Effort To Protect 'Lower West Side' Wins Powerful Group's Support

TRIBECA, NY — A powerful advocacy group is lending its weight to a fight aiming to preserve a slice of lower Manhattan that was once home to a vibrant immigrant community.

The Historic Districts Council — a New York City-based organization that works to preserve the city's architecture — chose the neighborhood once known as the Lower West Side as one of six landmark projects to support in 2018, the group announced this month.

The HDC will help Friends of the Lower West Side preserve historic buildings from Liberty Street to Battery Place west of Broadway, it announced.

Prior to the construction of the World Trade Center and the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, the area was home to a large number of German and Irish immigrants, the HDC wrote. It later became predominantly Syrian before being altered by the development.

“Several buildings still exist to tell the story,” the HDC wrote of the historic neighborhood.

“And the Friends of the Lower West Side is determined to make sure this history is not lost. The group will appeal to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to protect a small area of significance, as well as expand its oral history program, publish a written history and offer walking tours to raise awareness.”

HDC works with groups to identify ways to strengthen their campaigns for preservation, according to its website.

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