The three new landmarks — the Public School 15 Annex in Boerum Hill, the Church of Saint Mary on the Lower East Side, and the Lithuanian Alliance Building in Chelsea — join over 38,500 buildings and sites that are protected by the city as historical landmarks.
Photos courtesy NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated three buildings as historical landmarks on Tuesday, noting each location’s importance to the city’s long history of immigration.
The locations — the Public School 15 Annex in Boerum Hill, the Church of Saint Mary on the Lower East Side, and the Lithuanian Alliance Building in Chelsea — join over 38,500 buildings and sites that are protected by the city as historical landmarks.
The LPC voted to designate the buildings at a Tuesday meeting following a public hearing last month about each building’s significance to the city and its history.
“New York City’s history is the history of immigration, and the three landmarks designated today provide a tangible connection to places that helped communities establish roots and create lasting opportunities,” Landmarks Preservation Commission Executive Director Lisa Kersavage said. “The designation of these architecturally distinctive buildings are part of the Commission’s ongoing commitment to ensuring that our landmarks tell the story of all New Yorkers.”
The Public School 15 Annex, a three-story Romanesque Revival-style building, was constructed in 1889 as an extension to Public School 15 in Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill. The Annex became a group of schools that offered education to women, including many from immigrant families, and the Brooklyn Girls’ Continuation School established its headquarters in the Annex in 1927.
The Annex now houses the Khalil Gibran International Academy, the first public school in New York City to offer an Arabic and English dual language program. The site has been wrapped up in a controversial rezoning battle, as developer Alloy gets to work on a new 44-story mixed-use building and the construction of two new public schools. Alloy will preserve the Annex while adaptively reusing the building as it constructs the new schools.
“I am grateful that we are preserving the stunning facade of the Public School 15 Annex,” Council Member Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn) said in a news release. “The creative reuse of this site to meet our housing crisis while protecting this architectural gem is a win for our community. Thank you to the team at LPC and Alloy for their work on this.”
The Church of Saint Mary on Manhattan’s Lower East Side is the neighborhood’s oldest Roman Catholic church building, constructed in 1833. It was an important church for Irish Catholics arriving in the city in the 19th century, and continues to serve Catholic immigrants moving to New York City. Today, the parish is mostly made up of Spanish speakers.
The church has gone largely untouched since an 1864 facade update, save for necessary repairs.
“We’re so happy to have been able to work with parishioners and City Council Member Marte to spread the word on the church’s important history, and thrilled that the Commission has now landmarked this spiritual and architectural beacon to make sure it can serve generations to come,” Lower East Side Preservation Initiative President Richard D. Moses said.
The Lithuanian Alliance Building in Chelsea has long served as the headquarters of the Lithuanian Alliance of America, providing a key support space for Lithuanian immigrants and the Lithuanian American community in New York City.
The Alliance selected the site for its headquarters in 1910 due to its proximity to Ellis Island, and the organization continues to support Lithuanians moving to New York City. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2022 after the Alliance completed a 2018 restoration.
“Lithuanian Americans in New York love and cherish their only Lithuanian-owned building in the greater New York City area,” an Alliance board member, Danius Glinskis, said in a news release. “Being recognized by the New York City Landmarks Commission is a great honor and one that recognizes our efforts to preserve the building as it was when we acquired it in 1910.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani applauded the commission’s delegation of the three buildings.
“Immigrants built New York City. Their stories live in every block, every neighborhood, every corner of the five boroughs. Today, I’m proud to recognize three more sites that carry that legacy forward—places that, for generations, have opened their doors to newcomers and helped define what it means to belong in the greatest city in the world,” Mamdani said in a news release.