If your first try at designing yourself a dress channels the tastes and practical needs of multitudes, that’s luck. If you manage to make a thriving business out of primarily selling that dress style, that’s bold determination. And if, in so doing, you chart an ethical path that reconciles the tension between globalization and localism, that’s inspiration. All three played a role in the story of our November Business of the Month, Zuri, at 363 Bleecker St (between Charles and W. 10th Sts.), where you can find the fabled dress and find that it makes you look great, whatever your configuration. This small, single-focused store launched online on a lark. But it soon landed on an improbable stretch of Bleecker St., amidst luxury chains and vacancies, and, in short order, spawned a sizable sorority of chromophiles, pattern enthusiasts, and global art aficionados, all while abiding by a radically conscientious and transparent business ethos. This is how it came to be.

Like many stories that begin with a commitment to a shared future, that of Zuri began at a wedding. Sandra Zhao, an American expat living in Nairobi after a brief post-college stint in the Village, was invited to one, needed something to wear, and reached for a sturdy but breathable dress that she had recently had inexpensively made for herself with local travel in mind. The dress was Sandra’s first experience with bespoke tailoring, but it reflected a clear vision. Made out of a colorful, local, cotton fabric, it had a structured fit on top, a loose fit below, and modest but versatile length. It was easy to wear, easy to pack, and easy to wash. In short, it was a perfect choice for most activities, including wedding-going.

At the wedding, Sandra met another American expat, Ashleigh Gersh Miller, who, perhaps with her pregnant state in mind, admired Sandra’s stylish but roomy dress. The two hit it off, and Sandra offered to have a dress made for her new friend. Soon afterwards, they started musing about the possibility of starting a business around selling this all-purpose, all-body-type dress. Neither had much retail experience. But the venture struck them as a fun, low-risk thing to try. And try they did, taking advantage of free trials to set up a website, spreading the word as far as their networks would reach, and spending days sending cold emails to every relevant journalist whose email they could find or guess. Their doggedness was rewarded with major media coverage within months of their early-2017 website launch. Soon, their hunch about the broad appeal of their dress was rewarded as well. At a popup they ran in the East Village, the line of shoppers curved around the block and culminated in a Dionysian spectacle, with women stripping down to their underwear by the dress racks and tossing each other dresses across the floor. That was the moment when Sandra and Ashleigh realized that their fun experiment had become a real business.

A real business, the partners thought, called for a real, physical store. Drawn to the neighborhood where she had briefly lived, Sandra strolled down the streets of the Village and called the number on every for-rent sign along Bleecker St. (and there were many). Only two responded. One of them, a family that had owned its building for decades, did what an institutional landlord probably wouldn’t have. It took a chance on a fledgling small business with zero track record and proposed a short-term lease at a reasonable rate. The partners jumped at the opportunity, ran the store for the duration of their lease term, took stock of the results, and asked for a more permanent arrangement. The landlords, who by then had befriended their tenants, obliged and extended terms that would allow Zuri to grow in its space. Next year will be the business’s 10th anniversary.

Zuri’s focal point throughout its existence has remained the dress. But the dress has evolved in numerous ways since Sandra wore its prototype to that fateful wedding. In terms of design, the sleeves lengthened, so it can be tied around the waist like a skirt, and buttons now run down the front, so that it can be worn like a jacket. It is also now available in a few permutations, such as sleeveless, extra long, and extra short, like a shirt. The fabrics are available in limited runs, which in itself adds constant novelty to the merchandise. But the variety among the dresses runs deeper than that. 

Most versions of the dress are made like Sandra’s original model, using local textiles that are then locally seamed together. But Zuri has long outgrown Sandra’s ability to personally procure fabrics or her independent seamstress’ capacity to sew them. As a result, production now primarily takes place at SOKO, a Kenyan, woman-owned factory that shares Zuri’s devotion to ethical production and to the creation of good, sustainable jobs. The factory gets all its water from a rainwater catchment system and three quarters of its power from solar panels. Employees earn above a living wage and receive paid leave, emergency stipends, free childcare, and access to a cooperative savings program. Beyond the factory, SOKO runs a stitching academy that trains students for careers in the industry.

Most of the fabrics for the dresses made at SOKO come from a range of women micro-entrepreneurs in Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, and Senegal whom Sandra and Ashleigh have met over the years. These fabrics all feature colorful wax prints, a colonial legacy that has since been culturally assimilated. The Dutch introduced the technology as a faster and cheaper mechanized alternative to the batik technique they had encountered in present-day Indonesia. Harking back to these design roots, Zuri has also started using handmade batiks from a small cooperative in Ghana for some of its dresses.

In addition, Zuri has responded to customer requests they long resisted for solid colors, turning to India’s oldest fair-trade organization for handwoven textiles whose texture offers the level of interest that the store usually finds in patterns.

Lastly, in an effort to support local manufacture and commercial agriculture in Kenya, Zuri has introduced a 100% made-in-Kenya line. Every stage, from planting the cotton to milling, weaving, printing of store-commissioned designs, and sewing happens in the country. 

Zuri complements its dress selection with a small range of accessories and artisanal products, such as recycled newspaper pencils, hand-knit stuffed animals, and handwoven coasters, all sourced with the same principled care as its dresses. Notable among these items are ones made out fabric remnants, like tote bags, aprons, and belts, which not only conform to the store’s minimal-waste ethos but also look great.

