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.
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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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.
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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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Vincent Livelli (April 9, 1920 – June 21, 2024) lived in the Village for over 100 years. From the 1940s to 1970s, Vincent helped revolutionize the cruise ship industry as a music and dance director. Vincent reminisces about his early years growing up in the South Village as the child of Sicilian and Genovese immigrants […]
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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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Colette Douglas (November 19, 1926-September 30, 2023) lived in MacDougal-Sullivan Gardens in the 1950s and her oral history tells a classic story of midcentury Village life, from attending Little Red Schoolhouse as a child to witnessing her husband fight the proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway that would have destroyed the neighborhoods of SoHo, Little Italy, and […]
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A native of Lawrence, Massachusetts, Tom Bernardin (b. September 15, 1948) moved to New York City as a young man and enjoyed the freedom and community for gay men that he found in Greenwich Village. Preservation pioneer Margot Gayle inspired him to become involved in preservation, which Bernardin has especially pursued via a passion for […]
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A noted musician, bandleader, prolific composer, and pioneer of the jazz French horn for more than the past half-century, David Amram (b. November 17, 1930) lived in various parts of Greenwich Village and has worked with Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Willie Nelson, Langston Hughes, Charles Mingus, Leonard Bernstein, Tito Puente, Joseph Papp, Arthur Miller, Pete […]
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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.
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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.
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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.
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