Hispanic Society of America Complex

Designated a National Historic Landmark of New York City on 10/17/2012.

Landmark Description

Famous philanthropist Archer M. Huntington founded The Hispanic Society in 1904 as a museum and research library to provide Americans with resources and knowledge regarding their heritage from Spain, Portugal, and the directly related cultures of Central and South America. He was responsible not only for the Hispanic Society’s establishment but also for its immediate success – during a time when American attitudes toward Hispanic cultures were still highly influenced by what the Spanish came to call the "Black Legend." This negative stereotype of Spanish people in the New World grew out of European criticism of Spanish colonizing practices that greatly colored perceptions of Hispanic culture through the 19th century. Huntington’s Hispanic Society was directly responsible for promoting a new and updated scholarship that recasts Hispanic heritage in the United States in a positive, more celebratory tone. The complex is of great importance for this achievement and its association with Huntington.

Category: Building-Public

Location

Street: Broadway between 155th and 156th Streets

Borough: Manhattan

County: New York

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Library of Congress (LOC) Picture Collection
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National Park Service - National Historic Landmarks Site
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LOC Historic American Building Survey
The permanent collection of architectural, engineering and landscape documentation at the Library of Congress consists of measured and interpretive drawings, large-format black and white and color photographs, written historical and descriptive data, and original field notes. The collection captures the American experience through approximately 40,000 recorded historic structures and sites, from American Indian cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde to space-age technology at Cape Canaveral.
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