Oral Histories - Village Preservation

Village 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.

Click here for an alphabetical list of our entire Oral History Collection.

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Activists & Advocates

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

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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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Village Preservation Oral History Collection

Activists & Advocates

Rich Wandel

David Rothenberg

Robert Sanfiz

Arthur Levin

Valerio Orselli

Tod Williams

George Cominskie

Gloria McDarrah

Maria Kenny

Colette Douglas

Tom Bernardin

David Amram