What Are New York City Landmarks?

New York City Landmarks are places within the Five Boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island) which are significant to the cultural, social, economic, political, and architectural history of New York City.

The NYC Landmarks program is overseen by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), the nation's largest municipal historic preservation agency. The Commission was created in 1965 via the groundbreaking "Landmarks Law" signed by then Mayor Robert Wagner. The preservation movement in New York City was ignited by the tragic loss of the original Pennsylvania Station, a masterwork by McKim, Meade, and White that was destroyed to make way for Madison Square Garden. Learning from its mistakes, New York City has been on the forefront of historic preservation ever since.

Potential NYC Landmarks are identified through periodic LPC surveys of historic places in New York. Properties then undergo an approval process which includes the calendaring (scheduling) of a public hearing, the publication of a draft designation, the public hearing itself, an LPC vote, and approval by both the City Planning Commission and City Council. The official designation reports are then posted to the Commission's website, and the Landmark is usually adorned with an official plaque like the one below.

Over 36,000 properties in the city are protected by the Landmarks Law. New York City Landmarks come in four categories: individual landmarks, historic districts, interior landmarks, and scenic landmarks. Many NYC Landmarks are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as well, and some are also National Historic Landmarks.

On this site, you can search New York City Landmarks by tag. Each post about an NYC Landmark is tagged with the property's borough and type (individual, district, interior, scenic). Selecting any of these tags in the right sidebar of the main blog page will populate a list of all relevant entries. The official landmark designation report for each property is linked to at the bottom of its post. If these Landmarks double as NRHP listings or NHLs, there will only be one post on the property which will cover all of its designations.

For Further Information:

NYC Landmarks Preservation Committee Homepage

Interactive Map of all NYC Landmarks

#NewYorkCityLandmarks #NewYork #intro