Thursday, February 12, 2009
Evelyn Strouse remembered
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
In memoriam Evelyn Strouse
We are sad to relate of the death of Evelyn T. Strouse, , on January 15, 2009, in Oakland CA, at the age of 92. A pioneer in neighborhood preservation, she was the chair of the Union Square Community Coalition,1981-2002, and a member of Community Board 5 during the same period, chairing the Youth and Education committee and participating in the Parks, Land Use and Zoning and Transportaion and Environment committees. She was a poet, and one of Mayor Koch’s answerers of letters from the public, sometimes in rhyme. In 2002 she retired, to join her daughter Dr. Jane Ariel, in California, missing the ceremony of the 2002 Grassroots Preservation Award presentation, an honor awarded to her by the Historic Districts Council. Any condolences to the family may be addressed to Dr. Ariel, 3164 Sheffield Ave, Oakland, CA, 94602. The family suggests that any contributions in Evelyn’s memory be made to Union Square Community Coalition, Inc., P. O. Box 71, New York NY 10276, a 501(c)(3) organization.
Below is a slightly updated tribute to Evelyn by this author, originally published in the Looking Ahead column in March 1996, that may give you an insight to this remarkable lady and her USCC, and the early preservationists of Union Square.
Happy 80th Birthday, Evelyn Strouse!
There is a tiny lady with a strong deep voice who looks after Union Square, keeps nightclubs at bay, watches over the Greenmarket and helps poor kids get scholarships. That dynamic person, Evelyn Strouse, will be 80 years old on Wednesday March 27, 1996, and we all want her to keep going to at least 120, we need her.Evelyn is a Smith grad who studied comparative literature at NYU until her first child was born. A Scarsdale mother of three - a lawyer, a farmer and a psychotherapist - she became involved in the 1972 McGovern campaign and Vietnam protest, lived in Israel for seven years, and, upon return to NYC, in 1981 joined the Union Square Community Coalition. She has been the chair of the USCC since the untimely death of her co-chairman in 1991.The Union Square Community Coalition was organized in 1980 by local residents, (such names as Karl Rosenberg, Phyllis Andrews, Marjorie Berk, Verneta Berks and Barry Benepe are mentioned), initially headed by Rosenberg and subsequently co-chaired by the late graphic designer Oliver Johnston and Evelyn Strouse.The USCC's mission was to reverse the deterioration of the Union Square Park, one of the great open spaces in NYC, by fostering reconstruction, maintaining greeen space, watching over proposed zoning changes and encroachments of tall buildings, and keeping members informed of impending dangers. It is a membership organization, and depends on dues and rare foundation grants. The Park was in terrible shape in 1980. Full of drug dealers and the gutter people that they attract, it was a blight. USCC rallied the neighborhood together, proposed reconstruction (plans developed by Rosenberg, Benepe and Richard Sonder) and policing. After years of effort the city allocated the millions of dollars required to bring this, the only remaining park from the grand plan of 1812, back to life.
The 1987 plan was supervised by Parks Department architect Bronson Binger, the landscape architecture was done by Taiwan-born architect Hui Mei Grove, subsequently briefly a Landmarks Preservation Commissioner.Being a community activist in an effort to preserve a neighborkood is a taxing task, and it is amazing that the initiatives are ever accomplished, in the face of the controversy. There are eight designated landmarks around the Union Square - the Lincoln Building at 1 Union Square West; the Metropolitan Bank (now Blue Water Grill); the Moorish Decker Building; the former Century Publishing (now Barnes and Noble) Building on 17th Street; the Everett (200 PAS) and Guardian Life (201 PAS, now W Hotel); the Century Association clubhouse (East 15th Street, next to the Lee Strassberg Theatre Institute where Marlon Brando learned a natural acting technique, rubbing his back against the door jamb), and the Union Square Savings Bank (now Daryl Roth Theatre).
Then there is the Ladies' Mile Historic District, starting its Southern boundary at 17th Street and Broadway, both NE and NW sides. Union Square is also the crossroads of Community Boards 2,3,5 and 6. While jurisdiction is not in dispute, cross-impact of decisions is far-reaching. And the night clubs - the late unlamented Underground at 860 Broadway (subsequently Herman's Sporting Goods, then Petco), the relatively controlled Paramount (now gone), and the threat of the House of Blues (gone).
Reconciling the various interests sometimes is impossible, but Evelyn tried.Some of the groups that USCC contends and cooperates with are the 14th Street BID/LDC (now Partnership), whose purpose is area business development, and the Greenmarket, whose director and founder is Barry Benepe, an important constituent of the USCC. Evelyn’s personal projects in 1996 were Kids Who Can (art) and Friends House (AIDS), and Jack Taylor can recite even more. Arlene Harrison, another neighborhood dynamo, cosidered Evelyn her role model. Barry Benepe wondered where she gets her energy, "she moves like a youngster of 60."
