Announcements

Take our “Lower East Side Landmarking Survey” and help LESPI prioritize our preservation advocacy work

When deciding what to landmark, the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) looks not only at a building’s architecture and history, but at the amount of public support behind the designation. 

In the past few years, LESPI has submitted 12 Requests for Evaluation for individual landmarks to the LPC, which so far has resulted in the landmarking of the Church of St. Mary on Grand Street. Although we’re extremely pleased about this designation, we’d very much like for the LPC to now move to landmark the remaining 11 buildings.

To expedite this, we need to gather more public support for these landmark designations. As a small not-for-profit organization with limited staffing, we must prioritize which buildings to campaign for next.

This is where you can help.

Please fill out our brief survey HERE, and let us know how you would rank these buildings in order of importance for landmarking, based on architecture, cultural history, perceived vulnerability to demolition, or other criteria you consider to be appropriate. 

LESPI’s Outdoor Photography Exhibit and Celebration — “Brick and Stone: Landmarking our Lower East Side Heritage”

LESPI’s outdoor exhibit, “Brick and Stone: Landmarking our Lower East Side Heritage” showcases photographs and histories of some of the LES’s most remarkable historic buildings — all of which deserve to be landmarked. The exhibit just opened and already it’s been turning a lot of heads. Stop by Grand Street at the Church of St. Mary (east of Clinton St.) to check it out.

When: September 1 – October 31

Where: On Grand Street, east of Clinton Street, mounted on St. Mary’s and the Grand Street Guild’s fences.

Download a map and guide — in English and Spanish — so you can tour the exhibit’s historic buildings, below:

We want to thank the New York City Council and Councilmember Christopher Marte and Citizens Committee for New York City for their generous support; and the Grand Street Guild and Church of St. Mary for their invaluable assistance.

Walking tours: Kleindeutschland in the Lower East and Upper East Sides, November 8 and 16

East Village/Lower East Side: Join Lower East Side Preservation Initiative  — LESPI — and Friends of the Upper East Side for a walking tour of the Bowery and East Village Historic District, exploring the vibrant upper reaches of Kleindeutschland, where generations of German immigrants settled during the late 19th century. Led by architectural historian Matt Postal, the tour will highlight landmark buildings established by prominent German organizations, including the former Aschenbroedel Verein clubhouse, Beethoven Hall (later home to the Schillerbund Singing Society), the Ottendorfer Free Library, and St. Mark’s Evangelical Church, now Sixth Street Community Synagogue. The tour will also trace the history of St. Mark’s merger with Zion Lutheran Church, which relocated to Yorkville in 1946.

Upper East Side/Yorkville: Join Friends of the Upper East Side and LESPI for a walking tour of Yorkville’s East 80s, where generations of German and Austro-Hungarian immigrants settled in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Led by architectural historian Matt Postal, the tour will explore historic sites where residents worked, worshipped, and socialized, including the former Kleindeutschland-era Kopling House, St. Joseph’s Church, the Kaiser and the Rhine apartment buildings, and the former sites of the Hell Gate and Jacob Ruppert breweries, once among New York City’s largest. The tour will conclude near Heidelberg Restaurant and Schaller & Weber, two beloved neighborhood establishments that continue to evoke Yorkville’s rich German heritage.

Tickets are limited: $35.00 each tour, $20.00 each for Friends and LESPI members.

East Village/Lower East Side walking tour: Sunday, November 8, Register HERE.

Upper East Side walking tour: Sunday, November 15, Register HERE.

We hope to see you!

Still celebrating: the landmarking of the Church of St. Mary on Grand Street last April!