Places connect us to the past, host community and cultural traditions, and keep local environments distinctive. 

Place Matters was founded in 1998 by City Lore to identify, promote, and protect treasured places in New York City.

The Place Matters Toolkit is a guidebook to help you identify, promote, and protect places that you care about. We expect the Toolkit to evolve as we develop and post new material. Let us know if you have ideas for new topics, or if a topic covered here requires more explanation.
Please enjoy reading these publications, which helped to inform the development of the Place Matters program and approach to community-collaborative place conservation.
The Community Anchors Initiative works to sustain religious institutions, social clubs, and small businesses serving as cultural centers for communities.
A selection of kindred programs, projects, and websites to Place Matters. We’ve learned a great deal from them, and hope you enjoy learning more, too.
Place Matters is honored and grateful to have received support from these funders, who have made our work possible for over two decades.
Place Matters conducts the Census of Places that Matter—a survey of places in New York City that matter to people. We collaborate with individuals and organizations to promote and preserve places nominated to our Census. And we mount place-based education and advocacy programs.