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See a map of New York City landmarks the LPC designated today

Clearing Backlog 95

See a map of New York City landmarks the LPC designated today

Today the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) voted to designate eight items as New York City landmarks. The designees—churches, residences, and one lighthouse—were part of Backlog 95, the LPC’s initiative to consider 95 items that have been up for designation for years, sometimes decades. The map below shows the location of the city’s newest landmarks:

The LPC granted landmark status to three Staten Island houses: The George William and Anna Curtis House, St. John’s Protestant Episcopal Church Rectory, and the 92 Harrison Street House.

The George William and Anna Curtis House was nominated in 1966 and prioritized for backlog clearance in November of last year. The 1859 Italianate-inspired home belonged to a couple active in the abolitionist movement. The Curtis’s built their home from Andrew Jackson Downing’s pattern books, and George William, one commissioner noted, was in contact with the illustrious Frederick Law Olmsted.

The half-timbered Queen Anne–style St. John’s Protestant Episcopal Church Rectory from the 1880s, with an almost original historic facade and interiors (although these are not considered for landmarking) was designated. An 1853 Greek Revival home, the 92 Harrison Street House, received the commission’s blessings despite the owner’s ambivalence and borough president James Oddo’s concern about the designation.

LPC chair Meenakshi Srinivasan was enthusiastic about the new landmarked homes. “Staten Island is home to many 18th and 19th century homes. We are pleased to bring three of these houses forward. Not only are they architecturally interesting, but the social and cultural history of the occupants adds additional distinction.”

On the South Shore, the commission designated the Prince’s Bay Lighthouse Complexa suite of vernacular 1860s buildings that includes a lighthouse (whose luminous feature was replaced by a statue of the virgin Mary in the 1920s), a keeper’s and carriage house. The complex represents the maritime industry that once thrived on Staten Island, commissioners noted.

Across the harbor in Manhattan, the LPC voted on two Tribeca properties: 315 Broadway, and Italianate-style “commercial palace” from the 1860s, and 160 Chambers Street, the (Former) Firehouse Engine Company 29. 315 Broadway reflects the neighborhood’s history as a dry goods storage mecca, with its handsome marble facade and (partially concealed) cast-iron storefront. 160 Chambers, a Second Empire–style row house that was converted to a firehouse in 1868. Architect Nathaniel D. Bush added two stories and a mansard roof to the three-story row house, which has since been returned to its original residential use.

In Harlem, the commission designated two churches, St. Joseph of the Holy Family Roman Catholic Church and St. Paul Roman Catholic Church. The former, an 1860 structure, was praised for the “simplicity and elegance” of its Rundbogenstil (round arch–style) design. The Romanesque Revival St. Paul’s church and school, constructed almost 50 years later, sports medieval and classical features on the facades of both buildings.

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