Chelsea's 'Tin Pan Alley' Owner Doesn't Want Buildings Landmarked

CHELSEA, NY — Five buildings in Chelsea are up for possible landmarking by the city's Landmark Preservation Commission. But the owner of the buildings, controversial developer Yair Levy, doesn't want the historic designation, the New York Post reported.

The buildings at 47, 49, 51, 53 and 55 West 28th St. are a handful of Italianate row houses known for being where songwriters such as Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Hoagy Carmichael and Sammy Cahn wrote music and home to American sheet music publishers in the 1800s and 1900s.

But Levy's attorney, Ken Fisher, told the Post the historic buildings were where racist songs were written. Some of the song titles included "N—, N—, Never Die" and "The Watermelon Trust," the Post reported.

He told the Post, "These songs made bigotry socially acceptable again."

The head of the Historic Districts Council, Simeon Bankoff, told the Post the owner, who former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman called a "predator" for tenants and homebuyers, has "hired a contract historian who has written a dubious report that relies on second-hand information to dispute the historical importance of the district."

Preservationists testified in support of the designation Tuesday, Curbed and the Post reported.

Per Curbed, one preservationist, Claudette Brady, founder of the Bed-Stuy Society for Historic Preservation, said, "If I remove Jim Crow, and I remove 'The Klansman,' from history, I also marginalize the Civil Rights Movement — do we take away 'Huckleberry Finn' from our libraries? No, it informs my children what my grandmother's struggle was about."

City Council Speaker Corey Johnson supports the designation, according to an editorial he penned with the chair of LPC, Sarah Carroll, in The Villager.

The area has been eyed by preservationists for more than a decade, Bankoff of HDC said.

"This is an area which we have been concerned about since 2007 and we're really quite pleased that the LPC has decided to finally move on some of these buildings," Bankoff told Patch last month.

In October 2017, preservationists rallied for "Tin Pan Alley" to be landmarked — particularly in the years after the developer, Levy, purchased the row of buildings along the historic street, sparking fear of demolition.

A vote date for the LPC is to be determined.