Pols, gay rights groups call for preservation of 186 Spring St.
New York State Senator Tom Duane speaks at the press conference to save 186 Spring Street. (GVSHP) Credit: New York State Senator Tom Duane speaks at the press conference to save 186 Spring Street. (GVSHP)
About two dozen people gathered Wednesday to ask the city to reconsider whether 186 Spring St. - which holds a significant place in the history of gay rights - deserves landmark status, which would prevent its possible demolition this year.
Queens Councilman Daniel Dromm, along with Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, State Sen. Tom Duane and reps for some city gay rights groups, pleaded for the city to grant the building landmark status, staving off potential plans from new owner Stephane Boivin of Nordica to turn the building into condos and retail space.
"The contributions of the people who lived in this building were ... major, groundbreaking, earth-shattering, history-making contributions" to gay rights, Dromm said.
He added: "We must have this here for future generations."
The building, constructed in 1824, housed leaders of the gay rights movement in the 1970s, including Jim Owles, the city's first only gay candidate for public office, and Bruce Voeller, who co-founded the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the nation's first such organization. Boivin purchased it earlier this year from Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz.
The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission has said the site doesn't "rise to the level of an individual landmark due to extensive alterations."
Nordica didn't return a request for comment.
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