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.
Margaret “Pi” Halsey Gardiner has been the Director of the Merchant’s House Museum since the early 1990s. Her oral history deals with decades of stewardship of that beloved NYC landmark and institutions, as well as growing up in MacDougal-Sullivan Gardens in the 1950s and her family’s deep roots in New York history.
Full Transcript
Michael E. Levine (1943-2025) was an urban planner and NYC Department of City Planning Community Board 2 liaison beginning in the 1960s. He was intimately involved in the landmark designation of the Greenwich Village Historic District, pioneering zoning and landmark designations for SoHo, the Stonewall Riots, and Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, the world’s largest LGBTQ+ […]
Full Transcript
Beverly Moss Spatt (1924-2023) was a leading figure in New York City planning and preservation for over fifty years. In this oral history she discussed growing up in Brooklyn, how she helped form the first reform Democratic club in Brooklyn, how she earned her “maverick” reputation during her time on the City Planning Commission from […]
Full Transcript
Arthur (Art) Levin (b. 1936) has served as a Village Preservation Trustee since the 1990s, including as President from 2012 to 2022, overseeing a period of great organizational growth. He was the longtime director of the Center for Medical Consumers, working to expand access information about healthcare for New Yorkers. Art grew up on the Upper […]
Full Transcript
Daughter of J.M. Kaplan and President of the J.M. Kaplan Fund, Joan Davidson (1927-2023) coordinated the founding of the Westbeth Project, an artist’s residence in the West Village. Joan was a lifelong preservationist and progressive champion, who promoted New York’s rich historic heritage and advocated for elevating a variety of voices and perspectives. She served […]
Full Transcript
Gloria McDarrah (1932-2020) lived in Greenwich Village beginning in the 1950s. She worked in publishing and was married to Fred McDarrah, who established himself as a photojournalist and a leading documentarian of midcentury Greenwich Village. She also worked at the Landmarks Preservation Commission, and promoted her late husband’s body of documentary work.
Full Transcript
Claire Tankel (1926-2020) was the widow of Stanley Tankel, an architect and city planner who was involved in Greenwich Village’s early preservation efforts.
Full Transcript
Verna Small (1916-2008) was one of Greenwich Village’s preservation pioneers and helped lead the successful campaign in the late 1960s to create the Greenwich Village Historic District.
Full Transcript
Norman Redlich (1925-2011) was the former Dean of the NYU School of Law. This oral history interview serves as a follow-up to a lecture Redlich gave to a preservation course taught by former Village Preservation Executive Director Vicki Weiner at NYU in November 1996.
Full Transcript
Edith Lyons (1906-2002) was one of the leaders in the seven-year battle with Robert Moses over the use of Washington Square Park as a thoroughfare to Lower Manhattan. Moses’ plan to extend Fifth Avenue through the park was defeated in part by a group that Lyons co-founded and co-chaired: the Joint Emergency Committee to Close […]
Full Transcript
Leticia Kent (1928-1999) was an esteemed freelance journalist and long-time Villager. This oral history was conducted in anticipation of an interview Kent was scheduled to conduct with Jane Jacobs and also covers the community’s opposition to the proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway, the creation of artists’ housing in the West Village, and her role in the […]
` Full Transcript
Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) was an urban planner, author, and activist. Jacobs discusses various preservation battles in which she participated while living in Greenwich Village, including the fight to prevent Robert Moses from expanding a roadway through Washington Square Park, the effort in the early 1960s to challenge the City’s proposed urban renewal plan for the […]
Full Transcript