On March 12, 1651, Peter Stuyvesant, Director General of the Dutch West India Company, purchased Bouwerie (Dutch for ‘farm’) #1 and part of Bouwerie #2 in what is today’s East Village and the area South of Union Square. While these landholdings only remained farmland for a fraction of their existence, the area between present-day 5th and 20th Streets, from Fourth Avenue to the East River, would nevertheless remain in the Stuyvesant family for many generations. Though the land eventually traded hands to new owners, the Stuyvesant family imprint can still be seen on the neighborhood today in a number of ways. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of these and other historic buildings south of Union Square.

This red painted brick rowhouse was constructed in 1854 for J. Butler. It served as a meeting house for the Transport Workers Union. Go back and click on the tours the building is featured in for additional information and history.

The area south of Union Square contains a stunning array of residential and commercial architecture from the 19th through the early 20th century. There is a particularly rich array of late 19th and early 20th-century factory/loft/warehouse architecture, in every style from Italianate to Gothic and Romanesque Revival, Neo-classical, Queen Anne, Victorian, and Byzantine. Work by some of America’s greatest architects, including James Renwick Jr., Henry J. Hardenbergh, Emery Roth, Griffith Thomas, Napoleon LeBrun, Harvey Wiley Corbett, David, and John Jardine, George B. Post, Carrere and Hastings, John Kellum, and Charles Rentz, among others, can be found here. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of these and other historic buildings south of Union Square.

This eight-story Arts & Crafts style loft building was designed by Robinson & Potter in 1905-1906. Now residences, it is known as the Petersfield, after the nearby country estate of Petrus Stuyvesant, grandson of Governor Peter Stuyvesant, who once owned the land upon which it stands. It was also the home of a Book Row seller specializing in the occult, New Age, and Eastern philosophy. Go back and click on the tours the building is featured in for additional information and history.

Since at least the 1890s and through the 20th century, this area was the center of the bookselling industry in New York, centered along Fourth Avenue as well as Broadway and University Place, and probably had the highest concentration of booksellers in the world. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of these and other historic buildings south of Union Square.