Advocate groups draw up “Most Endangered” landmark list

Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, Mount Manresa top the roster

From left: Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in Queens and statue at Mount Maresa Jesuit Retreat House in Staten Island
From left: Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in Queens and statue at Mount Maresa Jesuit Retreat House in Staten Island

With New York City’s historic sites being developed faster than advocate groups can obtain landmark status for them, preservationists are zeroing on the sites they most want to protect.  

At the moment, Greenwich Village and Mount Manresa top the “most endangered” list, preservationists told AMNY.

The Greenwich Village Society of Historical Preservation, which has sought protection for more than 1,000 buildings in the lower Manhattan nabe in the last ten years, is trying to landmark a swath of the neighborhood between Sixth Avenue and Thompson Street, according to AMNY. The group’s executive director, Andrew Berman, insisted that protecting the places that draw people to the city is a priority.

“New York is always going to be a more expensive, crowded and inconvenient place to live than anywhere else,” he told AMNY. “We’ve got to have something special and different to justify putting up with it being expensive, crowded and inconvenient. Otherwise it’s not a very appealing place.”

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

By signing up, you agree to TheRealDeal Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy.

At the top of the Preservation League of Staten Island’s list is a landmark designation for the largely undeveloped 10-acre Mount Manresa site, on which a Jesuit retreat house and a historic chapel sit. At the end of last year, a court gave the Savo Brothers the OK to purchase the land for $15 million to develop into condominium townhouses.

Other preservationist groups are seeking designations for Phase III of the Crown Heights North Historic District in Brooklyn, the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium and Midway Theatre in Queens, as well as Public School 31 in the Bronx. [AMNY] — Angela Hunt