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.

This three-story building was once two separate structures. Though they were likely constructed in the 19th century, they have since been given a complete 20th-century makeover. A famous shop was formerly located here, and was photographed by a number of prominent photographers.

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.

The "New York School," a groundbreaking group of writers and artists who collaborated across disciplines, was rooted in the neighborhood south of Union Square in the mid-20th century. This loosely defined but transformative collective is credited with shifting the center of the art world from Paris to New York.

This five-story tenement with stores was designed in 1886 by James M. Farnsworth for Samuel Thorne. The unusual red brick building with florid naturalistic ornament housed the March Gallery in the late 1950s, which had a large impact on the mid-20th century art scene. Go back and click on the tours the building is featured in for additional information and history.