Found 3 collections related to Urban renewal -- New York (State) -- New York

The Harlem Neighborhoods Association records chronicle the deteriorating quality of life in Harlem from the 1940s to the late 1970s. The collection consists of correspondence and memoranda, board of directors and committee minutes, financial reports, publicity and outreach materials, membership lists and printed matter. The committee and program files document an ongoing organizational concern for chronic social dysfunction and urban poverty in Harlem. The most substantive files are the Day Care Committee, 1952-1956; the Housing Committee, 1952-1956; the Recreation Committee, 1948-1958; the Parents Committee, 1952-1968, and several youth related programs spanning from 1948 to 1963. Other substantive issues include: school decentralization in Harlem, urban renewal, drug prevention and family planning. Frequent correspondents include James H. Robinson who served as chairman of the West Harlem Council of Social Agencies, Harriet Pickens and Mildred Fisher, respectively chairperson and executive secrtary of the Central Harlem Council for Community Planning, and committee chairpersons Exie Welsch, Eugene Houston and Gertrude Tanneyhill. Also included is a scrapbook of articles and other printed matter documenting local efforts in 1963 to raise funds for the construction of a two-hundred bed hospital in Mount Morris Park. less

New York City's first so-called Slum Clearance Project, headed by urban planner Robert Moses, caused the physical destruction of a once tight-knit African American community that dated back to the early 1900s. The buildings on 98th and 99th in Upper West Side Manhattan, or what is affectionately known today as "The Old Community", were razed from the 1940s to the 1950s as part of this urban renewal program. Although the residents were forced to relocate, the community stayed connected through annual dances (ca. 1950s-1990s) organized by constituents of the West 98th and 99th Streets Association, and then through "The Old Community" annual reunions (1999-) headed by Jim Torain. The Old Community West 98th-99th Streets Reunion collection consists of "The Old Community" reunion programs, 2003-2011; background information on some of the former community members; reports; journal, newspaper, and magazine articles about the history of the West 98th and 99th Streets community, Park West Village (which replaced the buildings on West 98th and 99th Streets), and the urban renewal program and its impact on this neighborhood. Additionally, there are a few Spirit of 179 newsletters, 1952-1953, which were written by the young members of the PS 179 Community Center. They note some of the community events before the relocation took place. less