Saving the Blennerhasset oral history collection
- Title
- Saving the Blennerhasset oral history collection
- Creator
- Nellie Bailey; Don Colflesh; Wendell Dorris; George Gabriel; Demi McGuire and Deland Rivera
- Description
- The Saving the Blennerhasset oral history collection documents the history of a tenant-owned co-op located at 507 West 111th Street in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of New York City. The interviews have a special focus on two episodes in the building's history. The first is when tenants worked in the late 1960s to fight a city-approved redevelopment plan, backed by Columbia University and others, to level their block to build an old-age home. Narrators describe the social and legal efforts to hold back powerful interests whose urban redevelopment plans stood to displace residents. The second episode is when tenants banded together in 1979 to form a co-op and purchase the building from their landlord before it was sold to an unknown outside purchaser. Narrators discuss the legal process of forming a co-op, financial challenges, and social dynamics within the building. Narrators also describe the neighborhood of Morningside Heights from the 1960s to 2016.
- Date
- 2016
- Format
- manuscript
- CLIO Link
- clio.columbia.edu
- Source
- “Saving the Blennerhasset Oral History Collection, 2016; Narrators - Nellie Bailey, Don Colflesh, Wendell Dorris, George Gabriel, Demi McGuire, and Deland Rivera | Finding Aid,” n.d. https://clio.columbia.edu/catalog/14642371.