Archives
TAKE BACK GOWANUS
Footprints in New York
From long-forgotten politicians to the movers and shakers of Gilded Age society, James and Michelle Nevius (Footprints in New York) will discuss the lives of iconic New Yorkers, then lead a walking tour of historic points in the neighborhood. Cosponsored by Preservation Greenpoint.
Where: WORD Bookstore
126 Franklin St, Brooklyn, New York 11222
Six To Celebrate Tour- Forest Close, Queens-Pictures
Forest Close, Queens
Saturday, June 7, 2014 (WALKING TOUR)
Led by architectural historian Barry Lewis, this walking tour covered some of the highlights of Forest Hills, one of the city’s most beautiful suburban-style communities developed in the early 20th century. Featured on the tour was Forest Close, a nook of 38 neo-Tudor houses surrounding a communal garden. Designed in 1927 in the spirit of the garden city movement, Forest Close can be described as an enclave within an enclave, its private orientation and country-inspired architecture lending charming appeal.
Six To Celebrate Tours- Park Avenue, Manhattan-Pictures
Park Avenue, Manhattan
Tuesday, June 17, 2014 (WALKING TOUR)
After a years-long preservation campaign by a coalition of residents, activists and community groups, 2014 is Park Avenue’s year! In February, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held an important Historic District hearing to landmark Park Avenue’s unprotected blocks, and in April, the Commission voted to landmark the district! The City Planning Commission will vote next week and City Council is expected to vote in the coming months. Tour guide Justin Ferate led this walking tour of New York City’s premier historic boulevard and explained about the effort to protect Park Avenue’s historical and architectural significance.
Six To Celebrate Tours- Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn-Pictures
Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn
Saturday, June 14, 2014(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. Tour guide Joe Svehlakleads walked 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.
Park Avenue Designated!!
On April 29th the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Park Avenue Historic District!! The district extends from the northeast corner of 79th Street to the south side of 91st Street, and contains approximately 64 buildings. Park Avenue was named one of HDCs Six to Celebrate groups in 2014. We have been working closely with many groups to advocate for the protection of Park Avenue for years. We testified in favor of the designation at the February 11, 2014 hearing.
“Historic buildings on this iconic avenue date from 1856 into the mid-20th century in an impressive array of 19th-century rowhouses and flats buildings, grand mansions, impressive institutional buildings, and distinctive 20th-century apartment buildings. In just a few blocks, the history of the growth of Park Avenue and Carnegie Hill is told by this important collection of buildings. The architecture is equal to that already designated on the Upper East Side, and many of the same notable architects, including Emery Roth, Rosario Candela, and Delano & Aldrich, designed structures both within and outside of the existing district boundaries. When combined with unique layout of Park Avenue and its planted malls, these buildings create the “special sense of place” the New York City Landmarks Law uses to describe historic districts.”
To read our full testimony click here .
To read the Designation Report and view the boundary map click here
Free Tour of Atlantic Avenue
Atlantic Ave BID will host free walking tour this weekend
Read more:Brooklyn Downtown Star – Atlantic Ave BID will host free walking tour this weekend
All of New York City will take to the streets this weekend for the annual Jane’s Walk global festival, where over 100 cities across the world will host free, locally led walking tours.
Jane’s Walk is inspired by Jane Jacobs, a famous urbanist, activist and writer. She dedicated much of her life looking at how cities function and how to improve them.
This weekend, New York City will host over 100 of its own Jane’s Walks, covering neighborhoods across the five boroughs. One of those walks will be run by the Atlantic Avenue Business Improvement District (BID).
Executive Director of Atlantic Ave. BID Josef Szende will lead the tour, taking participants from the end of Atlantic near the waterfront and walking them through the businesses and history that now make up the BID.
Szende will share the various layers of Atlantic’s fascinating history, starting with the days where it was a port for the South Ferry and working his way through the transitions to a Middle Eastern hub, a street full of antique stores and finally to modern day.
“I hope we get people out who have never been here before and want to check out the area,” Szende said, “but also some people who live here and don’t know all of the layers of history.”
Many will be surprised at some of the hidden gems of Atlantic Ave. Szende will discuss a secret tunnel under the avenue as well as the disappearance of Red Hook Lane and why Brazenhead Bar is built at an angle.
The walk will take place on Saturday, May 3 at both 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. It will be the first of a series of walking tours the Atlantic Ave. BID will be hosting throughout the summer.
Another walk will be hosted on June 14 by BID and the Historic Districts Council (HDC) as part of HDC’s Six to Celebrate, a program that celebrates six neighborhoods throughout the boroughs, which Atlantic Ave. has been selected for this year. That walk will also be free.
“It’s not about making money off of the tour,” Szende said. “It’s about getting to know the neighborhood.”
Those who are interested in Jane’s Walk should meet Szende at the southeast corner of Columbia and Atlantic. The full list of Jane’s Walks being hosted this weekend can be found at the Municipal Art Society of New York’s website
Read more:Brooklyn Downtown Star – Atlantic Ave BID will host free walking tour this weekend
Teeming Tenements Transformed: A Lower East Side Walking Tour
In Celebration of the First Annual Lower East Side History Month
Saturday, May 10, 2014, 12 noon – 2:00 pm
(Rain Date Saturday, May 17 – check website: friendsofthelowereastside.org)
Begins and ends on the Southeast corner of Delancey and Orchard Streets (F, J, M, Z trains to Delancey Street/Essex Street Station)
Cost: Free – Attendees MUST register by May 7 with all names to: friendsoftheles@gmail.com
“The Lower East Side is where millions of immigrants have taken their first steps in the New World on the road to the American Dream,” wrote Joyce Mendelsohn, our tour guide and author of the definitive guidebook to the area, The Lower East Side Remembered and Revisited. Although endangered, a number of blocks south of Delancey Street still retain the sense of place that would be familiar to our immigrant ancestors. The tour will focus on the history and architecture of the historic neighborhood with particular attention to the housing, institutions and businesses that were the center of immigrant life. The guided tour will highlight the impact of housing reforms reflected in the changes to the plans and features of tenements over time. “We will see pre-Old Law, Old Law and New Law tenements and look up at the elaborate terra cotta ornamentation that distinguishes many buildings,” said Mitchell Grubler, the tour’s co-leader.
The structures that housed some of the institutions and businesses which served the multitudes of immigrants will also be highlighted. The tour will pass a Neo-Renaissance style school designed by architect, C.B.J. Snyder in 1897; the former Independent Kletzker Brotherly Aid Society built in 1911; the 12-story former Jarmulowsky Bank of 1911-12; as well as a number of other significant buildings.
From Mae West to Punk: The Bowery on Film
The Bowery on film dates to the earliest days of cinema, when its rowdy, amoral reputation provided titillating material for early peep shows, one-reelers, and silent era features like Raoul Walsh’s REGENERATION (1915). It figured even more prominently in the early sound era when Boweryesque song and slang were exploited to the full in films like SHE DONE HIM WRONG (1933) with Mae West. The ravaged lives of the Bowery’s skid row have long fascinated artists, as seen in the documentary classic ON THE BOWERY (1956). Scott Elliott’s SLUMMING IT gives a wonderful overview of Bowery history, and Mandy Stein’s BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE is a poignant appreciation of Hilly Kristal’s legendary CBGB, made during the club’s final days.
With the Bowery imperiled by developers at every turn, we end the series with THE VANISHING CITY, a powerful look at the forces that threaten to obliterate the character and culture of our communities.
For more information about this film series click here
Presented by: Bowery Alliance of Neighbors
www.boweryalliance.org