Find the history of every neighborhood building with East Village Building Blocks

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) has created a new tool to make sure that you never leave the internet to explore the history of every building in the neighborhood.

Here's more about East Village Building Blocks, via a GVSHP email yesterday:

This online resource, which took 10 years to complete, used primary source research on every building in the East Village to determine (when possible) date of construction, original architect, original use, alterations over time, and any significant figures, events, businesses, or institutions connected to the existing building or prior buildings on the site.

Buildings can be searched by address, location, architect, building type or style, or significant figures, cultural groups, or types of activities associated with it. Present day and historic photos are also provided for each building, along with historic documents establishing dates of construction, owners, architects, uses, and alterations. Buildings include scores of houses of worship, theaters, schools, libraries, the country’s first public housing development, and one of the largest collections of intact tenements from the early 19th to the early 20th centuries.

Pack a bag and head into East Village Building Blocks at this link.

The arrival of the new tool coincides with the publication of "A History of the East Village and Its Architecture" by Francis Morrone.

Per GVSHP:

This report by the noted architectural historian documents the East Village’s history from Dutch settlement in the 17th century, to its development in the 19th century as a prosperous merchant burg and then immigrant gateway, to its evolution in the 20th century as an epicenter of abandonment and blight to a mecca for cultural innovation and rebirth, and its struggle in the 21st century to maintain its identity in the face of renewed popularity and success.

Read the report at this link. And you can find more about GVSHP's ongoing preservation efforts here.