Celebrity circles

Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel with the Edith Wharton plaque for 14 West 23rd Street

In the shadow of New York’s Flatiron Building, sandwiched between a burrito shop and a deli, sits the five-storey building where a young Edith Wharton spent much of her childhood reading in her father’s library.

The American author, the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, was born and spent her childhood years at 14 West 23rd Street. However, the droves of people who walked by on their way to Madison Square Park every day had no idea. Nor did local historians or even the owners of the building until a walking tour leader recently discovered the fact.

Now, thanks to preservationist Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, a terra-cotta plaque next to the modern glass entrance alerts passersby and visitors that the building housed, among other rooms, an extensive library that inspired Wharton’s initial curiosity about books during an era when a woman’s name was only to appear in print three times in her life – at birth, marriage and death.

Diamonstein-Spielvogel has devoted the past 15 years to commemorating more than 100 locations throughout New York’s five boroughs – the childhood homes, studios and workspaces of famous residents – through the Historic Landmarks Preservation Center’s cultural medallion programme. The programme was the latest in her four-decade-long commitment to preserving the city’s history.

14 West 23rd Street

In her book The Landmarks of New York (2011), Diamonstein-Spielvogel wrote: “The plaques draw attention of visitors and residents alike to recognise that New York City’s history is about more than bricks and mortar – it is what people accomplished under the city’s roofs that truly matters.”

She was the longest-serving commissioner of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission and served as the chair of the city’s Landmarks Preservation Foundation. During her tenure, she launched historic district street signs and neighbourhood maps in the 105 historic districts throughout the city – including SoHo, Greenwich Village and Ellis Island.

“Programmes like this help create a layer of meaning that’s an important context,” says Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council, one of the partners at the Wharton plaque unveiling that took place in October. “You can always look at any piece of architecture on its own merits but once you start understanding the context of it and who it was built for, it enriches your life.”

The intention of preservation efforts is not to “preserve the city in amber” and prevent change, says Bankoff, but to celebrate and raise awareness about what is in neighbourhoods for locals and visitors.

Though the cultural medallion programme just passed its 15th anniversary, historic markers have existed around the world for more than a century. The largest and most well known is London’s blue plaque scheme. It was founded in the late 1860s and today more than 850 blue plaques – most containing 19 words or less – dot the London landscape, commemorating politicians, artists, scientists and other well-known residents.

The first plaque was erected in 1867 by the Society of the Arts to honour Lord Byron’s house on Holles Street near Cavendish Square; the building was torn down 20 years later. More than 100 plaques have been lost since then.

English Heritage is responsible for the programme, although the responsibility for it – and its name – has changed hands many times throughout the years.

Susan Skedd, head of the blue plaques team at English Heritage, says: “We’ve got nearly 150 years of putting up plaques and trying to capture where somebody famous lived and what they did in that building, and to make that connection between the bricks and mortar and somebody’s very human achievements.”

In order to be considered for a plaque, the original building must still be standing, the candidate must have been dead for 20 years or must have celebrated their 100th birthday, and his or her accomplishments must have historical significance.

The nominee need not be British. In fact, “Americans make up quite a nice little tidy proportion of the plaques,” says Skedd.

The nominations then pass through a panel for consideration. Though English Heritage receives some 100 nominations a year, only about 12 plaques are unveiled each year. The process takes up to six years from nomination to the plaque hitting the building.

While Diamonstein-Spielvogel says she was partially inspired by the blue plaque scheme, she did make some key changes, one of which was to include more information about the significance and the life of the honouree.

“I give as much content as I can from various sources,” she says. For the Wharton plaque, she consulted various historians and experts on the author.

The next two plaques that Diamonstein-Spielvogel is preparing to unveil in New York are the home of Odetta, a singer active in the civil rights movement, and the childhood home of the Marx Brothers.

“I look forward to the Marx Brothers one particularly because, as we know, to survive in this life one must have a keen sense of humour,” she says.

Boston had a historic marker scheme, with its history traced back to the late 1800s. The plaques were fixed to locations where historic events took place but also where well-known residents lived, including Malcolm X, William Lloyd Garrison and, more recently, members of the rock band Aerosmith.

Sadly the programme, which was run by the Bostonian Society, was closed down last year, though the 150 plaques will be maintained. The society is now working on virtual markers and online programmes to help draw attention to significant sites around the city – one of the key locations of the war of independence. Brian Lemay, resident of the Bostonian Society, says: “More people might find it more accessible to get this information from cell phones.”

Skedd says that English Heritage has received requests from around the world for advice on how to launch similar schemes.

“It’s finding something that’s appropriate to the building type and the aesthetic of the city,” she says. “We know the blue plaque is replicated many times but we always love it when people think originally.”

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Manhattan markers

Harry Houdini 278 West 113th Street (1904-1926)

Housed his collection of theatrical memorabilia and books here.

Cecil B DeMille 622 West 114th Street (1906-1913).

George and Ira Gershwin 33 Riverside Drive (1929-1933)

Wrote the Broadway shows Girl Crazy, Of Thee I Sing, and Let ‘Em Eat Cake while living here.

Andy Warhol 57 East 66th Street (1974-1987).

ee cummings 4 Patchin Place (1922-1962).

Allen Ginsberg 170 East 2nd Street (1958-1961)

Wrote the poem “Kaddish” in Apt 16.

Jack Kerouac 133-01 Cross Bay Boulevard (1943-1949)

Wrote his first novel, The Town and the City, while living here.