Groups work to preserve buildings near World Trade Center site

NEW YORK -- A 200-year-old mansion, a skyscraper sheathed in terracotta and a telephone factory from 1888 are drawing international attention from preservationists concerned the structures could be leveled when the World Trade Center is rebuilt.

The buildings make up the architecturally eclectic neighborhood south of the trade center site, which preservation groups say is rich with historic structures that should be saved from the wrecking ball.

"We absolutely think this is as worthy of attention and interest as anything else we're working on all over the world, from Pompeii to Hagia Sophia to Angkor Wat to great sites in China," said John Stubbs, vice president of World Monuments Fund.

The organization is part of a group formed after the Sept. 11 attacks to help protect historic buildings around the 16-acre trade center site. The group includes the Municipal Art Society, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the New York Landmarks Conservancy and the Preservation League of New York State.

No historic buildings are now marked for demolition, but preservationists say they want to intervene ahead of that possibility. Redevelopment officials have discussed expanding ground zero to include other sites as a way to accommodate all the interests now squeezed onto the trade center property.

Preliminary plans for the area south of the trade center site include new housing, cultural centers and a park.

"We're not saying to freeze everything; we're not saying to landmark everything. We're simply saying to do your diligence as planning unfolds to look at the historic properties here," said Ken Lustbader, spokesman for The Lower Manhattan Emergency Preservation Fund.

Settled by the Dutch in the 1600s, lower Manhattan saw the swearing-in of George Washington at Federal Hall, the forming of the New York stock market and the creation of landmarks such as City Hall and Trinity Church.

In the early 1800s, Greenwich Street in the heart of lower Manhattan was the address for many of the city's rich and prestigious families, including Robert Dickey, who built a four-story brick mansion there.

The dwelling, with its oval rooms and intricate keystones above the windows, is believed to be the last remaining mansion of its kind in the city, and is on preservationists' watch list. It is not occupied.

"It's one of the hidden gems of New York," said architectural historian Francis Morrone.

Another favorite is a 26-story skyscraper built in 1905, sheathed in the same glazed white terracotta of the famed Woolworth building, which was completed a few years later.

The earlier structure "really is one of our marvelous examples of a skyscraper from that period of time," Morrone said.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the redevelopment agency has been open to the preservationists' concerns.