October 11, 2011 Mary Beth Betts Director of Research New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission One

Centre Street, 9th floor New York, NY 10007

Re: Request for Evaluation for 285 and 287 East 3rd Street, Manhattan Dear Ms. Betts: Thank you for your response to our RFE of March 2011 requesting that the Commission calendar the 1837 Greek Revival sister buildings at 285 & 287 East 3rd Street. We appreciate that you offered a detailed explanation as to why you are not recommending that the Commission consider the building for individual landmark designation, but differ with the assertion that the buildings are unlike other individually-landmarked Greek Revival buildings in the city. We wish to point out individual landmarks of comparable age, style and cultural significance in the hopes that you will reconsider your determination. No. 159 Charles Street (1838) and 354 West 11th Street (1840-41), photos of which are attached, are two Greek Revival rowhouses designated as individual landmarks in 2007. Both are located in the Far West Village, a neighborhood that, with its maritime past, shares important historic traits with the far east section of the East Village. Like 285 & 287 East 3rd Street, these two buildings are not high style (as the Commissions letter indicates that they need be) but rather excellent examples of vernacular Greek Revival rowhouse architecture built for the professional and middle classes and representative of a significant time and place. In its findings for 159 Charles Street, which are noted in the designation report, the Commission begins by stating that the building is significant as a relatively rare surviving residential building of the early period of development of the far western section of Greenwich Village and as one of the best extant examples of the Greek Revival style rowhouses of the 1830s-40s located in the Hudson River waterfront section of Manhattan (It) is a significant reminder of the West Villages development as a place of dwelling, industry, and commerce. Built around the same time, as noted in our RFE Nos. 285 & 287 East 3rd Street are similar in that they are rare surviving examples of the growth of the East Village waterfront as the Dry Dock district. Reflecting the homes connection to the shipyards, No. 285 was constructed by Charles Dodge, a ship carver for many years. Today, these houses are two of a rapidly-dwindling collection of 1830s-40s

rowhouses in the far eastern section of the neighborhood. As compared to 159 Charles Street, Nos. 285 & 287 East 3rd Street retain a similar percentage of intact features. Like 159 Charles, the buildings have had their brownstone bases parged but retain their original door entablatures. In addition, and unlike 159 Charles Street, they retain their original sills, lintels, and dentiled wood cornices. That both sister buildings have survived intact makes them especially remarkable and rare. We ask you to reconsider, so that the Commission might schedule a public hearing on 285 & 287 East 3rd Street. This would at least allow these issues to be fully aired and reviewed, and would be an important step forward in the preservation of the East Villages rapidly-disappearing maritime past. We look forward to your response. Sincerely,

Andrew Berman Executive Director Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

Kurt Cavanaugh Managing Director East Village Community Coalition

Cc: Councilmember Rosie Mendez Kate Daly, Executive Director, LPC Hon. Robert Tierney, Chair, LPC Municipal Art Society NY Landmarks Conservancy Historic Districts Council