe Caverns. The Museum’s mission is to educate the public about Iroquois art, culture, and history. The Iroquois are those Native American peoples belonging to one or more of the Six Nations: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora. They are the original New Yorkers. The Museum houses one of the largest collections of contemporary Iroquois art in the world, alongside important historical and archaeological collections. The Museum features exhibits of both traditional and experimental Iroquois arts, an interactive hands-on Children’s Museum area, and offers a wide range of programs, tours, and special events, many of which can be geared to a group’s specific needs. The Museum building is a work of art in itself, designed in the shape and spirit of the old longhouses that once graced the valleys of upstate New York, but constructed as a fully modern building with a state of the art climate control system. The Museum is wheelchair-accessible, and can accommodate as many as 100 visitors at one time. The Museum also features a forty-five acre Nature Park with three hiking trails. Tours of the Museum and Nature Park can be planned for 1-4 hours, and advance reservations are usually necessary.

The Lenape: Lower New Yorks First Inhabitants

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Dr. David Oestreicher will present a lecture, The Lenape: Lower New York’s First Inhabitants on Sunday, November 8, 2:00-4:00 PM at the SUNY Albany Center for Arts and Humanities. For over twelve thousand years, the region that is now lower New York, New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware was home to groups of Lenape (Delaware Indians) and their prehistoric predecessors. By the late 18th and early 19th centuries, however, after a tragic series of removals had taken them halfway across the continent, the broken remnants of these tribes finally came to settle in parts of Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Ontario. By the late 20th century, only a handful of elders could still speak their native language, or had knowledge of the traditional ways.

In this lecture, David M. Oestreicher combines archaeological and historical evidence with decades of firsthand ethnographic and linguistic research among the last Lenape traditionalists. He gives a brief overview of the prehistory of the Mid-Atlantic region, describes how the Lenape and their neighbors subsisted at the time of European contact, why they ultimately left their homeland, and where they are living today.

Dr. Oestreicher touches upon the major historic events involving the Lenape, including the arrival of Henry Hudson &#8212- contrasting Hudson’s own words with Lenape oral traditions collected by Oestreicher and others over the centuries. He relates how the Lenape language, ceremonies, religious beliefs and life ways were impacted by removal from their traditional homeland.

The presentation includes a slide (or powerpoint) program featuring native artifacts, maps, illustrations and photographs of various life activities, and images of some of the most important tribal traditionalists &#8212- the last repositories of their culture. The talk concludes with an account of efforts today by the Lenape to reclaim their ancient heritage and revive long abandoned traditions. Those attending the presentation will have a unique opportunity to learn about our region’s original inhabitants &#8212- not the romanticized Lenape of popular mythology and recent new-age literature, but a special people as they really are.

For further information about this event, please contact:

E. James Schermerhorn
The Dutch Settlers Society of Albany
Phone: (518) 459-0608

http://www.dutchsettlerssociety.org

This lecture is a part of the New York Council for the Humanities Speakers in the Humanities program.

http://www.nyhumanities.org

Hudson Valley Edith Wharton Lecture Tonight

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Alan Price, Professor of English at the Pennsylvania State University will offer a lecture entitled &#8220The Hudson Valley Through Edith Wharton’s French Lens&#8221 tonight (Tuesday, November 3rd) at Poughkeepsie’s Marist College. The event will begin at 7 pm in the Hudson River Valley Institute&#8216-s Henry Hudson Room. A reception with light refreshments will follow.

Dr. Price is the author of The End of the Age of Innocence: Edith Wharton and the First World War (St. Martins, 1996) and co-editor of Wretched Exotic: Essays on Edith Wharton in Europe. He has published numerous essays situating Wharton in literary Naturalism and exploring the cultural-historical context of her fiction, e.g., “International Responses to Edith Wharton,” “Edith Wharton’s War Story,” “Dreiser’s Cowperwood and Wharton’s Undine,” “Lily Bart and Carrie Meeber: Cultural Sisters,” “The Composition of Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence,” “Edith Wharton at War with the American Red Cross.”

The event is sponsored by the Marist College Honors Program, the School of Liberal Arts, and the Hudson River Valley Institute.

New Jersey History Journal Resurrected After 4 Years

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The journal New Jersey History, founded as the Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society in 1845 and published under the direction of the Society until 2005, has been re-launched under the editorial direction of historians at the New Jersey Historical Commission, Kean University, and the Society. This peer-reviewed journal will be published online twice a year by the Rutgers University Libraries.

Peter Mickulas, editor of New Jersey History, has written New York History to say that the renewal of the Garden State’s premiere historical journal should be of interest to historians of New York as well. &#8220We’re likely to publish (and recruit) items of interest to New York historians and historians of New Netherlands in particular,&#8221 he told me in an e-mail, &#8220As the editor, I’m going construe &#8220regional&#8221 topics broadly.&#8221

The editorial staff invites scholars, students, and writers to submit scholarly articles aimed at a non-specialized audience for its forthcoming issues. They welcome essays from all disciplines &#8211 for example, law, literature, political science, anthropology, archaeology, material culture, cultural studies, and social and political history &#8211 bearing on any aspects of New Jersey’s history.

They are also interested in documents, photographs, and other primary source material that could be published with annotations.

The Fall 2009 issue, Volume 124, number 1, is now available online. This issue, the first published in four years, includes the following essays:

* Lucia McMahon, William Paterson University, &#8220&#8216-A More Accurate and Extensive Education than is Customary’: Educational Opportunities for Women in Early Nineteenth-Century New Jersey&#8221

* Matthew T. Raffety, University of Redlands, &#8220Political Ethics and Public Style in the Early Career of Jersey City’s Frank Hague&#8221

* Richard W. Hunter, Nadine Sergejeff and Damon Tvaryanas, &#8220On The Eagle’s Wings: Textiles, Trenton, and a First Taste of the Industrial Revolution&#8221

* Michael Kazin, Georgetown University, &#8220The Arc of Liberalism and the Career of Harrison &#8216-Pete’ Williams&#8221

The issue also presents a new historic &#8220Survey of the Canals and Water Raceways of New Jersey&#8221 by the New Jersey Geological Survey and reviews of new and notable scholarship on the history of the state.

NJH is also supported by the New Jersey Digital Highway, which will provide an additional access point for the journal from its website, and will preserve the digital version of the journal via the RUcore preservation platform. Rutgers University Press will help market the new journal, enabling it to reach the broadest possible audience.

For further details email peter.mickulas[AT]sos.state.nj.us or visit the journal homepage.

This Weeks New York History Web Highlights

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Each Friday New York History compiles for our readers the week’s best stories and links from the web about the history of New York. You can find all our weekly web highlights here.