Zuri received an enthusiastic welcome on Bleecker from the outset, even from some neighbors unfamiliar with the store who were just glad to see an independent store open along this stretch of the corridor. For those already familiar, the shop offered a tactile and visual experience with the merchandise impossible to replicate on a website. For Sandra and Ashleigh, it presented an opportunity to come face to face with their customers and marvel at the diversity of women drawn by their dress—the young, the old, the tall, the short, the Rubenesque, the Shelley Duvall-esque, and everyone in between. The dress somehow seemed to flatter all. Beyond being a better platform for commerce, however, the space also soon became a place for people to connect over a shared affinity not just for the dress, its patterns, and its colors, but also for the story that they represent. Zuri came into being as a sort of celebration of cultural hybridity, deflecting the then-pervasive charges of cultural appropriation through transparency about the complex history of African textile production and through its dedication to fostering social change by reinvigorating local, sustainable economic production. Its storefront now invites all of us to become part of that ongoing story.

The name Zuri derives from mzuri, the Swahili word for good. For its commitment to doing good, while making customers look good, we are thrilled to name Zuri our November Business of the Month.

What special small business would you like to see featured next? Just click here to nominate our next one. Thank you! #shoplocalnyc

Here is a map of all our Businesses of the in Month:

The post Business of the Month: Zuri, 363 Bleecker Street first appeared on Village Preservation.

A resident of Greenwich Village (and western Massachusetts), Maddow is part of a neighborhood with a long tradition of independent thinkers, outspoken writers, artists, and political activists. Her work reflects that spirit of intellectual curiosity and willingness to challenge conventional narratives.

Maddow’s path to journalism was unconventional. Raised in Castro Valley, California, she graduated from Stanford University in 1994 with a degree in public policy. She went on to earn a Rhodes Scholarship, becoming the first openly gay American to receive one, and completed a doctorate in political science at Oxford University. Her academic background would prove central to her distinctive approach to journalism: she brings the instincts of a researcher and the perspective of a political historian to the examination of contemporary events.

Her broadcasting career began in radio, where she developed the engaging, conversational style that would later make her a familiar presence in American households. In 2008, she became the host of The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. The program established her as a leading voice in political journalism, known for its detailed reporting, historical context, and often unexpected connections between seemingly unrelated events.

What distinguishes Maddow is her insistence that the news cannot be understood in isolation. She frequently takes a single development and traces its origins, revealing the history and institutional decisions behind it. Her storytelling combines extensive research with a gift for making complicated subjects accessible and compelling.

That approach has extended well beyond television. Her podcast Bag Man investigated the political corruption scandal that led to the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew in 1973, a story that had largely faded from public memory. In Ultra, she examined the influence of Nazi sympathizers and far-right political movements in the United States during World War II, uncovering a little-known chapter of American history. The series received the 2023 Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism.

In her 2023 book, Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism, Maddow explored the efforts of Americans who worked to undermine democratic institutions in the years preceding World War II, as well as those who organized to resist them. The book draws striking connections between historical events and recurring challenges to American democracy.

Maddow’s work is not simply about revisiting the past. It is about understanding how history informs the present, why democratic institutions matter, and how individual decisions can have consequences far beyond their immediate moment.

That approach to storytelling has a natural parallel in the work of Village Preservation. We, too, believe that understanding the present requires looking closely at the past. Whether examining a threatened building, a proposed development, or a change in city policy, we trace the history, decisions, and forces behind what is happening today. By making that context accessible, we help people understand not only what is at stake, but why it matters. In both cases, history is not simply a record of what came before; it is an essential tool for making sense of the world around us.

Maddow’s personal story has also made her an important figure in American media. As an openly gay woman who has achieved extraordinary professional visibility in a field long dominated by men, she has expanded the possibilities of representation in broadcast journalism. She has spoken openly about her life and career while maintaining a focus on the reporting and ideas that define her work.

Greenwich Village, with its history of political dissent, artistic experimentation, and independent thought, provides a fitting setting for someone whose career is built around asking questions and challenging accepted accounts of events. Maddow’s connection to the neighborhood is part of a continuing Village tradition in which public life, intellectual inquiry, and the freedom to express unconventional ideas have long intersected.

We are proud to include Rachel Maddow among the women celebrated in Village Preservation’s WE STAND installation in Washington Square Park. Her inclusion recognizes not only her accomplishments as a journalist and author, but also the importance of independent inquiry, historical understanding, and the voices that help us make sense of our times.

In a world of fast-moving headlines and short attention spans, Maddow makes the case for slowing down, looking more closely, and understanding how we arrived at the present. Her work reminds us that history is never entirely behind us. It continues to shape the questions we face today.

The post Women Crush Wednesday: Rachel Maddow, the Journalist Who Makes History Matter first appeared on Village Preservation.

The New York City Department of Records and Information Services has assembled an interactive map to help people decipher the signs and connect with the stories behind nearly 2,500 co-named streets, intersections, parks, and other locations across the city. Our own communities feature a number of sites co-named for those who lived, worked, or created in our midst, including three that received honors in our communities over the last year. (Read about other such street honors over the past few decades here.)

