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Columbus Avenue and the Upper West Side Oral History Project interviews

Call Number

OH 2

Date

2019 February-October, inclusive

Creator

Columbus Avenue District Management Association (New York, N.Y.)
Vural, Leyla (Role: Interviewer)

Extent

19 Gigabytes
0.417 Linear feet in 1 document box. Includes original external hard drive.

Language of Materials

The documents in the collection are in English.

Abstract

The Columbus Avenue and the Upper West Side Oral History Project documents the ways that Columbus Avenue (particularly from West 70th Street to West 94th Street) changed in the 50-year period beginning in the late 1960s. The collection consists of interviews with individuals such as property owners who moved to the area in the 1960s and began renovating buildings on Columbus Avenue and the adjoining side streets in the early 1970s; current and former small-business owners; long-time residential tenants; and former City Council member Ronnie Eldridge, who represented the Upper West Side from 1989 to 2001. Interviewees discuss changes in the retail landscape, housing stock, and socio-economics of the neighborhood with reinvestment in the area. All interviews were conducted by Leyla Vural, an oral historian, geographer, and long-time resident of the Upper West Side.

Scope and Contents

The collection documents changes to the commercial and residential landscape of Columbus Avenue, particularly between West 70th Street and West 94th Street, beginning in the late 1960s. The collection is composed of interviews with twelve individuals: George Beane (property owner; founder of A. R. Walker & Company), Bailey and Laurie Eichengreen (owners of Mythology, 370 Columbus Avenue), Ronnie Eldridge (City Council, 1989-2001), Huntley Gill (historic preservation; real estate management), Cassandra Medley (residential tenant, Columbus Avenue at West 73rd Street), Eunsook and Liana Pai (owners of Liana, 324 Columbus Avenue), Robert Quinlan (property owner; founder of Quinlan Development Group; founder and owner of Walker, Malloy & Company), Bruce Stark (owner of Beacon Paint and Hardware, 371 Amsterdam Avenue), Joseph Velardi (residential tenant, Columbus Avenue at West 75th Street), and Michael Weinstein (owner of the Museum Café, 366 Columbus Avenue).

All interviews were conducted by Leyla Vural, an oral historian, geographer, and long-time resident of the Upper West Side. Each interview is between 70 and 90 minutes long, including some two-part interviews that were conducted on different days. Interviews are in both M4A and WAV digital file formats. Timestamped transcripts of the interviews are in both printed and digital (PDF) formats. All interviewees reviewed, edited,and approved their interview transcript(s). Timestamps for some interviews may be slightly inaccurate because of edits to the transcript(s). Digital images (TIFF) of interviewees are also included.

There are no audio files for the interview with Robert Quinlan, only the transcripts and digital image are available.

Use Restrictions

Open to qualified researchers.

Application to use images and audio from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.

Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions

Preferred Citation

The collection should be cited as: Columbus Avenue and the Upper West Side Oral History Project Interviews, OH 2, New-York Historical Society.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Columbus Avenue District Management Association (New York, N.Y.), 2020.

Online Access to Digital Copies

Links to individual interviews can be found in the container list. Links to all interviews can be found at this landing page.

Physical Facet

, 220 digital files, including 14 WAV files that total approximately 19 hours in duration.

Collection processed by

Margo Padilla

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:47:04 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Finding aid written in English

Processing Information

Digital files were delivered by the donor on a 1TB GTech ArmorATD external hard drive (Mac and PC compatible) and transferred to local storage using a Windows instance of Data Accessioner. Data Accessioner created and validated MD5 checksums for each file. A virus scan using ClamWin and Malwarebytes was performed with no results. Desktop Services Store (.DS_Store) and AppleDouble files were deleted. PDFs of signed release forms were removed from interviewee folders and put into a separate folder.

The collection was processed by digital archivist Margo Padilla. Descriptive notes for the finding aid were provided by interviewer Leyla Vural, with revisions by Margo Padilla.

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024