Exhibition highlights 50-year-old NYC Landmarks Law

FILE - This April 24, 1962 file photo provided by theLibrary of Congress shows the main concourse of the original Pennsylvania Station in New York. The original station, a Beaux Arts masterpiece of soaring beauty, classical columns and natural light, was torn down in 1963. Fifty years ago Mayor Robert Wagner signed the Landmarks Law, ending decades of hard-fought efforts to save New York City’s historic character but not before some major architectural losses, including the massive McKim, Mead & White-designed Pennsylvania Station. (Cervin Robinson/Library of Congress VIA AP, File)

By Associated Press April 16, 2015 1 min read

NEW YORK (AP) – A new exhibition opens next week at the Museum of the City of New York to mark the 50th anniversary of the city’s ground-breaking Landmarks Law.

Titled “Saving Place,” the exhibition looks at the events leading up to its passage and how preservation has created dynamic neighborhoods that blend old and new.

The law’s adoption ended decades of hard-fought efforts to save New York City’s historic character. The destruction of the old Pennsylvania Station in the early 1960s was among the major catalysts for the law.

Today, the city has 33,000 landmarked buildings, 135 historic districts, 117 interiors and 10 scenic landmarks.

Famous places given such designation include Radio City Music Hall, Federal Hall, Brooklyn Botanical Garden, the New York Stock Exchange and Coney Island’s Parachute Jump.