Landmark Hearing Set For Prior Home Of NAACP In Greenwich Village

GREENWICH VILLAGE, NY — A virtual public hearing will take place Tuesday for the proposed designation of a historic building in Greenwich Village with ties to the Civil Rights Movement.

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission will hold the meeting at 9:30 a.m. to discuss the possible landmarking of 70 Fifth Avenue in Greenwich Village.

The building served as one of the first headquarters for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

During the period the NAACP worked out of the building, the organization opposed President Woodrow Wilson's imposition of segregation, protested the glorification of the Ku Klux Klan in the film "The Birth of A Nation," and called for federal anti-lynching legislation — among many other campaigns.

You can learn more about the NAACP's work during its time headquartered out of the Lower Manhattan building on the Village Preservation's website.

Along with serving as the HQ for the NAACP, the building was also the original home to The Crisis magazine — the first-ever magazine published for a Black audience. W.E.B DuBois served as its first editor and it featured the early works of Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Zora Neale Hurston.

The NAACP also wrote a note last year supporting the preservation of the building.

The 70 Fifth Avenue building is one of many locations in the Greenwich Village area that community organizations have advocated landmark status for due to its connection to the Civil Rights Movement.

"70 Fifth Avenue, a Neoclassical/Beaux building designed by Charles A. Rich, is significant for housing the national office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) among a remarkable tenant roster of progressive organizations that have shaped American society," said the Landmarks Preservation Commission in a news release.

The public meeting will be livestreamed on the city agency's Youtube channel, and you can sign up to participate in the conversation here.

Read More: Old NAACP Headquarters In Village Considered For Landmark Status