Despite a recent push to move forward quickly on plans to build Moynihan Station within the Farley Post Office on Eighth Avenue in Midtown, this dream deferred will have to wait a while longer. The good news is this delay gives the public a chance to weigh in on how the state should spend what could add up to $1.5 billion of public money. The time to speak up is now. Continue Reading>>

What do an Irish Catholic Church on the Lower East Side and a fire house in Brooklyn have in common? More than meets the eye. Though very different in obvious ways, both St. Brigid’s Church on Tompkins Square and Engine Company 212 in Williamsburg are Places that Matter that face imminent threats to their existence. In a testament to their important presence in New York’s history and culture, both also have organized groups who are devotedly advocating to save them, making them, among other things, symbols of community activism. Continue Reading>>

When the Eldridge Street Synagogue opened in 1887, the Lower East Side was a very different place than it is today. These days if you visit the synagogue, you will find it seemingly out of place in the center of Chinatown. However, in the late 19th Century, the Lower East Side was brimming with a community of Eastern European immigrants who flooded the Synagogue every year during the high holidays. With a congregation that topped 1,000 members, services would bring together affluent bankers and entrepreneurs with working class fishmongers and garment workers. Continue Reading>>

Though City residents often groan about the early onset of Christmas brought to New York by retailers who begin piping Christmas music as soon as Thanksgiving approaches, there is one spot in the Bronx where the holidays are heralded every year with a unique and widely anticipated display. Continue Reading>>

It is difficult to imagine that Greenwich Village – a neighborhood where rents approach what some might consider highway robbery – was once home to a group of residents who paid the rent by playing guitar in the basement for an audience paying 35c per head. But that is exactly what the Almanac Singers did when they occupied the place they dubbed “Almanac House” in its various locations in Greenwich Village during the early 1940s. Continue Reading>>

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The first parade, staged in 1924 and called “The Macy’s Christmas Parade,” featured live animals from the Central Park Zoo and was organized by Macy’s employees to celebrate their new American heritage. With the exception of World War II when the store ceremoniously deflated and donated its parade balloons to the war effort (generating 650 pounds of scrap rubber), the parade has been marching down the center of Manhattan almost every year since. Continue Reading>>

A Civil War-era graving dock, along with associated high-wage jobs, are threatened on Brooklyn’s waterfront if current plans for an Ikea store proceed. But alternative plans commissioned by the Municipal Art Society show that the new development can coexist with the historic structures and the working waterfront. (Click here to learn more about a related MAS lawsuit.)

In 2004, the MAS learned that five significant buildings and a ship-repair graving dock in Red Hook were in jeopardy. The National Register-eligible structures, some dating to 1866, were set for demolition to make way for the store’s parking lot. Continue Reading>>

Testimony of the Municipal Art Society Before the New York Landmarks Commission on City and Suburban Homes Company, First Avenue Estate, 429 East 64th Street and 430 East 65th Street

MAS strongly supports the amendment of the boundaries of the City and Suburban First Avenue Estate to include the 429 East 64th Street and 430 East 65th Street, which were removed from the original boundaries by the now-defunct Board of Estimates. Continue Reading>>

Tucked away on Amity Street, a small dead-end street in Rosebank, Staten Island, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Grotto has been receiving pilgrims and others who appreciate its beauty and serenity since 1938. The Grotto consists of a main shrine, smaller structures, and a central fountain, all situated in a small yard that a pilgrim once likened to a “jeweled city.” Continue Reading>>

Macy’s opened in 1858 on Sixth Avenue between 13th -14th streets. The authors of Gotham write that Rowland H. Macy, “a close friend of P.T. Barnum, used his talent of publicity to draw clientele, producing thematic exhibits and fashioning elaborate Christmas extravaganzas that featured a store Santa and illuminated window displays, introduced in 1874.” The store opened in its current location in 1902. The Thanksgiving Day Parade began in 1924, but a two-year hiatus during World War II makes this year’s the 80th parade. Continue Reading>>