The Landmarks Preservation Commission on Tuesday granted landmark status to a historic district in Greenwich Village and to the interior of the main post office in the Bronx.
The designation of the South Village Historic District had long been sought by preservationists who feared that the neighborhood’s distinctive architecture and its history would be diluted by development. The district encompasses about 10 blocks bordered by West Houston Street to the south, LaGuardia Place and West Broadway to the east, West Fourth Street to the north and Avenue of the Americas to the West.
The district “consists of approximately 250 rowhouses, tenements and institutional buildings,†the Preservation Commission said in a news release, “that reflect the area’s development between the early 19th and mid-20th centuries from an affluent residential neighborhood and a thriving immigrant and artist community to a magnet for bohemian culture and the center of gay and lesbian life in New York City.â€
Robert B. Tierney, the chairman of the commission, said, “The district’s theaters, clubs and cafes nourished generations of authors, playwrights, musicians and also served as an incubator of the gay rights movement of New York City.â€
As for the general post office on the Grand Concourse, the exterior was designated a landmark by the commission in 1976. But the interior remained unprotected, and preservationists worried about the fate of famous 1930s murals by Ben Shahn and Bernarda Bryson Shahn as the United States Postal Service intends to cease operations there and sell the building.
“The lobby, which was completed during the depths of the Great Depression, remains a monument to the ideals of the New Deal-era public works programs to this day,†Mr. Tierney said.
