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.
The views expressed by the contributor(s) are solely those of the contributor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or endorsement of our organization.
As Lower Manhattan’s elected representative for 35 years, Deborah Glick was a leading advocate for civil rights, reproductive freedom, animals and environmental preservation, the arts, and tenants’ rights. Glick was the first openly LGBTQ member of the State legislature when elected in 1990 and a leader in the fight for marriage equality. She fought to […]
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Karen Cooper was the Director of Film Forum from 1972 to 2023, building the institution into a force for independent and repertory cinema. Her oral history deals with her five decades at its helm, her being drawn to the Village as a young person growing up in Queens, and changes she’s seen in the neighborhood since the mid-20th century.
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Shirley Wright co-founded the West Village Nursery School, a model, progressive, nursery school that has been a cornerstone institution in Greenwich Village for over sixty years, teaching children through play. She has lived in Greenwich Village for more than three quarters of a century.
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For more than a quarter century, Robert Mason (b. 1946) operated RPM studios from his live/work loft on 12th Street south of Union Square, one of the first boutique recording studios in the city during a golden age of music and recording here. Some of the greatest rock, hip hop, disco, jazz, and R&B artists of the […]
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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 unique guitar design and construction method, using recycled wood from New York City buildings being demolished, as well as his interactions over the years with […]
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Mimi Sheraton (February 10, 1926–April 6, 2023) was a food critic and food writer who had lived in the Village since 1945. In 1975 she was hired as the first female restaurant critic at The New York Times. Sheraton went on to work for a variety of magazines, including Time, Condé Nast Traveler, Harper’s Bazaar, […]
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Robert Sanfiz (b. March 20, 1969) 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 advocates for the “Little Spain” community that stretched from Christopher to 23rd Street along the west side, once the largest Spanish-American community […]
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Bass (1928-2018) joined the family business, the Strand Bookstore, at the age of 13 when it was located on 4th Avenue. In 1956 he took over the business, and in 1957 moved it around the corner to its present location at East 12th Street and Broadway. As the years went on, Bass came to spend […]
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Matt Umanov (b. August 28, 1947) is the founder and proprietor of Matt Umanov Guitars, located at 273 Bleecker Street. Since 1965, Matt Umanov Guitars has been buying, selling, and repairing vintage guitars, and has served some of the biggest names in music.
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Romana Raffetto (1931-2018) is the former owner and her son Andrew the current owner of Raffetto Pasta at 144 West Houston Street. A Greenwich Village and New York institution, Raffetto Pasta was founded by Romana’s father-in-law in 1906.
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Peter Longo (b. October 22, 1951) grew up in an Italian family in the Village, attending Catholic schools and absorbing the immigrant and Beat cultures that surrounded him. He took over, and still runs, the coffee business his father started, the Porto Rico Importing Company.
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The child of Irish immigrants, Maria Kenny (b. October 25, 1963) 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 of The Bitter End. Kenny recalls musicians and the scene, and the changed circumstances that eventually led her and her […]
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