Spence School Library: New York City History Primary Source Archives: PS: Landmarks

Architecture, Housing, & Historical Landmarks

The Historic Districts Council Across NYC
"The HDC advocates for the preservation of neighborhoods in all five boroughs. Search by borough to discover historical resources from more than 100 historic districts throughout New York City."

NYCityMapLandmarks
"This map displays Individual, Interior, and Scenic Landmarks, as well as Historic Districts in all five boroughs."
NYC Landmark Designation Reports
Neighborhood Preservation Center. This database houses printable PDF files of the entire collection of NYC Landmark Designation Reports from 1965 to the present.
The New York Real Estate Brochure Collection
Columbia University. "Over 9,200 advertising brochures, floor plans, price lists, that document residential and commercial real estate development in the five boroughs of New York from the 1920s to the 1970s."
Apartment Houses of the Metropolis.
From the NYPL: "Includes albums produced between 1908 and 1913 by developers and the real estate industry to entice potential middle and upper class tenants to New York City’s 'principal high class apartment houses'".
Historic House Trust of NYC
"From modest farmers’ cottages to grand mansions, the 23 sites in the Trust’s collection are located in all five boroughs and chronicle a wide range of cultural, historical, and architectural aspects of New York City."
The Municipal Art Society of New York
An "organization dedicated to creating a more livable city." "MAS encourages visionary design, planning and architecture that promote resilience and the livability of New York."
The New York City Housing Authority, LaGuardia and Wagner Archives
LaGuardia Community College Library. 1934-1990. Papers, publications, blueprints, photos, artifacts, and oral histories.
Office for Metropolitan History: Specialists in the Architectural History of New York City
Project Team: Christopher Gray, Manager and Suzanne Braley, Researcher. "A digital collection of all the new building (NB) applications filed in Manhattan for each year, from 1900 to 1986 in a database searchable by a number of variables, like address, architect, owner and type of building."
Visualizing Nineteenth-Century New York
"New strategies were needed to make sense of the new visual urban order. Entrepreneurs were critical to that project as they circulated maps, city views, stereoviews, guidebooks, and other illustrated forms as part of New York’s burgeoning publishing industry, the nation’s largest. New technologies of vision facilitated that culture of visuality; lithography and half-tones greatly expedited the diffusion of those materials. Harper’s Weekly woodcuts along with other illustrated newspapers promoted a common visual understanding of the doings of the city’s denizens by mid-century."

Penn Station

The Rise and Fall of Penn Station
PBS. "Pennsylvania Station covered nearly eight acres, extended two city blocks, and housed one of the largest public spaces in the world; many of the 100,000 attendees of Penn Station's grand opening proclaimed it to be one of the wonders of the world." 53 years after the station’s opening, it was slated to be destroyed.

Current Data about NYC Housing

State of New York City’s Housing and Neighborhoods
"The NYU Furman Center advances research and debate on housing, neighborhoods, and urban policy." Their databases and Housing Reports are particularly significant. Information dates back to early 2000s.
NYC Data at Baruch College, CUNY
Great place to find out basic statistical information about NYC.
Center for an Urban Future
"The Center for an Urban Future is a NYC-based think tank dedicated to highlighting the critical opportunities and challenges facing New York and other cities."

Blogs

Daytonian in Manhattan
"The stories behind the buildings, statues and other points of interest that make Manhattan fascinating."
Scouting New York
By Nick Carr. "What always amazes me about New York is how much there is to see if you take the time to look. Every street has a hidden gem or two, and yet they go largely ignored by the thousands of passersby daily who simply don’t have the time to pay attention. As it happens, my entire job consists of paying attention, and I’ve started this blog to keep a record of what I see."

Public Housing

Affordable New York, Museum of the City of New York
Affordable New York traces over a century of affordable housing activism, documenting the ways in which reformers, policy makers, and activists have fought to transform their city.

New York City History Primary Source Archives: PS: Landmarks

Places that Matter

Architecture, Housing, & Historical Landmarks

Penn Station

Current Data about NYC Housing

Blogs

Public Housing