Sit tibi terra levis.
In memoriam Evelyn Strouse
We are sad to relate of the death of Evelyn T. Strouse, , on January 15, 2009, in Oakland CA, at the age of 92. A pioneer in neighborhood preservation, she was the chair of the Union Square Community Coalition,1981-2002, and a member of Community Board 5 during the same period, chairing the Youth and Education committee and participating in the Parks, Land Use and Zoning and Transportaion and Environment committees. She was a poet, and one of Mayor Koch’s answerers of letters from the public, sometimes in rhyme. In 2002 she retired, to join her daughter Dr. Jane Ariel, in California, missing the ceremony of the 2002 Grassroots Preservation Award presentation, an honor awarded to her by the Historic Districts Council. Any condolences to the family may be addressed to Dr. Ariel, 3164 Sheffield Ave, Oakland, CA, 94602. The family suggests that any contributions in Evelyn’s memory be made to Union Square Community Coalition, Inc., P. O. Box 71, New York NY 10276, a 501(c)(3) organization.
Below is a slightly updated tribute to Evelyn by this author, originally published in the Looking Ahead column in March 1996, that may give you an insight to this remarkable lady and her USCC, and the early preservationists of Union Square.
Happy 80th Birthday, Evelyn Strouse!
There is a tiny lady with a strong deep voice who looks after Union Square, keeps nightclubs at bay, watches over the Greenmarket and helps poor kids get scholarships. That dynamic person, Evelyn Strouse, will be 80 years old on Wednesday March 27, 1996, and we all want her to keep going to at least 120, we need her.Evelyn is a Smith grad who studied comparative literature at NYU until her first child was born. A Scarsdale mother of three - a lawyer, a farmer and a psychotherapist - she became involved in the 1972 McGovern campaign and Vietnam protest, lived in Israel for seven years, and, upon return to NYC, in 1981 joined the Union Square Community Coalition. She has been the chair of the USCC since the untimely death of her co-chairman in 1991.The Union Square Community Coalition was organized in 1980 by local residents, (such names as Karl Rosenberg, Phyllis Andrews, Marjorie Berk, Verneta Berks and Barry Benepe are mentioned), initially headed by Rosenberg and subsequently co-chaired by the late graphic designer Oliver Johnston and Evelyn Strouse.The USCC's mission was to reverse the deterioration of the Union Square Park, one of the great open spaces in NYC, by fostering reconstruction, maintaining greeen space, watching over proposed zoning changes and encroachments of tall buildings, and keeping members informed of impending dangers. It is a membership organization, and depends on dues and rare foundation grants. The Park was in terrible shape in 1980. Full of drug dealers and the gutter people that they attract, it was a blight. USCC rallied the neighborhood together, proposed reconstruction (plans developed by Rosenberg, Benepe and Richard Sonder) and policing. After years of effort the city allocated the millions of dollars required to bring this, the only remaining park from the grand plan of 1812, back to life.
The 1987 plan was supervised by Parks Department architect Bronson Binger, the landscape architecture was done by Taiwan-born architect Hui Mei Grove, subsequently briefly a Landmarks Preservation Commissioner.Being a community activist in an effort to preserve a neighborkood is a taxing task, and it is amazing that the initiatives are ever accomplished, in the face of the controversy. There are eight designated landmarks around the Union Square - the Lincoln Building at 1 Union Square West; the Metropolitan Bank (now Blue Water Grill); the Moorish Decker Building; the former Century Publishing (now Barnes and Noble) Building on 17th Street; the Everett (200 PAS) and Guardian Life (201 PAS, now W Hotel); the Century Association clubhouse (East 15th Street, next to the Lee Strassberg Theatre Institute where Marlon Brando learned a natural acting technique, rubbing his back against the door jamb), and the Union Square Savings Bank (now Daryl Roth Theatre).
Then there is the Ladies' Mile Historic District, starting its Southern boundary at 17th Street and Broadway, both NE and NW sides. Union Square is also the crossroads of Community Boards 2,3,5 and 6. While jurisdiction is not in dispute, cross-impact of decisions is far-reaching. And the night clubs - the late unlamented Underground at 860 Broadway (subsequently Herman's Sporting Goods, then Petco), the relatively controlled Paramount (now gone), and the threat of the House of Blues (gone).
Reconciling the various interests sometimes is impossible, but Evelyn tried.Some of the groups that USCC contends and cooperates with are the 14th Street BID/LDC (now Partnership), whose purpose is area business development, and the Greenmarket, whose director and founder is Barry Benepe, an important constituent of the USCC. Evelyn’s personal projects in 1996 were Kids Who Can (art) and Friends House (AIDS), and Jack Taylor can recite even more. Arlene Harrison, another neighborhood dynamo, cosidered Evelyn her role model. Barry Benepe wondered where she gets her energy, "she moves like a youngster of 60."
Sit tibi terra levis.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 11:19 AM 
