Yankee Stadium a landmark in hearts & minds, but not in fact…

It seems odd when you think about it what buildings in New York City are considered landmarks — and are protected as such — and which are not. A building just around the corner from Yankee Stadium, credited as the birthplace of Hip Hop is being considered for preservation. A factory on the lower east side of Manhattan where Milk Bone dog biscuits were once produced is also considered a landmark as is an entire residential neighborhood in the northwest Bronx. It is neither our place nor our desire to judge the historical relevance of these locations, only to say that Yankee Stadium deserves at least the same consideration given its unique role in our country’s history, known far and wide as our greatest outdoor arena.

As this New York Times article points out, the many requests to have the House That Ruth Built considered for landmark status have never even been granted a public hearing based, it seems, almost solely on the argument that its legacy was tarnished by the renovation in the late ’70s. This incarnation though is also eligible for consideration in that it has stood for over 30 years and has played host to numerous significant events.

Yankee Stadium’s unique role in the days and weeks following the 9/11 attacks alone should warrant consideration, not to mention six World Championships, a three home run World Series performance by Reggie Jackson that inspired New Yorkers after the tumultuous “Summer of Sam”, Papal masses, concerts and other historically and culturally significant events.

As Richard Sandomir writes in Saturday’s New York TImes,

“If historical significance is a measure of a landmark, why has Yankee Stadium never been designated one by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission?

There was plenty of architectural significance in the original version.

More than enough history was made in the Stadium before and after its renovation.

And if the commission was willing to make the old Milk-Bone dog treat factory on the Lower East Side a landmark, as it did last week, what has kept it from seriously considering the House that Ruth Built all these years?

The first request to landmark the renovated Stadium came in 1998 from Jeffrey D. Klein, then a state assemblyman from the Bronx.

“You can just feel the history there,” Klein, a Democrat who is now a state senator, said on Friday. “It certainly has tremendous significance.”

Klein’s pursuit of landmark status for the Stadium was part of a campaign to keep the team from moving to Manhattan, although George Steinbrenner could have left an empty building behind and relocated to the West Side.

But Klein learned, as did 16 others who have filed landmark requests since 2001, that the commission believed the Stadium was no longer worthy of the designation.”

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