The Wall Street Journal-20080112-WEEKEND JOURNAL- Books- Bricks and Mortification
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WEEKEND JOURNAL; Books: Bricks and Mortification
Preserving New York
By Anthony C. Wood
Routledge, 422 pages, $45
'It is remarkable that the origins of a law so dramatically impacting the cityscape of one of the greatest cities in the world have generated so little curiosity," writes Anthony C. Wood in "Preserving New York," his history, illustrated with more than 100 black-and-white color photographs, of how New York's Landmarks Preservation Act came about in 1965.
The popular view of the story is that New Yorkers, aghast at the razing of the venerable Pennsylvania Station in the early 1960s, suddenly cried "enough!" and demanded a law that would protect historically significant buildings from destruction or "inappropriate" alteration. The notion is debunked in the book's first chapter -- "The Myth of Pennsylvania Station" -- which argues that a movement toward "creating a formal process to protect the city's landmarks" had been growing since the 1940s.
And, besides, Mr. Wood says, the supposed city-wide horror over the demolition of Penn Station didn't prevent the destruction, in early 1965, of the late 19th-century chateau-like mansion built by clothing manufacturer Isaac Brokaw on Fifth Avenue. The passage of the landmarks law two months after the mansion started coming down (to be replaced by a high-rise apartment building), Mr. Wood says, was the culmination of years of work by a small band of New Yorkers who were determined to overturn the city's centuries-old tradition of merrily ripping down the old to make way for the new.
Chief among the preservation champions was Albert Bard (1866-1963), a lawyer and exponent of the City Beautiful movement early in the 20th century. Mr. Wood, a foundation executive who has worked for the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, clearly wishes that somehow Bard and his fellow preservationists could themselves have been landmarked -- the book is a paean to their efforts and a celebration of the landmarks law as an unalloyed good. One might wish he had intellectually engaged with issues raised by government- mandated preservation, such as the conflict between landmarks laws and the rights of a property owner who wants, say, to install an air- conditioner or change a window frame in a building that the landmarks commission has smiled upon. But "Preserving New York" is a valuable, deeply researched account of a little-known aspect of the city's past.
And the photographs are wonderful, including a Life magazine shot of Gloria Swanson in 1960, wearing a boa and an evening gown, exultantly throwing her arms up amid the ruins of Broadway's recently demolished Roxy Theatre, and a photograph of garish advertisements (for Diamond Tires, Stewart speedometers and B.V.D. underwear) on Fifth Avenue in 1913, next-door to Andrew Carnegie's mansion -- billboards that today would cause a decorous riot in that landmark-blanketed neighborhood.
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Mr. Morrone is the author of "The Architectural Guidebook to New York City."