Joseph Papp Way, Lafayette Street and Astor Place

Joseph Papp (1921–1991) was one of the most influential figures in American theater, driven by the conviction that great art should be accessible to everyone regardless of class or background. In 1954, he founded the New York Shakespeare Festival, pioneering free Shakespeare performances for New Yorkers who might otherwise never have had the opportunity to experience the works. Beginning with outdoor productions in Lower Manhattan’s East River Park in 1956, Papp brought theater directly into neighborhood parks, playgrounds, and public spaces throughout the city — an effort that led to confrontations with “Power Broker” Robert Moses. In 1962, Papp established the beloved Shakespeare in the Park, still going strong to this day at Central Park’s Delacorte Theater.

Five years later, Papp established the Public Theatre in the former Astor Library at 425 Lafayette Street in NoHo. The building, originally New York City’s first free public library, faced demolition before Papp championed its preservation and transformed it into a theater. Renovated to accommodate multiple performance spaces, the Public Theater became a pioneering force in the nonprofit theater movement. Over his career, he launched more than 900 productions, profoundly reshaping American theater, including such landmark works as Hair, A Chorus Line, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, and Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart. By making the Public a home for emerging voices and experimental work, accessible and representative of the city as a whole, Papp ensured that his theater would be a vital cultural institution in the East Village and New York City.

In recognition of Papp’s extraordinary contributions to New York and its cultural life, the intersection where the Public Theater stands at Lafayette Street and Astor Place was co-named Joseph Papp Way in 2017. The ceremony to install the new street signs also helped mark the Public Theatre’s 50th anniversary, honoring both the legacy of the invaluable off-Broadway  institution and of the man who started it all.

Frank Crapanzano Way, Waverly Place and Charles Street

One of the city’s newest co-named streets, established earlier this year honors Frank Crapanzano,  a longtime Greenwich Village resident, educator, and dedicated neighborhood volunteer whose efforts made the West Village’s McCarthy Square into an essential community oasis. Crapanzano spent 21 years in education, including serving as a guidance counselor at a South Bronx high school, and enjoyed a successful career as a print model and member of the Screen Actors Guild. He moved to 15 Charles Street in the mid-1970s, and he called it home fort almost five more decades. Following his retirement in 2006, he turned his attention to the neglected triangular park at Charles Street, Waverly Place, and Seventh Avenue South.

For more than 15 years, Crapanzano devoted countless hours to McCarthy Square, pulling weeds, planting flowers and bushes, picking up trash, raising funds from residents and local businesses, and working closely with the NYC Parks Department. His efforts made the small park a welcoming gathering place where neighbors could meet and build community. He also organized seasonal decorations and events, and helped restore the park’s World War II memorial. 

After Crapanzano passed in 2021, family and friends began a campaign to co-name Waverly Place between Seventh Avenue South and Charles Street in his memory. Frank Crapanzano Way was established in 2026 at the intersection of Waverly Place and Charles Street, beside McCarthy Square. The co-naming demonstrates how one person’s sustained dedication can transform a neglected public space into a cherished neighborhood landmark.

Donald Suggs Jr. Way, Avenue B and East 6th Street 

Donald Suggs Jr. was a longtime East Village resident whose activism, journalism, and artistic work left a lasting mark on the neighborhood and on LGBTQ+ and HIV/AIDS advocacy. A resident of East 6th Street, Suggs played an important role fighting for Black LGBTQ+ rights and transforming HIV prevention messaging. He served as a senior editor at The Village Voice, associate director of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), and program director at Harlem United Community AIDS Center. His activism included organizing a campaign against homophobia in the music industry that inspired Isaac Julien’s BBC film A Darker Shade of Black. 

In 1991, Suggs founded People Using Media to Do Prevention, a.k.a. the PUMP Project, which trained young people from communities heavily affected by HIV to produce their own video-based prevention campaigns. PUMP alumni later helped produce a television HIV-prevention campaign for Harlem that aired on MTV, VH1, BET, NY1, and Logo. Suggs’s work reflected his belief in the power of media to challenge prejudice, empower marginalized communities, and promote dignity and understanding. 

The southwest corner of East 6th Street and Avenue B was renamed Donald Suggs Jr. Way in 2022, honoring the activist at the intersection near his longtime home. The street sign ensures that Suggs’s legacy of activism, creativity, and community-building remains visible in the neighborhood where he lived and worked.

The post Co-Named Streets Commemorate Local Heroes, Part VIII first appeared on Village Preservation.

Although excluded from the original Greenwich Village Historic District designation in 1969, the South Village Historic District received landmark protection in 2013 following our South Village Historic District proposal in 2006 and years of advocacy. The neighborhood is distinguished by an extraordinary variety of historic buildings, from Federal-style row houses and pre-law, Old Law, and New Law tenements to examples of Greek Revival, Italianate, Renaissance Revival, and Beaux-Arts architecture. Amid this rich architectural landscape, the picturesque brick Sullivan Street Industrial School stands out for reflecting two important aspects of late nineteenth-century New York: the evolution of architectural form and the growing role of social reform initiatives.

Designed by Calvert Vaux and George Kent Radford and completed in 1891, the building was constructed for the Children’s Aid Society. Its combination of Victorian Gothic and Flemish Revival elements distinguished it from the surrounding residential streetscape, while its original function reflected broader efforts to address the educational and social needs of New York’s growing immigrant and working-class population.

