Wednesday, July 10, 2002
Tammany Hall to be landmarked
Former Tammany Hall building slated to be landmarked
^This is good news for theatergoers and Union Square afficionados. The 1926 building on 100 East 17th Street, built to be Tammany Hall headquarters in 1926 and sold to the powerful International Ladie Garment Workers Union in 1943, will be designated a NYC landmark, to be forever retained as a memorial to the city’s history.
When TH, founded 1786, was a power in NYC’s democratic politics , its headquarters was on East 14th Street, around the present ConEd building. In 1926 tehy built the new structure.
As Reform Democrats took power, defeating Frank DeSapio’s org, the building was sold to the ILGWU in 1943, and became union hall. Forr years, E 17th Street periodically was the scene of union meetings and elections, since ILGWU let other organizations ret the great hall . The street action ranged from moderate to raucuous, the latter prticularly when the newspaper deliverers’ unions met. Candidates for office brought in house trailers, and their henchmen trolled the street, bringing voters in the wagon for drinks and an encouraging word, sometimes a minor donation for the voter’s favorite charities. These were obviously popular offices, and one cannot help but admire the public-spiritedness of the candidates. Look, I’m for unions, but in those days you had to be singularly naive not to batch the drift.
Around 1990 things changed, and the hall was rented to the great revival theatre, Roundabout, with the upstairs going to the Film Academy, another great cultural institution. The theatre remained a resident of 17th Street for seven years. With public acclaim, Roundabout expanded to the Times Square area, and currently is housed in the American Airlines Theater building on 42nd Street, as well as in the Gramercy therater on 23rd Street. As for 17th Street, enter Union Square Theater.
As Margaret Cotter, President of Liberty Treaters, explains it, the mission of her house is to provide the setting for independent productions. With 499 seats, is is one of the largest off-Broadway venues (liberty also owns Minetta Lane and Orpheum, popular sites for smaller productions.) This is a for-profit environment, and the plays have to make it. Currently...
These are hard times for American textiles, with the entire 3rd World competing, and ILGWU has seen fit to move out. Reading International. A real estate firm affiliated with Liberty, has bought the huilding, which should assure us of continued theatre presence in our traditionally rich in culture neighbourhood.. Further, they are sympathetic to preserving the building as part of Nys rich architectural heritage.
The Union Square Community Coalition, in conjunction with the Gramercy Park Associates, have been hoping to secure the designation for some time. Now the Historical districts Council has joined in. With the good will of the landlord, the Landmarks Preservation people have no problem in seeing their way to a well deserved designation.
^This is good news for theatergoers and Union Square afficionados. The 1926 building on 100 East 17th Street, built to be Tammany Hall headquarters in 1926 and sold to the powerful International Ladie Garment Workers Union in 1943, will be designated a NYC landmark, to be forever retained as a memorial to the city’s history.
When TH, founded 1786, was a power in NYC’s democratic politics , its headquarters was on East 14th Street, around the present ConEd building. In 1926 tehy built the new structure.
As Reform Democrats took power, defeating Frank DeSapio’s org, the building was sold to the ILGWU in 1943, and became union hall. Forr years, E 17th Street periodically was the scene of union meetings and elections, since ILGWU let other organizations ret the great hall . The street action ranged from moderate to raucuous, the latter prticularly when the newspaper deliverers’ unions met. Candidates for office brought in house trailers, and their henchmen trolled the street, bringing voters in the wagon for drinks and an encouraging word, sometimes a minor donation for the voter’s favorite charities. These were obviously popular offices, and one cannot help but admire the public-spiritedness of the candidates. Look, I’m for unions, but in those days you had to be singularly naive not to batch the drift.
Around 1990 things changed, and the hall was rented to the great revival theatre, Roundabout, with the upstairs going to the Film Academy, another great cultural institution. The theatre remained a resident of 17th Street for seven years. With public acclaim, Roundabout expanded to the Times Square area, and currently is housed in the American Airlines Theater building on 42nd Street, as well as in the Gramercy therater on 23rd Street. As for 17th Street, enter Union Square Theater.
As Margaret Cotter, President of Liberty Treaters, explains it, the mission of her house is to provide the setting for independent productions. With 499 seats, is is one of the largest off-Broadway venues (liberty also owns Minetta Lane and Orpheum, popular sites for smaller productions.) This is a for-profit environment, and the plays have to make it. Currently...
These are hard times for American textiles, with the entire 3rd World competing, and ILGWU has seen fit to move out. Reading International. A real estate firm affiliated with Liberty, has bought the huilding, which should assure us of continued theatre presence in our traditionally rich in culture neighbourhood.. Further, they are sympathetic to preserving the building as part of Nys rich architectural heritage.
The Union Square Community Coalition, in conjunction with the Gramercy Park Associates, have been hoping to secure the designation for some time. Now the Historical districts Council has joined in. With the good will of the landlord, the Landmarks Preservation people have no problem in seeing their way to a well deserved designation.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 3:39 PM 
