Place Matters Toolkit

To spread the word about how concerned citizens can advocate for significant places, Place Matters is preparing a how-to guide with strategies, tools, and case studies. The Toolkit is being designed for use in any locale. The first version will appear on this website and later versions will also appear in print. The Neighborhood Preservation Center (www.neighborhoodpreservationcenter.org) will collaborate with Place Matters to distribute the Toolkit and stock their library and online database with NYC resources and referrals that Toolkit users will want to know about.

Groundbreaking National Register Listings

In Spring 2001 three places that matter were listed to the New York State and National Register of Historic Places. The three nominations were researched and authored by Place Matters staff in collaboration with people associated with each site. What makes these three listings unusual is that, despite being architecturally modest, each one illuminates a little-known aspect of New York City's past, and particularly the history of its communities.

The former Cuyler Presbyterian Church building (1892) in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, is linked to New York's 20th-century community of Mohawk ironworkers and other American Indian residents of Brooklyn. Indian ironworkers played a major role in the construction of the city's skyscrapers, and Cuyler Church served as an important community center, affectionately referred to as "the church that makes friends."

Bohemian Hall & Park (1910) in Astoria, Queens, is New York City's last authentic beer garden. Still a center for Czech-American traditions, and an important immigrant fraternal organization, Bohemian Hall also hosts many other ethnic celebrations and serves as a gathering place for people from throughout the city. The address is 29-19 24th Avenue in Astoria Queens. For hours and information call 718-274-4925 (office) or 718-728-9776 (bar).

Casa Amadeo Record Store (1941) in Longwood, The Bronx, is the oldest, continuously-operating Latin music store in New York City and a rare survivor of the thriving, post-WWII Latin music scene in the Bronx. Casa Amadeo is the first site associated with the Puerto Rican migration experience listed on the New York State Register. The address is 786 Prospect Avenue in the Longwood section of the Bronx. For hours and information call 718-328-6896.

To access online copies of these nomination reports, go to the following website page of the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation: https://www.oprhp.state.ny.us/sphinx/hp_app2/default.asp. This service will only work with an Internet Explorer browser.

New York City's first labor landmark

Place Matters proposed NYC landmark protection for the former Asch Building, where in 1911 a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory killed 146 factory workers, mainly young women, who couldn't exit from doors that were locked to keep union organizers out. The fire became a symbol for worker's struggles for a safer workplace and galvanized efforts for reform. The building at Washington Place and Greene Street (now owned by New York University) was designated a landmark by the NYC Landmark Preservation Commission in 2003. To access the designation report, go to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission website: (http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/lpc/home.html).

"Protecting Places that Matter" Public Program Series

Place Matters ran a series of public programs in 2002 to examine how preservation, planning and environmental public policy can be used to more fully protect the city's historical and cultural sites -- those places that tell the history of New York and serve as cultural anchors for communities. "Protecting Places that Matter" was organized by a working committee of practitioners and resulted in seven public programs.

Partial transcripts of these provocative discussions will be posted on this website in the near future.

Spreading the Word

Place Matters staff have spoken in many public settings to preservation and planning groups, oral historians, and community organizations on topics related to protecting places of history and culture. Selected examples in 2006 include co-sponsorship of the Vernacular Architecture Forum conference in NYC, along with sponsoring a special session called "Does Place Matter on the Lower East Side"; in 2005, guest lectures at Florida Atlantic University and the University of Missouri-St. Louis, as well as talks at NYU, FIT, Pratt Institute, and the New School; and in 2004, co-sponsorship and participation in the Historic Districts Council Conference, "Cultural Landmarks: Controversy, Practice and Prospects," and the National Park Service and Lower East Side Tenement Museum Conference, "Great Places, Great Debates: Opening Historic Sites to Civic Engagement." In 2003, Place Matters held a day-long workshop in Place Matters methodology at the 2003 conference of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.