Historical Note:
The East Village's Mendez Mural Community Garden(11th Street between Avenues A and B), which had been a vacant lot since the early 1970's, was brought into existence in the early 1990's partly through the work of sculptor, Ken Hiratsuka, and muralist, 'Chico' who brought trees, plants and art to the space. The park grew outside of city support in a neighborhood that had suffered in previous years from drug-crime and violence. It became a fixture in the community and was widely utilized. In 1997, the city exercised their claim of ownership on the land, and when then Mayor Guiliani decided to sell the land to real-estate developers, a community uproar and protest followed. In the end, the bid to save the garden was unsuccessful, and on New Years Eve, 1997 the land was bulldozed for condominiums.
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Scope and Content Note
The Mendez Mural Community Garden Archive is a part of the Downtown Collection at Fales Library, New York University. The Fales Library is the primary special collections division of the NYU libraries, housing over 200,000 volumes of English and American literature from 1700 to the present. Strengths of the collection include the development of the English and American novel, with an emphasis on the Gothic and the Victorian novel. The Downtown Collection, of which the Mendez Mural Community Garden Archive is a part, is a comprehensive collection of printed materials, archives, and other materials related to the Downtown New York scene from ca. 1975 to the present.
The archive documents the lawsuit brought by several artists involved in the creation of the Mendez Mural Garden against the Partnership Housing Development Fund Company, Inc. of the City of New York. It also contains articles, correspondence, 'zines, photos, maps, flyers, and posters relating to the Mendez controversy and other battles over garden space on the Lower East Side, dating from 1996 through 2000.
SERIES DESCRIPTION
Series 1: Legal Materials: contains one box of materials relating to the legal case over the Mendez Mural Community Garden, including legal documents and supporting materials such as petitions, photos, and letters of support from the community.
Series 2: Materials relating to Mendez Garden and other Lower East Side garden controversies: contains articles, correspondence, zines, photos, maps, flyers and posters relating to the Mendez controversy and other battles over garden space on the Lower East Side, dating from 1996 through 2000. Folders 9-9d contain miscellaneous materials removed from their original non-archival 3-ring binders; they have been stored in their original order.
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Arrangement |
||
| Materials are organized by subject and document type. | ||
| The files are grouped into two series. | ||
Related Material at the Fales Library and Special Collections
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There is no information about materials that are associated by provenance to the described materials that have been physically separated or removed.
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Access Restrictions
Open to researchers. Appointments are necessary for the use of manuscript and archival materials.
Use Restrictions
Collection use is subject to all copyright laws. Permission to
publish materials must be obtained in writing from the Director of Fales
Library and Special Collections. For more information, contact
Fales Library and Special Collections
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012Phone: (212) 998-2596
Fax: (212) 995-3835
Email: fales.library@nyu.edu
URL: http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/fales/cdfa.htm
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Administrative Information
Provenance
The Mendez Mural Community Garden Archive was a gift of Jeff Wright, given to Fales Library in May 2000.
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date
(if known); Mendez Mural Community Garden Collection; MSS 100; box number; folder number;
Fales Library and Special Collections
, New York University Libraries.
Container List
[The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.]
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