Two preservation groups in Greenwich Village have joined forces to protect some historic homes.

“They certainly are historic,” said Roger Lang, the director of Community Services of the NYLC. “And maybe what they have most obviously going for them is being venerable. They're old.”

Thirteen federal rowhouses have survived for about 200 years. Both the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and the New York Landmarks Conservancy believe they’re worth protecting.

“They really tell the story of our city,” said Andrew Berman of the Society for Historic Preservation. “They're an important link to our past. They're part of our culture. They're part of what makes us proud to be New Yorkers.”

And they are among about 150 federal period homes in New York that are not protected by landmark designation or a historic district. Federal style architecture refers to the early years of the new nation, from the late 18th century to the early 19th Century. And these homes display some fine characteristics of that style.

“You'll find many of the federals have a carriage house door, a doorway to the left of the main entrance. That was to take the horse through the house to the back where the barn was located,” Lang said.

They're usually two to three stories tall with steeply pitched roofs and dormers. And they can teach us about the past.

“These houses, for example, were built on farmland when Greenwich Village was a bucolic place and people were fleeing downtown because of the cholera epidemics of the 1820s,” Lang said.

The 13 homes are all over Lower Manhattan, from the Village to Hudson Square to near the World Trade Center site. And while they're not in any imminent danger, the two groups are asking the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission to designate all 13 as landmarks.

“They've survived from the earliest days of the Republic at the time when New York City had just surpassed Philadelphia as the most populous city in the United States,” said Lang. “And they're a sign of increasing wealth and order and civility.”

“And we've picked 13, like the 13 original colonies, as an example for the commission to start that process of taking a look and hopefully preserving this incredible piece of our heritage,” said Berman. “The new Americans wanted to develop a style that they felt reflected their new nationhood. And that's what the federal style was. So it's not only architecturally and aesthetically important, but it's historically important as well.”

The GVSHP and the NYLC have submitted documentation to the LPC, and they hope the commission will soon schedule a hearing.

For more information, log onto www.gvshp.org".

--Paul Messina