[Image via Manhattan Sideways]
Yesterday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) voted to give the Tifereth Israel Town & Village Synagogue at 334 E. 14th St. landmark status.
The LPC excluded from the landmark designation a rear structure here between First Avenue and Second Avenue that had originally been considered as part of the landmark designation.
Here's reaction to the decision... first from Marianna Mott Newirth, president of the Town & Village Synagogue:
Town & Village Synagogue is a community and a building.
We are an active, egalitarian Conservative Jewish congregation serving Lower Manhattan with pride. We recognize the LPC’s designation of our building and honor the work that has been done by both the Bloomberg and the DiBlasio administrations to carefully review and deliberate on our status. Their decision is a testament to our building’s rich immigrant history in NYC.
Our commitment remains: to serve the 400 families who are the core of T&V and to support the greater community of which we are a part. We look to the men and women who championed Landmark designation to continue their loving support of Town & Village Synagogue. May we work together to strengthen this building so that it will be a beacon of spirituality, a center of Jewish learning and a jewel on 14th Street for current and future generations of New Yorkers.
She went on to tell us that that the building was taken off the market early this year. "We are not selling. We are not moving."
And here's a comment via Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation:
"It's wonderful that after nearly half a century, this venerable piece of our city and our neighborhood’s history will finally receive the recognition and protection it deserves and which we fought so hard for.
"We are disappointed that the Landmarks Preservation Commission excluded [the rear structure] from the designation and believe that their doing so was unnecessary. The Commission could have landmarked the entire site and still allowed construction in the rear, but with designation of the entire site they would have ensured that any new construction did not detract from the valuable historic character of this 150 year old religious edifice."
DNAinfo has coverage of the landmarking here.
Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] East 14th St. synagogue on the market for conversion to residential, commercial use
48 years later, East 14th Street synagogue to be considered for landmark designation
[Updated] Tifereth Israel Town & Village Synagogue faces landmark designation today