A Haven for Radicals and Liberals Moves Closer to Landmark Status
arrow The NAACP flew this flag outside its headquarters when it was at 70 5th Avenue Library of Congress and NAACP
An early headquarters of the NAACP in Greenwich Village and home to numerous civil rights and activist groups moved one step closer to being landmarked.
The 12-story Beaux Arts style building, located at 70 5th Avenue, was built in 1912 by architect Charles Alonzo Rich and almost immediately became, in the words of one chronicler, “a haven for radicals and liberals.”
In addition to the NAACP, the building housed the National Civil Liberties Bureau, a group formed to assist conscientious objectors during the first World War before it changed its name to the American Civil Liberties Union; the League for the Abolition of Capital Punishment; and the Citizen’s National Committee for Sacco-Vanzetti, two Italian immigrants and anarchists who were sentenced to death after a h