The Children’s Aid Society and Industrial Education

Founded in 1853 by Charles Loring Brace, a Protestant minister and social reformer, the Children’s Aid Society sought to improve the lives of impoverished and vulnerable children in New York City. In response to the social consequences of rapid urbanization, immigration, and poverty, the organization established schools, lodging facilities, and other institutions offering academic instruction and vocational training.

The Sullivan Street Industrial School was among approximately a dozen such schools established by the Society, designed by Vaux and Radford. Located in a neighborhood with a growing Italian immigrant population, it provided instruction in traditional academic subjects as well as in practical skills such as woodworking, metalworking, and sewing. The school buildings were freestanding structures, designed according to the principle that each classroom should have windows on three sides to provide ample natural light and ventilation. For a broader history of the Children’s Aid Society in Greenwich Village and the East Village, see this blog post.

Architectural Design: Victorian Gothic and Flemish Revival

The Sullivan Street Industrial School replaced an earlier Federal-style house at the same address, and which was similar to the building visible at the right edge of the historic photograph above. The four-and-a-half-story school was constructed of red brick with brownstone trim and a prominent stepped-gable roof, combining Victorian Gothic elements, expressed through its vertical proportions, varied arched window openings, and contrasting masonry, with Flemish Revival influences evident in the roof shape and ornamental finials.

Victorian Gothic architecture adapted medieval forms to nineteenth-century buildings, employing pointed and rounded arches, pronounced rooflines, and contrasting materials to convey a sense of permanence and institutional dignity. At 219–221 Sullivan Street, these characteristics are evident in the segmental-arched windows, the round-arched upper-story window, and the brownstone bands that articulate the brick façade. More restrained in ornamentation than many contemporary examples of the style, the schoolhouse is of architectural interest due to the interplay of materials, window forms, and roofline, giving it a distinctive presence within the surrounding streetscape.

A Unique Story of Preservation: The Return of a Lost Architectural Feature

During a 1993 renovation, the Society adapted the interior to accommodate new classrooms and studios for art, dance, photography, pottery, and woodworking. The work also resulted in the removal of one of the building’s most distinctive architectural features: its original stepped-gable roof. But these would be the last changes made by the Children’s Aid Society as it closed this location in 2010.

In 2013, the former school underwent another major transformation through its conversion to residential use. This rehabilitation reinstated the stepped gable, restoring an important feature of the building’s original nineteenth-century design. The project thus combined adaptive reuse with the recovery of an architectural element lost during the earlier renovation.

The Sullivan Street School and the Preservation of the South Village

The history of 219–221 Sullivan Street is closely connected to the broader preservation of the South Village, whose built environment reflects successive periods of residential development, immigration, and social change. Its diverse building stock includes early row houses, tenements, commercial structures, religious institutions, and purpose-built community facilities. Together, these buildings document the neighborhood’s evolution, particularly its Italian-American heritage, Bohemian tradition, and its later significance in the city’s artistic, musical, and LGBTQ+ histories.

Village Preservation began advocating for landmark protection in the South Village in 2006. These efforts contributed to three New York City historic district designations: the Greenwich Village Historic District Extension II in 2010, the South Village Historic District in 2013, and the Sullivan-Thompson Historic District in 2016. The larger South Village was also listed on the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places.

The former Sullivan Street Industrial School contributes to the significance of the South Village Historic District through its design by Calvert Vaux and George Kent Radford, its association with the Children’s Aid Society, and its original role in providing education and vocational training to working-class children. It also represents a lesser-known aspect of Vaux’s architectural practice: his work for institutions serving vulnerable populations.

The building’s successive renovations could have resulted in the permanent loss of important aspects of its historic character. Instead, its 2013 conversion to residential use reinstated the most prominent feature, bringing the façade closer to its original design. The building’s inclusion in the South Village Historic District later that year was consequential in ensuring that future alterations respect the architectural character and historic features that remain.

Additional resources:

You can learn more about the campaign and the neighborhood’s protected buildings through Village Preservation’s South Village campaign and resource archive, which also provides access to maps, designation documents, historic photographs, and advocacy materials.

Learn more about the Italians of South Village here.

Learn why the South Village matters: What’s So Special About the South Village? 

The post The Sullivan Street Industrial School: Architectural Form, Social Reform, and a Unique Story of Preservation first appeared on Village Preservation.

Diane Von Furstenberg was born Diane Simone Michele Halfin on December 31, 1946, in Brussels, Belgium, to Jewish parents. Her mother, Liliane Nahmias, was captured by the Nazis during the war, taken to Auschwitz, and then Ravensbrück—only to be liberated 20 months before Diane’s birth. Born just after World War II, much of Von Furstenberg’s childhood was deeply shaped by her mother’s experience as a Holocaust survivor who instilled a deep conviction that “fear is not an option.”

In her early twenties, she met and married German aristocrat Prince Egon von Furstenberg. Although this union set Von Furstenberg up for a more-than-comfortable life, she was determined to succeed on her own and make her own fortune. She declined the title of Princess, opting instead for Ms. Her fashion career began soon after college. In Paris, she worked as an assistant to fashion photographer’s agent Albert Koski. In Italy, she apprenticed with the textile manufacturer Angelo Ferretti, learning all about cut, color, and fabric. In Italy, her unique perspective on women’s fashion began to take shape; she converted silk jersey wrap tops and skirts into a seamless, one-piece dress.

