The Harlem Branch of the New York Public Library. Image Credit: LPC

The library that would become the Harlem Branch was originally established in 1825. On February 2, 2021, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to calendar the Harlem Branch of the New York Public Library for future designation. The Harlem Branch is located at 9 West 124th Street across from Marcus Garvey Park in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan. (more…)

Central Harlem West 130-132nd Historic District. Image credit: LPC.

164-building potential district characterized by 19th-century residential architecture, and cultural and political history.            Landmarks held a public hearing on the potential designation of the Central Harlem West 130-132nd Historic District at its meeting on April 17, 2018. The district is composed of the block interiors on 130th, 131st, and 132nd Streets between Lenox Avenue and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard. The district includes approximately 164 buildings, chiefly built during a brief period of development in the final decades of the 19th century. The speculative rowhouses were constructed in architectural styles appealing to the middle class of the period, primarily Neo Grec, interspersed Queen Anne, Renaissance Revival, and Romanesque Revival. Landmarks Executive Director Sarah Carroll stated that the proposed designation had come about through Landmarks’ study of properties associated with African-American history and the civil rights movement. (more…)

Webber Packing House. Image Credit: LPC.

Potential individual landmarks added to the Commission’s calendar include two schools and a former meat packing plant. On November 14, 2017, Landmarks voted to add three items in East Harlem to its calendar for consideration as individual City landmarks. The three buildings are: The Richard Webber Harlem Parking House, at 207 East 109th Street; the former Public School 109, at 215 East 99th Street;  and the former Benjamin Franklin High School, at 260 Pleasant Avenue. The identification of the properties were done through a survey undertaken as part of a comprehensive plan to bring affordable housing and other public benefits to East Harlem. (more…)

Rendering of the proposed building at 841 St. Nicholas Avenue. Image credit: LPC

Seven-story building would have dance studio space at the ground floor. On June 27, 2017, Landmarks considered and approved a proposal for a new development on a vacant lot at 841 St. Nicholas Avenue, at the corner of 152nd Street, in the Hamilton Heights/Sugar Hill Northwest Historic District. The site was acquired by BRP Development Company from the Dance Theater of Harlem in 2016. A deed restriction on the property, limiting its use to non-profit cultural organizations, was controversially lifted in the same year. (more…)

St. Joseph of the Holy Family Roman Catholic Church in Manhattan. Image Credit: LPC

Two Catholic churches designated over archdiocese opposition. On June 28, 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to designate four Manhattan properties as individual City landmarks. Three of the items had been added to Landmarks calendar before 2010 and were addressed as part of the Commission’s backlog initiative. (more…)