Daily News from New York, New York • 214

DAIY JfEWS, FRJDAIV DECEMBER 1 1064 ,48 bs Men Law -J trty 72 Cj I) By KITTY HANSON (Second of two articles) EVERY year, thousands of New Yorkers flock to the maior cities of Europe where, wearily but tney trudge from landmark to landmark, soaking up history and a sense of the past. The visitor to America most famous city is not so lucky. Manhattan's history goes back 350 years, but its oldest landmark is not yet 250 years old. An entire century of history has been gone from the island for more than 100 years. It took a President of the United States to save the oldest of Manhattan's few existing landmarks.

It will take the Mayor of New York to save what is left. a (NEWS foto by Arthur Buckley) Grandeur in a lumber yard: Bod in Castle in Queens was once isolated country home. If President George Wash DAIIXa NEWS SPECIAL FEATURE A 1 ington hadn't worshiped at St. Paul's Chapel, headquartered in the Morris-Jumel House on W. 160th and dismissed his troops in A permanent commission would be established to-designate landmarks and historic districts, and to administer the controls regulating them.

As it stands now, the commission would have jurisdiction only over changes in the building exteriors. An owner could even "junk up" an interior if he wished. Anyone who owns a building designated as a landmark would have to get permission before he could make any alterations or undertake any construction or reconstruction work on it. If the exterior would not be affected by his plans, or if the exterior raunces lavern ai joroau and Pearl those landmarks might now have gone the way of most of the historic structures that told the story of the city's past. Hundreds of the most distinguished buildings in New York have been replaced by sterile glass boxes, dreary apartment blocks, and the classic, clean simplicity of parking lots.

THE LANDMARKS BILL IS HOPE FOR FUTURE But while Manhattan's 17th i mm i changes were considered appropriate to the building, permission would be granted. Landmarks Pmerration CommtMion foto) Willow St. houses of Brooklyn Heights (foto left) predate Civil War. and Manhattan's Haugh-wout building (right) reflect gracious living and commercial elegance of a century ago. HOW CITY OWNER WOULD TACKLE PROBLEM This would save buildings from the defacing "improvements" which have overtaken so many Since the law has to be as fair to owners as it is to landmarks, it is filled with opportunities for public hearings, notifications, and reviews by the Board of Estimate.

There are strict timetables, too, so that applications do not sink slowly into the quicksand of bureaucratic delays and red tape. The commission is not so much concerned with setting standards of taste in buildings, as with standards of historic significance. elevators safe for commercial use. At one time, it was the Tiffany's of its clientele. Its vast rooms were filled with crystal gas chandeliers, Sevres porcelains, French clocks, cut glass and silverware.

Today, you can buy cotton goods at 19 cents a yard from the rickety tables set up on its main floor. In the Haughwout Building, the city has a real test of sincerity about preserving landmarks. It stands directly in the path of the proposed downtown expressway. a warehouse, but five remain. They once were home to Euch tenants as John Jacob Astor, Washington Irving, Charles Dickens, Peter Cooper, Enrico Caruso and William Makepeace Thackeray.

Another little-seen landmark is Bodine Castle, a Gothic-looking castle that was a country home in the middle of spacious grounds and lawns. Today it stands squarely in the middle of a lumber yard, beneath the Queens-boro Bridge in Long Island City. Other landmarks include the old Brooklyn Fire Headquarters on Jay designed by Frank Free and 18th Century reminders are few, there are still, in the five boroughs, a number of buildings that have meaning for New Yorkers, and will continue to mean something important for a long time. That is, if they are left standing. Their days are surely numbered, however, unless the City Council passes the landmarks preservation bill no before it.

Mayor Wagner called for the legislation in 1962 when he appointed the Landmarks Preservation Commission to draw up the bill. He may one day be known as the mayor who saved New York's past for New Yorkers of the future. The bill would amend the City Charter to permit the preservation and protection of landmarks and historic districts. VILLAGE. BKLYN HEIGHTS ARE HISTORIC DISTRICTS Landmarks are buildings or structures which have a special character, or a particular historic or esthetic interest for New Yorkers Historic districts are distinct sections of the city in which at least half of the buildings are of THERE ARE OTHERS LESS WELL KNOWH Some rather ugly buildings by modern standards, at any rate may still deserve to be saved.