Soon after their wedding, the Von Furstenbergs left Europe for New York, where she quickly found fame as a designer, society figure, and Studio 54 mainstay. In 1974, the trajectory of Von Furstenberg’s fashion career irrevocably changed after she debuted her iconic wrap dress. The dress arrived at the height of second-wave feminism—its comfortable, lightweight fabric stood in stark contrast to the restrictive silhouettes often found in professional clothing. Marketed to professional, successful women, the dress debuted at $80 a piece—Von Furstenberg knew her clientele intimately, as they were her peers. Cinching at the waist, and ending just above the knee, the dress was universally flattering and wildly popular. Eccentric patterns and prints added to the garment’s versatility, making it a staple in any New York woman’s closet. Her eponymous company is more often known simply as DVF; her work became synonymous with her own trailblazing personhood.

Von Furstenberg’s connection to our neighborhood is longstanding. In the late 90s, she purchased a former factory and stable on West 12th Street in the West Village. Long before the neighborhood was hip and fashionable, Von Furstenberg converted the building into her studio, showroom, and personal residence. The cobblestone streets and brick facades reminded her of Belgium, and it didn’t take long for Von Furstenberg to feel right at home.

She became fast friends with restaurateur Florent Morellet, owner of Florent, formerly located at 69 Gansevoort Street. Florent was a no-frills diner; its lunch counter provided a French-American fusion of burgers, soups, mussels, and steak frites. Its clientele mirrored Von Furstenberg’s—a down-to-earth New York celebrity. When Florent first opened his diner, his monthly rent was $1,350. The restaurant closed in 2008 when the rent was set to rise to $30,000 a month. Known for its iconic stainless steel moderne R&L Restaurant sign (honoring Florent’s predecessor), the site was landmarked as part of the Gansevoort Market Historic District which Village Preservation secured in 2003.

In the early 2000s, Von Furstenberg established her fashion studio and showroom at 440-442 West 14th Street, in what is now the Gansevoort Market Historic District. Known as the French Flats building, 440-442 West 14th Street was designed by architects Thom & Wilson in 1890. The building shows that the neighborhood was always architecturally mixed, with both residential and commercial buildings. In more recent years, Von Furstenberg’s working studio was featured in Village Preservation’s annual House Tour Benefit.

From her revolutionary wrap dress to her longstanding ties to the West Village and Meatpacking District, von Furstenberg has left a lasting mark on both the fashion industry and New York City. We’re excited to feature Diane Von Furstenberg and honor her legacy this winter through our WE STAND public art installation in Washington Square Park. Celebrating the remarkable women who have shaped Greenwich Village, the East Village, NoHo, and the nation, We Stand invites visitors to take part in the rich history of these Village trailblazers and carry their stories forward. If you are interested in donating to WE STAND, you can do so here.

The post Diane von Furstenberg: A Fashion Icon in the Village first appeared on Village Preservation.

Few lines of American poetry are as recognizable as these words from Emma Lazarus’s “The New Colossus.” Inscribed on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, they have become an enduring expression of the American dream. Though these few words define Lazarus’s legacy, her life and impact extended far beyond them. She was also a lifelong Greenwich Village resident, a Jewish American writer, and a passionate advocate for people fleeing persecution.

Today, Emma Lazarus’s legacy continues to resonate as a part of WE STAND, Village Preservation’s new public art and history initiative. Celebrating the remarkable women who have shaped Greenwich Village, the East Village, NoHo, and the nation, We Stand invites visitors to take part in the rich history of these Village trailblazers and carry their stories forward.

Born in New York City on July 22, 1849, Emma Lazarus grew up in a wealthy Sephardic Jewish family descended from some of the earliest Jewish settlers in America. Her family had deep roots in Greenwich Village, where she spent much of her life.

A gifted writer from an early age, Lazarus studied classical literature and several European languages, translated the works of celebrated authors, and began publishing poetry as a teenager. Her literary talents eventually caught the attention of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who became an important mentor.

As antisemitism intensified in Europe and Jewish refugees sought safety in the United States, Lazarus became increasingly committed to confronting prejudice and assisting those in need. She volunteered with Jewish immigrants and refugees, worked with people at Ward’s Island, and helped establish the Hebrew Technical Institute in our neighborhood, which provided vocational training to disadvantaged immigrants.

Her advocacy was inseparable from her identity as a Jewish American and from her understanding of the responsibilities that came with belonging to a community. She wrote about Jewish history, persecution, and belonging at a time when Jewish people faced discrimination on both sides of the Atlantic.

In 1883, Lazarus and her family moved into 18 West 10th Street, an Italianate-style house built in 1856. That same year, she wrote the poem that would ultimately define her legacy.

Commissioned by writer Constance Cary Harrison for a fundraising exhibition to help complete the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, “The New Colossus” offered a new vision of the monument that departed from the original intent. Rather than emphasizing military might or national power, Lazarus imagined Liberty as a welcoming figure offering refuge to those in search of freedom.

