The Historic Dugout. No, Really.
In the first expansion of the Greenwich Village Historic District in 36 years, yesterday the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to expand the boundaries of the Historic District another three blocks west and to create the stand-alone Weehawken Street Historic District. This action immediately places another five full blocks (sixty buildings) under landmarked/historic protections, shielding them from demolition or inappropriate alterations.
As bears around the world already know, Weehawken Street, the shortest street in Manhattan, is also the home of the Dugout, located on the corner of Weehawken and Christopher. Many was the afternoon spent drinking beer under the shading trees of Weehawken Street, back when patrons were allowed to do such a thing. Scroll down this page (pictures take a minute to load) to see some of the now landmarked buildings. They are mostly unremarkable structures, hell, one of them is a ramshackle dirty bookstore, but this new designation effectively ends the peril of yet another row of glassy postmodern loft towers. Suck THAT, Richard Meier! (See below) And congratulations to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and Executive Director Andrew Berman!