Not everybody would flip over the Haughwout Building, for instance. Located at Broadway and Broome it is a cast iron building dating from about 1857. Its style is patterned after Sanso- already. Columns have been chopped off, fine brick has been covered with cheap modern facings, elegant windows have been filled in, picture windows have been installed in 1800-style homes. If the owner of a landmark decided the only way he could get a fair return on his investment would be to tear it down and build something else in its place he would have to apply to the commission for a demolition permit.

Then he and the commission would try to work out a plan that would let him earn a fair return and still preserve the landmark. Such a plan might provide some measure of tax forgiveness, or exempt the building from taxes. If no plan is possible, the city gets a chance to buy the building. If the city can't afford to buy it or doesn't choose to then a demolition permit must be issued. The Landmarks Commission tentatively has designated 750 landmarks in the city.

These in vino's Library on the Piazetta in Venice. clude the obvious ones like St. Mark's in the Bouwerie, Smith's Folly (now the headquarters for But the Haughwout Building is an important landmark. Designed by James Bogardus, pioneer of iron architecture in America, it is man; the Gothic gates to Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn; the Bowery Savings Bank on E. 42d truly the most glorious interior in which a check was ever written.

A CANDIDATE FOR LANDMARK OF FUTURE And, the Woolworth Building, the Singer Building on Broadway and Liberty Alwyn Court Apartments, on 48th St. and Seventh a building without a square inch of undecorated surface. To the landmarks of yesterday and the day-before-yesterday must be added landmarks of the the Colonial Dames of America) on E. 61st City Hall and Gracie Mansion. There are others less well known.

The oldest building in the city, and oerhaDS in the entire coun the direct architectural ancestor of Lever House and the UN Secretariat. What's more, it had the try, is the Pieter Claesen Wyckoff first passenger elevator equipped with safety devices, thus making a kind that represent a particular period in our history. Creenwich Village (which recently won a six-year, privately-waged battle to save the old Jefferson Market Courthouse) is one of these. Another is Brooklyn Heights. futur possibly the Seagram House on Park for in With its narrow, tree-lined streets, stance.

The landmarks preserva tion bill would protect it, too. The bill is now before the City Council. With luck and public support, it could be passed before the end of 1964 which is just 19 House at Clarendon Koad and Ralph in Brooklyn. The oldest portion was built about 1636 by Wouter Van Twiller, director general of the New Netherlands Co. It stands amid the weeds and overgrowth of a deteriorating neighborhood, but is structurally sound and can be saved.

Bowne House, in Flushing, Queens, was built in 1661. It was the meeting house for members of the Quaker sect who were fleeing persecution by Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch governor. The beautiful houses on Washington Square North are considered landmarks and so are the once beautiful houses of Colonnade Row on Lafayette near Astor Place. These were privately-owned town houses, unified architecturally by a row of splendid columns. Five of them were torn down some years ago to make room for days away.

Some of the groups supporting Xti If! I the legislation have suggested that it would make a welcome ornamental iron railings, ana rows of stately frame, brick and brownstone houses, it looks very much as it did at the beginning of the Civil War. There are now 72 cities which can boast some kind of preservation legislation on the books Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, New Orleans, to name a few. One of the legal precedents is a U.S. Supreme Court decision which states that a city- has as much right to be beautiful as it has to be safe and clean. Here, considerably simplified, is how the city law would operate: 300th birthday present to the city, and that it would be an excellent commemoration of Landmarks Preservation Year.

It also srives the Mayor and the City Council a memorable way of saying, "Merry Christmas, New York." (NEWS foto) Jewel among weeds: Pieter Claesen Wyckoff house in Brooklyn, bmlt in 1636, in the oldest house in New York..