The poem was not immediately associated with the statue when it was unveiled in 1886. Lazarus died in 1887, at just 38 years old, and did not live to see her words become a defining part of the monument. Thanks to the efforts of her friend Georgina Schuyler, “The New Colossus” was rediscovered and eventually installed on a bronze plaque inside the statue’s pedestal in 1903.

From her home on West 10th Street, a Greenwich Village poet helped transform the meaning of one of the nation’s most recognizable landmarks.

Lazarus’s legacy offers a compelling lens through which to understand WE STAND. Designed for Washington Square Park, WE STAND will feature a monumental, 12-foot-high structure inspired by the park’s iconic arch. Titled “We Follow in Her Footsteps,” the installation is intended to bring the stories of remarkable women into public view and invite visitors to carry their legacies forward.

The project celebrates a wide range of women, from Abigail Adams and Edna St. Vincent Millay to Marsha P. Johnson, Jane Jacobs, and Sonia Sotomayor. Their fields of achievement differ, but their stories share a common thread: women who challenged conventions, expanded possibilities, and left an enduring mark on public life.

Learn more about WE STAND here, and learn more about the many incredible women in our neighborhoods through Village Preservation’s Civil Rights and Social Justice Map. You can also join the waitlist for our upcoming inaugural WE STAND event, Follow in Her Footsteps – Greenwich Village Women’s History Walking Tour.

The post Emma Lazarus: The Greenwich Village Poet Who Redefined Liberty first appeared on Village Preservation.

E. Mittelstaedt, Inc. at 86 University Place

In 1889, German immigrants Bernhard and Emma A. Mittelstaedt purchased 86 University Place as both their family home and the headquarters of E. Mittelstaedt, Inc., a business specializing in women’s hair products. The company had been importing and wholesaling human hair since at least the 1870s, when it operated from Canal Street. Elaborate hairstyles were fashionable during the Victorian era, and wigs and hairpieces were in high demand. Emma Mittelstaedt contributed to the business beyond its daily operations. In November 1881, she filed a patent for an improved hair-front for women, which was granted in February 1882. Her design was intended to be more durable, easier to secure, and wearable with or without a part.

The business eventually expanded into the neighboring building at 84 University Place. Meanwhile, the Mittelstaedts continued living at No. 86, renting out portions of the house to tenants. After Bernhard’s death in 1917, their children continued the business. Harriet Mittelstaedt, the last member of the family to occupy the house, donated it to New York University in 1958 on the condition that she could remain there for the rest of her life. She lived there until her death in 1964.

Today, 86 University Place faces planned demolition. This building’s loss would mean erasing a key piece of the neighborhood’s history, including its connection to the Mittelstaedt family and their hairpiece business. Village Preservation is campaigning to save the building and urging the city to recognize its historic significance. Learn more about the campaign to save 86 University Place and how you can help.

Wilson Sewing Machines at 827–831 Broadway

Shortly after its construction in 1866, 827–831 Broadway became the headquarters and showroom of Wilson Sewing Machines. Inventor Allen Wilson had developed a sewing machine in 1850, and his company helped change how clothing was manufactured and repaired. The company earned recognition at international exhibitions, receiving awards at exhibitions in Paris and London in the 1860s and at the Vienna Exhibition in 1873. That same year, it also received the Gold Medal of Honor from the American Institute in New York. These awards reflected the company’s standing in an industry that was transforming both garment production and domestic life.

Madame Demorest at 10 East 14th Street

During the 1870s, 14th Street changed from a high-end residential neighborhood into a center of commerce, with former private residences converted into stores and specialty shops. W. Jennings Demorest was among the businessmen who helped drive this transformation. Along with his wife, Ellen Demorest, he built a fashion business that included Madame Demorest’s Fashion Emporium and the publications Demorest’s Illustrated Monthly Magazine and Demorest’s Mirror of Fashions. The magazines brought fashion news and styles to readers beyond the shop itself. The current building at 10 East 14th Street was constructed after a building collapse in September 1879. Demorest purchased it by 1884, adding a show window at the parlor level and converting the upper floors into offices and studios. The building became part of the couple’s wider fashion enterprise during a period when 14th Street was establishing itself as a commercial destination.

Amasa Lyon & Company at 814 Broadway

Amasa Lyon & Company manufactured umbrellas, parasols, and walking sticks, earning a reputation for the quality of its products. King’s Handbook of New York praised the company’s craftsmanship and the range of materials used in its products, from woods and metals to ivory, horn, silk, and lace. Its reputation reached the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where, according to the handbook, Lyon products were the only umbrellas, parasols, and canes sold on the grounds.

These businesses show how much more there was to the fashion industry than clothing stores and designers. South of Union Square, inventors, manufacturers, publishers, and craftspeople all contributed to an industry that shaped everyday life. Their stories also give us a reason to look more closely at the historic buildings where these businesses operated. You can take the full South of Union Square fashion history tour and three dozen other themed tours HERE, and urge the city to landmark and protect this special history HERE.

The post Fashion’s Footprint South of Union Square first appeared on Village Preservation.

Those connections remain visible in the neighborhood’s streets and buildings, from the site of a Roosevelt family mansion near Union Square to a former police station in the Far West Village. Along the way, we can also explore the work of Frances Perkins, whose efforts on behalf of workers brought her into contact with the former president.

