November 9, 2008


Historic Tin Pan Alley in jeopardy

BY VERENA DOBNIK
ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK -- A group of New Yorkers is fighting to save Tin Pan Alley, home to
publishers of some of the catchiest American tunes -- from "God Bless America"
and "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" to "Give My Regards to Broadway."

In a half-dozen 19th-Century buildings on Manhattan's West 28th St., the music
of Irving Berlin, Scott Joplin, Fats Waller, George M. Cohan and other greats
was born.

The buildings were put up for sale earlier this fall for $44 million, with plans
to replace them with a high-rise. The construction plan fell through amid the
turmoil in the economy, but the possibility of losing the historic block
hastened efforts to push for landmark status for Tin Pan Alley.

A commission is "researching the history of the buildings and reviewing whether
they'd be eligible for landmark designation," said Lisi de Bourbon, a
spokeswoman for New York's Landmarks Preservation Commission.

From the late 1880s to the mid-1950s, the careers of songwriters were launched
from the buildings at 45, 47, 49, 51, 53 and 55 West 28th. The windows of music
companies broadcast a cacophony of competing piano sounds, earning the area the
nickname Tin Pan Alley, to describe what one journalist said sounded like
pounding on tin pans.

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