Taras Shevchenko Place is a street in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

named after

Taras Shevchenko Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko (; ; 9 March 1814 – 10 March 1861) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, artist, public and political figure, folklorist, and ethnographer. He was a fellow of the Imperial Academy of Arts and a member of the Brotherhood o ...

, one of the greatest Ukrainian

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

s. Taras Shevchenko Place connects 6th Street and 7th Street between

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and

Third Avenue Third Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, as well as in the center portion of the Bronx. Its southern end is at Astor Place and St. Mark's Place. It transitions into Cooper Square ...

s in the East Village. It abuts the back of

41 Cooper Square 41 Cooper Square is a nine-story, academic center at Cooper Square, Manhattan, New York City, that houses Cooper Union's Albert Nerken School of Engineering with additional spaces for the humanities, art, and architecture departments. Designed b ...

to the west.

History

The street was originally named Hall Street in 1830 and became Hall Place in 1855. It was named after Charles Henry Hall, a Harlem landowner who sold the property to the city on December 23, 1828. In the mid- to late 1970s, residents of the " Little Ukraine" section of the East Village and the United Ukrainian American Organizations of Greater New York organized a campaign to rename the street after Taras Shevchenko. A resolution to rename the street "Taras Shevchenko Place" was introduced to the

New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City in the United States. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The council serves as a check against the mayor in a mayor-council government mod ...

's Committee on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs by Manhattan Councilman-at-large Henry J. Stern in February 1978 and was adopted by the committee on April 5, 1978, before being sent to the full council for confirmation. Legislation to rename "Hall Place" as "Taras Shevchenko Place" was signed by Mayor

Ed Koch Edward Irving Koch ( ; December 12, 1924February 1, 2013) was an American politician. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and was mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989. Koch was a lifelong Democrat who ...

on May 4, 1978. Prior to the bill being signed into law, a temporary street sign for "Taras Shevchenko Place" had been erected in time for the dedication of the adjacent

Saint George Ukrainian Catholic Church Saint George Ukrainian Catholic Church (, ) is a Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church located in East Village, Manhattan, New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at t ...

on April 23, 1978. After the street was renamed, the St. George Ukrainian Post of the

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announced proposed plans to close the street to traffic and convert it into a pedestrian plaza with additional trees and park benches. In February 2001, the

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly known as Cooper Union, is a private college on Cooper Square in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-s ...

filed an

Uniform Land Use Review Procedure Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) is a process mandated by the 1975 revision of the New York City Charter that is invoked when a proposed development will affect certain legal protections afforded to the existing area and/or its inhabitan ...

application with the city to 'de-map' the street—removing it from the city map—to incorporate part of the street into a new nine-story academic building that would replace the two-story Hewitt Building. The remaining portion of the street was proposed to be converted into a pedestrian walkway or plaza that would continue to commemorate Taras Shevchenko. The application was made as part of a larger plan by the college to renovate and modernize the facilities on its campus. The proposal to de-map Taras Shevchenko Place was later withdrawn by the college after strong opposition from local residents. A "Hall Place" street sign was re-installed in 2010.

Namesake

(1814-1861) was a Ukrainian writer,

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

and

political activist A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some ...

whose novels and poems, written in Ukrainian, gave forceful expression to his countrymen's national sentiment at a time when many aspects of their

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

, especially the language, were being suppressed by the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. In one of his poems, he called for an independent Ukrainian state to be led by a "Ukrainian Washington".

References

External links

* Streets in Manhattan Ukrainian communities in the United States East Village, Manhattan {{Ukraine-culture-stub