Stop 1: Theodore Roosevelt’s Birthplace

28 East 20th Street

Our walk begins just north of Union Square, where Theodore Roosevelt was born into a prosperous New York family. He spent much of his childhood at 28 East 20th Street before his family moved uptown in 1872.

The brownstone we see today, however, is not the original house. The building was demolished in 1916, and after Roosevelt’s death in 1919, the Women’s Roosevelt Memorial Association acquired the property and recreated his childhood home. Today it is the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site.

The story of the house and its reconstruction offers a reminder of how much this area changed as commercial development moved northward.

Stop 2: The Site of the Roosevelt Family Mansion

Southwest corner of Broadway and East 14th Street

Walk south to Union Square and the former site of the home of Theodore’s grandfather, Cornelius Van Schaack Roosevelt. A wealthy merchant and real estate owner, Cornelius acquired property along Broadway between East 13th and East 14th Streets and built his mansion at the northern end of the block.

The house is associated with a remarkable moment in American history. In April 1865, Abraham Lincoln’s funeral procession traveled up Broadway toward Union Square. A well-known photograph shows the procession passing the Roosevelt home, where the young Theodore and his brother Elliott are said to have watched from an upstairs window.

The mansion was later demolished, but the photograph preserves a glimpse of the future president’s childhood neighborhood. Explore the image and the story of the procession in Village Preservation’s “The Nation Mourns: Lincoln’s Final Journey Through New York”.

Stop 3: The Roosevelt Building

841 Broadway at East 13th Street

Continue south along Broadway to the Roosevelt Building, a striking reminder of the family’s continued presence in the area after the mansion disappeared.

Completed in 1894 and designed by architect Stephen D. Hatch, the commercial building was developed by members of the Roosevelt family on property associated with Cornelius’s holdings. Its construction reflects the transformation of the neighborhood south of Union Square from an elite residential enclave into a bustling commercial and manufacturing district.

Look up to appreciate the building’s ornate façade, with its combination of Romanesque and Renaissance Revival elements. The Roosevelt Building was designated an individual New York City landmark in 2019.

Learn more about the building in “The Roosevelt Building—Where Great History and Architecture Intersect” and explore the wider neighborhood on our South of Union Square map.

Stop 4: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Site

23–29 Washington Place at Greene Street

From Broadway, head south and west to Washington Place. Here stands the former Asch Building, now known as the Brown Building, site of the devastating Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on March 25, 1911.

The fire claimed the lives of 146 workers, most of them young women, many from immigrant families. The tragedy galvanized a movement for stronger workplace protections. Among those who witnessed it was Frances Perkins, a young social reformer living in Greenwich Village.

The connection to Theodore Roosevelt came afterward: the former president recommended Perkins for a leadership role with the Committee on Safety, which worked to improve conditions for workers. The fire and the reform campaign that followed would shape Perkins’s lifelong work.

Read more about the tragedy and how it is remembered today in Village Preservation’s “How Greenwich Village Remembers the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire” and Columbia University’s Frances Perkins exhibition.

Stop 5: Frances Perkins’s Greenwich Village Home

121 Washington Place

A short walk west brings us to 121 Washington Place, where Frances Perkins once lived and where Village Preservation unveiled a historic plaque in late October 2024 honoring her.

Perkins had already immersed herself in the Village’s community of reformers. She lived and trained at Greenwich House, the settlement house founded to serve the neighborhood’s growing immigrant population. Her work for workplace safety in New York would lead to an extraordinary national career: in 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore’s distant cousin, appointed her Secretary of Labor, making her the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet.

The plaque and the nearby Triangle fire site help tell a story that connects two Roosevelt presidencies to the Village through the life and work of one pioneering reformer.

Read more in “Frances Perkins: From Greenwich House to the White House” and about Village Preservation’s plaque unveiling.

Stop 6: The Former Ninth Police Precinct Station House

133–137 Charles Street

Our final stop takes us west to Charles Street and a building linked directly to Roosevelt’s own public career. Before he became governor and president, Roosevelt served on New York City’s Board of Police Commissioners from 1895 to 1897.

Built in 1896–97, the former Ninth Police Precinct Station House was the first police station constructed in the city during his tenure. Architect John duFais designed it in the Renaissance Revival style. Roosevelt and his friend, journalist Jacob Riis, were known to patrol the streets together as Roosevelt sought to address corruption and misconduct within the department.

The former station house was later converted into apartments and remains a distinctive part of the Far West Village. It is protected within the Greenwich Village Historic District Extension I, designated in 2006 after advocacy by Village Preservation.

Learn more in our Presidents’ Day look at Roosevelt and the station house and our history of the Greenwich Village Historic District Extension.

From East 20th Street to Charles Street, this walk traces more than the life of one president. It reveals a changing New York: a city of wealthy family homes and ambitious commercial buildings, of crowded factories and reform movements, and of historic structures that still help us tell those stories today.

To continue exploring, visit Village Preservation’s South of Union Square map and our Greenwich Village Historic District resources.

The post Celebrating a President’s Birthday with a Neighborhood Tour first appeared on Village Preservation.

Before joining Village Preservation, Zeynep served as Director of Preservation at FRIENDS of the Upper East Side, where she worked on advocacy initiatives and community engagement. She led Preservation Committee meetings, tracked projects through the review process, and prepared testimony for public hearings. To keep residents informed about the work of the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), she launched FRIENDS’ “Friends at LPC” e-blast series, covering upcoming hearings and Commission decisions.

