EVENT UPDATE (as of 5 pm 10.16.19):  

The McAneny event will now be held from 10:00 – 11:15 am at Federal Hall National Monument (26 Wall Street) on October 17, 2019 due to expected weather conditions.

Attendees are asked to enter via the Pine Street (north) doors of Federal Hall no earlier than 9:30 am and wait in the exhibit and visitor center areas until NPS staff opens the rotunda at 10:00 a.m.

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On October 17th, 150 New Yorkers will be honored as “Spirits of McAneny” near Castle Clinton in The Battery. We invite you to join NYPAP in collaboration with the National Park Service and The Battery Conservancy in commemorating civic leader George McAneny’s legacy during his sesquicentennial year at a ceremony to be held from 9:30 am – 11:00 am.

Often overlooked today, George McAneny served in many ways as a counterbalance to Robert Moses in the first half of the 20th Century. On October 19, 1950, McAneny gave a speech, “The Fight to Save Castle Clinton” summing up a decade-long effort to save Castle Clinton and The Battery from destruction by Moses.

Join us as civic leaders Kent Barwick, president emeritus for the Municipal Art Society; Tom Wright, CEO of the Regional Plan Association, Concetta Anne Bencivenga, director of the New York Transit Museum, Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council, and more read excerpts from McAneny’s inspiring and timely speech. We hope you will join us on the 17th!

More on George McAneny:

George McAneny was a civic leader, preservationist, planner, and reformer who served in numerous roles, including New York City Comptroller, Manhattan Borough President, executive manager of The New York Times, president of the Municipal Art Society, president of the City Club of New York, and first president of Regional Plan Association. His work advanced a grand goal of livability through emphases on preservation, planning, public spaces, transit, and civic duty.

As a preservationist, McAneny was most famous for his work in saving Castle Clinton and Federal Hall and pushing to restore City Hall. As a planner, McAneny improved transportation by creating the “Dual Contracts System” of subways and implementing the first city-wide zoning code in the United States, the 1916 Zoning Resolution. He also served on the boards of the Tuskegee Institute and the 1939 World’s Fair. He helped establish the National Trust for Historic Preservation. 

Location:
Federal Hall National Monument
26 Wall Street (use Pine Street entrance)
New York, NY 10005
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