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Creator
Kellerman, Regina M.
Call number
MssCol 18177
Physical description
6.72 linear feet (17 boxes)
Preferred Citation

Regina Kellerman Papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library.

Repository
Manuscripts and Archives Division
Access to materials
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Regina Kellerman (1923-2009) was an architectural historian who served as an early director of research for the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission, and later become the founder and first director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. Her pioneering research, both in New York and the Netherlands, led to her correctly identifying the location of New York City's first City Hall, a conclusion borne out by the subsequent excavation of the site during the early 1970s. The collection covers Kellerman's career as an architectural historian and preservationist and includes correspondence, reports and notes, architectural drawings and plans, and photographs and slides which she generated and gathered in the course of her investigation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods located in New York City and the surrounding area.

Biographical/historical information

Regina Kellerman (1923-2009) was an architectural historian who served as an early director of research for the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission, and later become the founder and first director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. Her pioneering research, both in New York and the Netherlands, resulted in her successfully identifying the location of New York City's first City Hall, a conclusion borne out by the subsequent excavation of the site during the early 1970s.

Born Regina Maria Kohrman in Danbury, Connecticut, she attended Yale and Columbia before earning her Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University. She married Richard Kellerman and in 1962 found work with the then-nascent Landmarks Preservation Commission. In the course of her activities there, she supervised an architectural survey of the five boroughs and made monthly reports to the commissioners.

She served as an architectural historian for the Museum of the City of New York and the City Planning Commission and worked on a museum complex proposed but never executed for the Fraunces Tavern Block in the Financial District. From 1967 to 1970 she was architectural historian at the Wave Hill Estate. In the course of conducting research for her dissertation ("The Stadhuis of New Amsterdam: New York's First City Hall"), Kellerman served as project historian during the excavation of the 17th-century Dutch Stadhuis, whose foundations were discovered on Lehman Brothers property in Lower Manhattan.

From 1971 to 1975, she was a graduate teaching assistant to Professor Winston R. Weisman, head of the art history department at Penn State. In the summer of 1971, she supervised 18 Penn State graduate students in a study of the SoHo cast-iron commercial district, co-authoring the report that led to the Landmarks Preservation Commission designating SoHo as a historic district in 1973.

She became executive director of the newly organized Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation in 1981, a position she retained through 1990. Concurrently, she held a position as a lecturer in the Historic Preservation Program at Columbia University and, in 1989, Kellerman edited The Architecture of the Greenwich Village Waterfront (New York University), a work that formed the basis for the argument for the extension of the West Village historic district.

From the 1990 until shortly before her death, Kellerman served as a consultant on various projects, both public and private, which included compiling documentation for the Washington Square Park Association and a drafting a history of the Rhinelander Waldo mansion in advance of is conversion into a luxury department store. Kellerman died on May 13, 2008 at age 84.

Source: Amateau, Albert. "Regina Kellerman, 84, leading Village preservationist." The Villager, May 21, 2008, Obituary.

Scope and arrangement

The collection covers Kellerman's career as an architectural historian and preservationist and includes correspondence, reports and notes, architectural drawings and plans, and photographs and slides which she generated and gathered in the course of her investigation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods located in New York City and the surrounding area. The correspondence chiefly addresses her research projects, but also includes some small amount of material related to her time at Penn State University. Much of the collection includes research photocopies from books, reports, and New York City Department of Buildings' records which she used while investigating the history, construction, and design of specific properties. The photographs and slides include copies of historic images that capture architectural elements and details, as well as documentation snapshots that record the existing conditions of the buildings and sites that were the subject of Kellerman's research.

Among the activities detailed in these records are Kellerman's research related to the streets and buildings of Greenwich Village dating from her work with the Landmarks Preservation Commission in the 1960s; her efforts to document the history and design of the Wave Hill estate; a project to survey SoHo's historic cast-iron buildings; her activities related to her work as executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP); and her many projects as an independent researcher including the conversion of the Rhinelander Waldo mansion into a luxury department store. The collection also includes a small amount of material related to her years as a lecturer in the Historic Preservation Program at Columbia University.

The current order of the Regina Kellerman Papers reflects the arrangement prepared by the GVSHP staff.

The Regina M. Kellerman papers are arranged in ten series:

  • Series I: Greenwich Village research material
    1962-1966

    Contains materials related to Kellerman's building-by-building survey undertaken as part of the Landmarks Preservation Commission's efforts to have Greenwich Village designated an historic district.

  • Series II: Fraunces Tavern Block Project (proposed)
    1963-1964

    Material related to Kellerman's work for the proposed-but-never-realized museum complex; these activities took place while she was serving as director of research for the Landmark Preservation Commission. Includes architectural drawings.

  • Series III: Wave Hill, 1967-1970

    Contains material related to Kellerman's work as architectural historian at the Wave Hill Estate.

  • Series IV: Penn State doctorate
    1970-1971

    Contains material related to Kellerman's matriculation at Penn State University including correspondence with her mentor Winston Weisman, and two papers she gave while at Penn.

  • Series V: SoHo Study
    1970-1971

    Contains material related to a Penn State sponsor project Kellerman led to document historic structures in SoHo. This later became the basis for the report that led to the designation of the SoHo Historic District.

  • Series VI: New York City Stadhuis
    1968-1983

    Contains Kellerman's research regarding New York City's first City Hall -- the 18th century Stadhuis. The Stadhuis served as the governance building of Dutch colony New Amsterdam. Kellerman's research eventually became the basis for her doctoral dissertation,"The Stadhuis of New Amsterdam: New York's First City Hall, 1641-1699."

  • Series VII: Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP)
    1981-1990

    Contains material related to Kellerman's work as exective director of the Greenwich Village Society of Historic Preservation and includes lectures, annual reports, slides, maps and plans.

  • Series VIII: Columbia University
    1982-1986

    Contains material relating to Kellerman's position as a lecturer in the Historic Preservation Program at Columbia University's School of Architecture.

  • Series IX: General Subject Files
    1965-1986
  • Series X: Independent Research, circa
    1981-2006

Administrative information

Custodial history

Gift of H. David Hennessey to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, August 2008.

Source of acquisition

Donated to tne New York Public Library by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, August 2009.

Processing information

Compiled by Leslie Reyman.

Using the collection

Location

Manuscripts and Archives Division
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room, Third Floor, Room 328

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright retained by any document's creator.