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.

Multiple innovators in the field of commerce were located here, once the center of commerce in New York, along with the headquarters of several prominent businesses. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of these and other historic buildings south of Union Square.

Among the many industries which this area played a significant role in shaping and transforming was photography. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of these and other historic buildings south of Union Square.

This area was home to many prominent innovators and leaders in the field of fashion. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of these and other historic buildings south of Union Square.

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.

An incredible array of sites in the area are connected to the great artists and art movements of the last century and a half. In the mid-20th century, this area was ground zero for the New York School of artists, who shifted the center of the art world from Paris to New York. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of these and other historic buildings south of Union Square.

This almost perfectly intact thirteen-story terra cotta-covered loft building was designed and constructed by Starrett & Van Vleck in 1919 to house the International Tailoring Company. Herman Melville lived in a now-demolished townhouse at this location, during which time he began writing Moby Dick. Book Row sellers operated out of the current and former buildings at this site, and a gallery was located here in the 1970s. Go back and click on the tours the building is featured in for additional information and history.

An extraordinary array of significant writers and authors lived or worked here, and great works of literature were produced here. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of these and other historic buildings south of Union Square.

A look at some of the architecturally, historically, and culturally significant buildings once located in this area. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of extant historic buildings south of Union Square.

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.