Through her writing and photography, Zeynep documented the architecture of the Upper East Side and brought attention to the stories behind its historic buildings. Her work also addressed the loss of affordable housing in Yorkville and how it contributes to the displacement of longtime residents, underscoring the importance of preserving not only historic buildings but also the communities that give neighborhoods their character.

Zeynep’s work in historic preservation extends beyond New York. In 2013, she contributed to an evaluation of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture’s preservation initiatives, including the Aga Khan Award for Architecture and the Historic Cities Program. She developed and analyzed surveys of design professionals and students across several countries and authored reports documenting the preservation conditions of four award-winning historic sites in Türkiye.

As an educator, Zeynep has taught design, architectural history, and urban studies at colleges and universities in New York City, Istanbul, and Philadelphia. Her teaching and research examine how people interact with their surroundings, from individual objects and buildings to public spaces and urban landscapes.

Zeynep holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Psychology from the CUNY Graduate Center, an M.A. in Architectural History from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, and a B.A. in Architecture from Middle East Technical University in Ankara. She moved to New York in 2001, just weeks before September 11, and has since made the city her home. She also serves as Treasurer of the Board of the Victorian Society of New York, which promotes appreciation and preservation of Victorian-era architecture.

Zeynep is especially interested in adaptive reuse and how historic buildings can take on new life as hubs for learning, culture, and community while retaining the architectural details and histories that make them meaningful. “I feel privileged to join Village Preservation and be part of its fearless advocacy work to protect the neighborhoods it represents and their human scale and cultural fabric,” she shared on her first day. “I’m excited to advocate for new historic district designations through research and outreach, and to get more people engaged in how preservation sustains our cities and identities.”

Welcome aboard, Zeynep! She can be reached at zturan@villagepreservation.org.

The post Welcome Aboard, Zeynep Turan first appeared on Village Preservation.

Wright was well known as someone who despised New York City, yet he arrived here in the 1920s at a low point in his career, hounded by failure and scandal, only to find a revitalizing energy here. “New York catalyzed the years between 1925 and 1932 as the pivotal point in Frank Lloyd Wright’s career,” wrote Anthony Alofsin, author of Wright in New York. “The two visionary buildings he created for the city — a vast Modern Cathedral and a new prototype for the skyscraper — liberated his imagination to launch the most dramatic phase of his professional life.”

Both projects came about thanks to his partnership with William Norman Guthrie, rector of St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery at East 10th Street and Second Avenue. Guthrie was named to that position at one of the city’s oldest churches in 1911, and faced a dwindling congregation and a neighborhood going through major changes in population and quality of life. He needed to rebuild his flock, bring life back to the community, and stabilize church finances. 

Part of Guthrie’s solution was to revise Episcopal liturgy and create new rituals, but he also needed an architectural vision to support those goals. Fortunately, he was both a longtime client and close friend of Wright’s.

The first project they partnered on for the church was 1926’s “Steel Cathedral for a Million People.” The design was for a massive, multidimensional sacred space that featured signature prismatic, angular, and soaring structural forms incorporating modern materials like steel and glass. Wright linked all religions around a large central space of light, under a bell tower that would have reached more than 750 ft. That effort did not go much further than architectural drawings.

The following year, Wright and Guthrie began to develop plans for an innovative residential tower project on church property that would transform the surrounding site and provide income for St. Mark’s. The architect’s initial proposal envisioned an 18-story tower containing duplex apartments, with glass walls, balconies, and a structural system that departed dramatically from conventional skyscraper construction. Wright ultimately presented a larger scheme that included three more towers around the church, creating a landscaped, park-like setting between the buildings. Rather than filling the site with a solid mass of construction, he imagined open ground, natural light, and greenery integrated into the dense urban neighborhood.

The towers were far ahead of their time, both visually and structurally. Wright developed an ingenious “tap-root” system in which a central concrete-and-steel core supported floors projecting outward like branches from a tree. This approach reduced the need for conventional supporting columns and allowed expansive glass exteriors. The rotated floor plans created distinctive apartment layouts, while the spaces between the towers were intended to provide light and air rather than the dark urban canyons Wright associated with traditional skyscrapers. 

Wright unveiled the project at the church’s rectory at East 11th Street — Village Preservation’s current home — on November 4, 1929, just a few days after the stock-market crash that marked the beginnings of the Great Depression. Had the project been built, it would have anticipated important developments in modern high-rise architecture by decades. It ultimately faced opposition from conservative members of the church community and economic realities after the crash, and the project was abandoned.

While their plans went unrealized, Guthrie’s willingness to commission such unconventional designs gave Wright an opportunity to explore ideas that continued to shape the architectural thinking that led to the Guggenheim and other essential works. Wright later recycled both projects into buildings elsewhere: the Steel Cathedral can be seen at a much smaller scale with the Beth Sholom Synagogue in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, while the St, Mark’s towers were brought to life as Price Tower, a corporate headquarters in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

Read more about Wright’s work and influence in our neighborhoods here.

The post What Could Have Been: Frank Lloyd Wright in the East Village first appeared on Village Preservation.