September 20, 2010
Honorable Robert Tierney, Chairman New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission 1 Centre Street, 9th Floor New York, NY 10007
Via email: rtierney@lpc.nyc.govrtierney@lpc.nyc.gov
Re: Landmark Designation for 326 and 328 East 4th Street
Dear Chairman Tierney:
The Lower East Side Preservation Initiative – LESPI – is writing to strongly support designation of 326 and 328 East 4th Street as New York City Individual Landmarks. These buildings are under imminent threat and we urge that the LPC act quickly to protect these important local historic sites.
Nos. 326 and 328 are beautiful and essentially intact examples of Greek Revival style residential architecture, constructed in the 1830s as part of a row of houses. They mark an important era in the early history of the East Village, with strong ties to the waterfront businesses that once predominated along the Lower East Side’s shoreline. There are very few of these structures still extant in the community, and these buildings absolutely deserve landmark protection. Otherwise they face planned alterations that are almost certain to destroy their architectural and historic integrity.
LESPI is an organization dedicated to preserving the architectural, historical and cultural heritage of Manhattan’s East Village / Lower East Side. With historic resources falling prey to demolition and defacement on an almost daily basis, we believe that the LPC must act now to save the historically intact areas of these locally and nationally important neighborhoods for current and future generations.
We urge the LPC to vote to give 326 and 328 East 4th Street full landmark protection as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Richard Moses Steering Committee Member
Cc: Hon. Scott Stringer, Manhattan Borough President, bp@manhattanbp.orgbp@manhattanbp.org Hon. Rosaura Mendez, NY City Councilmember, rosie.mendez@council.nyc.ny.usrosie.mendez@council.nyc.ny.us Susan Stetzer, District Manager CB3, sstetzer@cb3manhattan.orgsstetzer@cb3manhattan.org
LESPI Steering Committee: Britton Baine Katy McNabb Richard Moses Carolyn Ratcliffe Philip Van Aver
