This Tuesday, Spec published a piece about the growing effort in this neighborhood to get Morningside Heights recognized as a historic district by New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission. This is an issue that's been on my mind for a while now, and not only because I'm in the middle of writing a Blue & White article on the subject. For the past few weeks, I've been delving into all sorts of information about the local drive to earn such recognition, partly out of duty and more so out of a budding personal interest.
The Morningside Heights Historic District Committee has been lobbying the city's preservation for the better part of fifteen years now, though the efforts of its members have yet to bear fruit—which seems a bit strange to me, since the state's Historic Preservation Office determined over two years ago that the neighborhood met both statewide and national criteria to be registered as a historic place. But New York City's guidelines are far more nuanced. The LPC oversees all five boroughs, which makes prioritizing historic landmarks and districts a little complicated.
