The city's Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) voted this week to calendar -- formally consider for landmark designation -- the 1891 Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection at 59 East 2nd Street in Manhattan's East Village. The LPC, in response, negotiated a “standstill agreement” with the church temporarily halting any plans to develop or alter the church. In the meantime, the East Village was rezoned, putting in place new height limits that would have prevented the condo-tower from being built.
Other historic East Village sites that the LPC has not acted on include the threatened Congregation Mezritch Synagogue at 415 East 6th Street, and 101 Avenue A, an architecturally distinguished tenement that once housed a German social hall and is now home to the Pyramid Club.
You can help the cause of historic preservation in the East Village by sending a letter to the LPC thanking them for calendaring the Russian Orthodox Cathedral and urging them to do the same for other proposed East Village landmarks.
An earlier post on this blog detailed the effort to preserve the historic Cathedral.
