Protected? Landmarks Commission OKs Lithuanian Alliance Building
The Lithuanian Alliance, which purchased the building in 1910, sought landmark status because they feared what might happen as Amtrak remodels nearby Penn Station. The building is now landmarked, but protection is not absolute.
| 08 Apr 2026 | 12:09
The Lithuanian Alliance of America had sought protection for its four story HQ which it has owned since 1910 because it feared what might happen to it as nearby Penn Station is transformed. (
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The Lithuanian Alliance Building has been based at 307 W. 30th St. since the cultural organization purchased the building in 1910. The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission recently granted the 150-year-old building landmark status. (
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The Lithuanian Alliance Building, which for years served as a way station for immigrants headed west through Penn Station, was named an individual landmark by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, a designation sought by the Alliance and the Lithuanian government to protect it from a possible expansion of that very station.
The building, a 150 year-old four story building in the Neo-Grec style, sits barely a block from Penn Station, at 130 west 30th Street. The spot was selected by the Alliance when it bought the building in 1910, precisely for its proximity to the newly opened Penn Station.
Lithuanian immigrants, headed for the coal fields of Pennsylvania and the stockyards of Chicago, would arrive at Ellis Island, make their way to 30th street, sleep upstairs at the Alliance building and then catch their train west the next morning.
But in 2021 that proximity became peril. New York State issued plans for the redevelopment of both the station and its neighborhood which showed new tracks passing directly beneath the Lithuanian Alliance building into a southern expansion of the station.
That alarmed the Alliance, a non-profit, as well as the Lithuanian government, which launched a campaign to win historic designations that might protect the building. https://www.ourtownny.com/news/fearing-penn-station-redevelopment-lithuanians-seek-to-landmark-150-year-old-hq-HE5475283
“The Lithuanian Alliance Building dates to 1876-1877 and reflects the residential development of the Chelsea neighborhood at the end of the 19th century,” The Landmark’s Commission said in its designation. “Since 1910, it has served as the headquarters of the Lithuanian Alliance of America, a fraternal society established to support new immigrants, and the nation’s oldest continually operating Lithuanian organization, creating an important hub for Lithuanian culture that continues to thrive today.”
The question of a southern expansion of the station is currently on hold after the Trump administration took over the Penn Station project from the state. Andy Byford, Amtrak’s man in charge, has asked the Federal Railroad Administration to study how much capacity of the station needs to be increased and whether that can be done within the current footprint.
That study is taking place in tandem with Byford’s search for a Master Developer to partner with Amtrak in “transforming” the station. Byford has asked competitors for their ideas for development around the station to help defray the costs of the station.
That is similar to the state plan, known as the GPP, which would have enabled construction of office towers and other commercial development. The Lithuanian Alliance Building, on West 30th Street and Seventh Avenue, sits on the corner of the property designated as “Site One” in the state plan.
“I think it’s wonderful that the Commission recognized how important the Lithuanian Alliance is to the Lithuanian community,” said Peg Breen, President of the New York Landmarks Conservancy. “It is also one more reason why the blocks south of Penn Station should not be sacrificed to an unnecessary underground expansion of Penn Station.”
A Master Developer will be selected by June, followed by “robust engagement” with the public on the plans for the station and the neighborhood, Byford said the other day.
Byford declined comment on the Landmarks Commission action.
Both the Lithuanian Government and the Alliance hailed the designation.
”The decision could not have come at a better time to reaffirm the historic friendship between Lithuania and the United States,” said the Lithuanian Consul General in New York, Dovydas Špokauskas. “I am deeply grateful for the Landmarks Commission and everyone at the Lithuanian Alliance for preserving this tiny bit of Lithuania in New York’s Midtown for well over 100 years.”
Spokauskas has been leading an effort to protect various Lithuanian cultural and religious sites in the United States.
“Landmark status will strengthen our efforts to continue to preserve our building for the Lithuanian community far into the future,” said the Lithuanian Alliance’s unofficial architectural historian and Board member, Danius Glinskis.
“Lithuanian Americans in New York love and cherish their only Lithuanian-owned building in the greater New York City area. Being recognized by the New York City Landmarks Commission is a great honor and one that recognizes our efforts to preserve the building as it was when we acquired it in 1910.”
The Alliance building was one of three buildings designated as individual landmarks for their links to New York’s immigration history, the Landmarks Commission said. The other two are Public School 15 Annex at 372 Schermerhorn, Brooklyn and the Church of Saint Mary at 440 Grand Street on the Lower East Side.
“New York City’s history is the history of immigration, and the three landmarks designated today provide a tangible connection to places that helped communities establish roots and create lasting opportunities,” said the executive director of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, Lisa Kersavage. “The designation of these architecturally distinctive buildings are part of the Commission’s ongoing commitment to ensuring that our landmarks tell the story of all New Yorkers.”
Exactly how much protection The Lithuanian Alliance has won for its headquarters is not altogether clear. Protections are significant, essentially a hurdle a developer would have to leap over, but not absolute.
The Landmarks Commission notes that after it designates a property as a landmark the commission “must approve in advance any alteration, reconstruction, demolition, or new construction affecting the designated building.”
But experts in landmark law noted that the landmark designation would not protect the Lithuanian Alliance Building from government seizure under eminent domain.
So just as the GPP envisioned the state overriding local zoning law to clear the way for super tall office towers, it could override a landmarks designation to allow expansion of the station.
By designating the building as of value to the city, however, the landmark approval does undermine the states argument that the neighborhood is “blighted” and in need of redevelopment, experts noted.