The Landmarks of New York is an exhibition which explores the history of New York as revealed by its historical structures. The exhibition’s ninety photographs of New York landmarks, including thirty newly donated by former New York City Landmarks Commissioner Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, are critical documents that chronicle the city’s past from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries. As the city grew, single family houses were replaced by apartment buildings and then skyscrapers; agriculture replaced manufacturing, which was supplanted by commerce and the movement of goods and services. All of these structures tell the story of New York’s journey from a small colonized village to a world class city.
The city’s landmarks embrace New York’s history as told not only through documents such as those in the collections of the New-York Historical Society but also through the buildings where its citizens have lived, worked, and worshipped; through the parks which have provided respite from the city streets; through public monuments which adorn neighborhoods; and even the cemeteries which tell stories of those buried there.
Since 1965, when the New York City Landmarks law was instituted, more than 30,000 structures and environments throughout the five boroughs have been designated as landmarks and thus protected from destruction. New York’s law, passed after citizens’ outrage over the razing of Pennsylvania Station, became the benchmark upon which worldwide preservation movements have been built.