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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Arts

Rob Mason

For more than a quarter century, Robert Mason operated RPM studios from his live/work loft on 12th Street south of Union Square, one of the first boutique recording studios in the … Continued

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Rick Kelly

Rick Kelly has owned the world-renowned Carmine Street Guitars at 42 Carmine Street since 1990, but opened his first shop on Downing Street in 1976. His oral history delves into his … Continued

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Mimi Sheraton

Mimi Sheraton is a food critic and food writer who has lived in the Village since 1945. In 1975 she was she hired as a food critic for the New … Continued

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Ralph Lee

Puppeteer Ralph Lee has lived at Westbeth since 1970 and is known as the “Father” of the famous Greenwich Village Halloween Parade.

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Otis Kidwell Burger

Otis Kidwell Burger has lived on Bethune Street for 58 years, and her life has intertwined with some of the most intriguing and important figures in the Village during that … Continued

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Paula DeLuccia Poons

Paula DeLuccia Poons and her husband Larry Poons have lived at 827-831 Broadway since 1977. Both are artists, following a long tradition of those in the arts who have taken … 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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Peter Ruta

A renowned painter who focused on views of Lower Manhattan, Ruta painted for nearly seventy years and had lived in Westbeth since its opening in 1970 when he passed away … Continued

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Richard Meier

Architect Richard Meier was commissioned in 1967 to renovate the former Bell Laboratories in Greenwich Village into the affordable artist’s housing Westbeth.

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Joan Davidson

Daughter of J.M. Kaplan and a member of the J.M. Kaplan Fund, Joan Davidson coordinated the founding of the Westbeth Project, an artist’s residence in the West Village.

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Merce Cunningham

Merce Cunningham (1919 -2009) was an American dancer, choreographer and leader of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, located since 1971 at Westbeth in the West Village.

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Peter Cott

Peter Cott served as the Executive Director of the artist’s community Westbeth from 1970 to 1973.

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Village Preservation Oral History Collection

Arts

Rob Mason

Rick Kelly

Mimi Sheraton

Ralph Lee

Otis Kidwell Burger

Paula DeLuccia Poons

Tod Williams

Peter Ruta

Richard Meier

Joan Davidson

Merce Cunningham

Peter Cott