Rich Wandel
Rich is a former president of the Gay Activist Alliance, and served as the Archivist Historian at the LGBT Community Center from its founding in 1990 to today. From the … Continued
Full TranscriptVillage Preservation Oral History Collection
Village Preservation’s Oral History Project includes interviews with some of the great artists, activists, business owners, community leaders, and preservation pioneers of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo. It captures and preserves their first-person perspective on the important histories they witnessed or of which they were a part.
- Activists & Advocates
- Arts
- East Village
- Greenwich Village
- Immigration
- LGBTQ
- Local Business
- Preservationists
- South Village
- Westbeth
Activists & Advocates
David Rothenberg
David Rothenberg is one of the Village’s most prolific activists. A former Broadway producer, he also produced the off-Broadway play “Fortune in Men’s Eyes”, which ignited a movement to serve … Continued
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Robert Sanfiz
Robert Sanfiz has been the Executive Director of La Nacional since 2008. La Nacional is the 150-year-old Spanish Benevolent Society located on West 14th Street, which represents and historically advocated … Continued
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Arthur Levin
Arthur (Art) Levin has served as a Village Preservation Trustee for over 20 years, including as President since 2012, overseeing a period of organizational growth. Art grew up on the … Continued
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Valerio Orselli
Orselli immigrated from Italy to Brazil in 1954, and to New York in 1960. He has been a passionate advocate for affordable housing for almost 50 years, especially in the … Continued
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Tod Williams
Architect Tod Williams worked with Richard Meier during the conversion of Westbeth from an industrial building to artist’s housing in the late 1960s and early 70s. He, along with this … Continued
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George Cominskie
Since 1983, Cominskie has lived in Westbeth, a nonprofit housing and commercial complex dedicated to providing affordable living and working space for artists and arts organizations, located in the old … Continued
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Gloria McDarrah
McDarrah has lived in the Village since the 1950s. She worked in publishing, and married Fred McDarrah, who established himself as a photojournalist and a leading documentarian of mid-century Greenwich … Continued
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Maria Kenny
The child of Irish immigrants, Kenny grew up in the Bronx and Greenwich Village. Her father, Pat, was owner of the Village music club, Kenny’s Castaways, and a part owner … Continued
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Colette Douglas
Douglas lived in MacDougal-Sullivan Gardens in the 1950s, and tells a classic story of mid-century Village life, from attending Little Red Schoolhouse as a child, to witnessing her husband fight … Continued
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Tom Bernardin
A native of Lawrence, Massachusetts, Bernardin moved to New York City as a young man and enjoyed the freedom and community for gay men that he found in the Village. … Continued
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David Amram
A noted musician, bandleader, prolific composer, and pioneer of the jazz French horn for more than the past half-century, Amram lived in various parts of the Village and has worked … Continued
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