West 75th-77th Streets Landmark Alert!

LANDMARK ALERT! Please act now to save the Upper West Side's "Stable Row" between 75th and 77th Streets on Amsterdam Avenue. Write to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission today urging them to calendar a public hearing to consider designating this unique ensemble of 19th-century former stable structures. Read on and follow the link at the end of this message for more details...

"Stable Row," comprised of buildings originally built as horse-and-carriage stables in the 1890s before the advent of automobiles and the subway, sits just outside of the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District, meaning that these buildings have no protection against demolition and redevelopment! Two especially grand examples of this rare building type (only a handful survive in NYC) are the former Dakota Stable at 348-358 Amsterdam (southwest corner of 77th Street) and the former New York Cab Company Stable at 318-324 Amsterdam (northwest corner of 75th Street), both used as public parking garages today. New York Times architectural columnist Christopher Gray calls the Dakota Stable a "stylistic gem," while the AIA Guide to New York City Architecture makes special note of the New York Cab Company's "three great Romanesque Revival half-round arches" that "trumpeted entrance to the horses and drivers." Neither these buildings nor their neighbors on the west side of Amsterdam Avenue are landmarks - yet! And we understand that a major developer is in the process of assembling properties for a large development between 76th and 77th Streets.

Help defend the character of the Upper West Side! It's true, we can't save everything and stop all development, nor should we. But when resources of such tremendous architectural and historical significance are on the line, we must all speak up.

Email/fax/call:
Hon. Robert B. Tierney, Chair
NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1 Centre Street, 9th Floor, NYC 10007
Email: comments@lpc.nyc.gov
Fax: 212-669-7955
Phone: 212-669-7888

Please cc your messages to landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org or 212-875-0209 (fax), NYC Council Member Gale Brewer (gale.brewer@council.nyc.ny.us) or 212-513-7717 (fax), and Manhattan Community Board 7 (mail@cb7.org) or 212-603-3082 (fax).

Already, supporters of a public hearing for one or more buildings on "Stable Row" include NYC Council Member Gale Brewer, Manhattan Community Board 7, NYS Senator Tom Duane, NYS Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, the New York Landmarks Conservancy, Historic Districts Council, Municipal Art Society, Metropolitan Chapter of the Victorian Society in America, and architectural historians Andrew S. Dolkart (James Marston Fitch Associate Professor of Historic Preservation at Columbia University) and Mosette Broderick (Director of Urban Design and Architecture Studies at NYU).

Visit LANDMARK WEST's website for copies of their letters, a copy of Christopher Gray's 1987 New York Times "Streetscapes" column on "Stable Row," photographs and more - http://www.landmarkwest.org/advocacy/stables.html.