Thursday, January 3, 2013

☞ ARCHITECTURE: Harlem Storefront Landmarks


The Mishkin's Drugstore at 145th Street and Amsterdam is one of the rare shops uptown that have become an official New York City landmark.  This basically protects the design elements of the drugstore founded in 1890 even if the ownership exchanges hands.  After this week's debacle with the destruction of the Lenox Lounge from the inside out, one would question why this little drugstore would be protected and Harlem's most famous, long running jazz club was not. Perhaps this is something for the local community boards to really discuss if these types of losses are to be prevented in the future.

6 comments:

  1. yup, i've wondered about this (landmark designation) every time i c a harlem brownstone being gutted for mod interiors.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The answer to why these buildings are not listed on a historical landmark are easy - no one actually took the time to fill out the paperwork and go through the process. We have lost the Lenox Lounge but if we don't want to lose any more make sure they are on a historic register! I don't even know of how to look up if a building is on a register. Is there a "Historic Harlem Society"? If not it would be a great time for folks to organize.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Each of Harlem's 3 community boards have a Landmark Committee to manage this particular issue.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Perhaps they have an answer as to why the Lenox Lounge was not listed. Could be a number of reasons. I would imagine it would have to be a good one as it would seem an obvious choice to protect it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sadly, the landmarking process is not just a matter of esthetics and historical value and the financial standing of owners who are at times burdened by the extra costs that landmarking can impose. I wrote about this issue years back in the Village Voice and found that instead, it's sometimes all about politics, which in New York City all too often means race. Benign neglect means that New York's African-America (and Latino) communities are storehouses of architectural treasures, yet these neighborhoods are severely under-landmarked. Maybe Harlem needs private, non-profit groups like Landmarks West on the West Side?

    Then again, wasn't it Le Corbusier who said that if architects have to choose between serving the living and the dead, we should always choose the living.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I believe that part of the reason they are trying to expand the Mt Morris Park Historical district is to try to preserve more of the historic buildings and brownstones west of Lenox Ave. and north to 125th street. Unfortunately, the Lenox Lounge block was not land marked..an expansion won't help it now but might prevent similar fates for other historic buildings

    ReplyDelete