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MCNY Celebrates Landmarks Law Turning 50

Now at the Museum of the City of New York is Saving Place: 50 Years of New York City Landmarks, an exhibit that explores New York City’s landmark preservation movement, in conjunction with the anniversary of the signing of the Landmarks Law by former New York City Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr. on April 19, 1965. The exhibit includes hundreds of photos, letters and artifacts, demonstrating the city’s evolving community of officials, developers, owners, architects, journalists and activists that help to make [or break] a potential landmark status.

Radio City Music Hall, the iconic, art-deco concert venue and home of the New York Rockettes, came very close to be being demolished, had it not been named in 1978 a landmark. That same year, Former first Lady Jacqueline Onassis played a pivotal role in campaigning to get landmark status for Grand Central Station. Sadly, Penn Station, the original Carnegie Hall and the original Ziegfeld Theatre did not make the cut and were demolished.

Interior of NYC landmark Grand Central Station, by Apple Store. Photo by Iwan Baan.

According to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, there are currently more than 33,000 landmark properties in New York City, most of which are located in 114 historic districts and 20 historic district extensions in all five boroughs. The total number of protected sites includes 1,347 individual landmarks, 117 interior landmarks and 10 scenic landmarks.

The exhibit is co-curated by Donald Albrecht, the City Museum’s Curator for Architecture and Design, and by Andrew S. Dolkart, Director of the Historic Preservation Program at Columbia University, along with consulting curator Seri Worden. Albrecht and Dolkart have also edited the exhibit’s accompanying book, that features essays by prominent architects and historians, including Françoise Astorg Bollack, Claudette Brady, Adele Chatfield-Taylor, Dolkart, Robert A.M. Stern and Anthony C. Wood, illustrated with photos by Iwan Baan.

What constitutes eligibility for a building to become a landmark? Under the Landmarks Law, a building must be at least 30 years old and be culturally significant, explains Dolkart.

In an excerpt from E.B. White’s essay, Here Is New York, White writes: “[New York] carries on its lapel the unexpungable odor of the long past, so that no matter where you sit in New York you feel the vibrations of great times and tall deeds…

Saving Place: 50 Years of New York City Landmarks is open through Sept. 13, 2015. For more information, visit mcny.org.

About the Author

Linda Sheridan is the Managing Editor for City Guide. She is a lifelong New Yorker, has written for the New York Daily News, and loves travel, writing, music, and space.

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