Introducing the Park Slope Civic Council Records

The Park Slope Civic Council (PSCC) was founded in 1896 as the South Brooklyn Board of Trade, a kind of chamber of commerce formed to lobby the city and state for improvements to infrastructure and services across the geographic area south of Downtown Brooklyn. In the late 1950s, the South Brooklyn Board of Trade changed its name to the Park Slope Civic Council in order to improve engagement in the neighborhood. As a result of this change, PSCC leaders planned to center civic projects and residents' needs, as opposed to focusing mostly on business owners. 

As the Park Slope Civic Council, the organization regularly publishes the Civic News newsletter, reviews changing building regulations and new developments, provides grants to neighborhood projects, and organizes fundraising activities such as the annual House Tour. PSCC also acts as a conduit between members and political representatives. PSCC led the campaign that achieved historic district designation for the section of Park Slope closest to Prospect Park in 1973. The Council continued its historic district advocacy in the late 1990s, planning to expand the historic district designation to the north, south, and west. In 2001, Revitalization of the Southern Area of the Slope (ROSAS), a neighborhood association active in the South Slope neighborhood since 1978, merged with the Park Slope Civic Council, bringing the activities of both organizations under one umbrella.

The almost fully processed Park Slope Civic Council records take up about 26 linear feet and one flat file drawer, and include the papers of several different creators active in the Park Slope Civic Council, such as Irene Wilson, tireless Civic News editor in the 1960s, and Carl Kaiserman, shutterbug architect and Trustee from the 1980s to 2000s. These records chronicle events in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and New York City mostly from the late 1950s to 2018 (although there are a few materials from the 1930s). The Park Slope Civic Council records join other collections of neighborhood association materials we hold here at the Center for Brooklyn History: several collections of Brooklyn Heights Association records, the Robin Ketchum Prospect Heights Community Organizing collection and the recently processed Prospect Lefferts Gardens Neighborhood Association records and Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus records. 

The first series in this collection is the papers of Civic News editor Irene Wilson, who was described as a “Gal of Many Talents” in an October 9, 1964 headline in Home Reporter and Sunset News – Park Slope News (["Gal of Many Talents" newspaper article], 1964/10/09; Park Slope Civic Council records, BCMS.0083; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.). Wilson came to the Civic News with an interesting resume. After getting degrees from Wellesley and Harvard, Wilson taught college English. She grew restless and moved out to Montana where "she took to horseback and became a cowpuncher” (as well as writing poetry and fiction pieces for magazines). Wilson moved back east to Manhattan, but found herself looking for a new place to live when the building she was living in was slated for demolition along with Penn Station. Bob Makla, a friend of Irene’s and Trustee of the Park Slope Civic Council, found her an apartment in Park Slope and asked her to write for Civic News where she eventually became editor.  

Running PSCC's Civic News for 16 years in the 1960s and 1970s was no easy feat and Irene Wilson ran a tight ship. As Editor of Civic News, she worked with contributors on their submissions and sent the mock-up of the newsletter to be printed. She kept subject files with news clippings from local newspapers, handwritten notes, and correspondence with contributors writing pieces on those topics. Topics in these folders include housing, the 1960 airplane crash, blockbusting, schools, Brooklyn Public Library, the arts, and civil rights.  

It is clear from Wilson’s correspondence that contributors often submitted their pieces late and required extensive editing. Laying out the articles and advertisements took a lot of time without sufficient staff to assist. And throughout her tenure as Editor, Wilson also experienced frequent health issues; bad colds and sprained ankles did not help to ease her work stress.

A large PSCC-sponsored project that seemed to cause Wilson many headaches was coordinating the publication of the Prospect Park Handbook in the mid- to late 1960s. Wilson took on the project as editor and author, but tensions mounted with Bob Makla over questions of how it would be published and who had rights to the publication. The changes to Prospect Park in the 1960s were also dismaying, and a setback, to Wilson. In a May 14, 1969 letter to a contributor to the Handbook, she refers to the Parks Department's changes to (or neglect of) the Ravine, Vale of Cashmere, and Rose Garden as “vandalism” ([Letter from Irene Wilson to Ms. Attas], 1969/05/14; Park Slope Civic Council records, BCMS.0083, Box 4, Folder 14; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.), so her bird and tree tour chapters had to be rewritten.

Wilson worked on the project for over 5 years, starting in about 1964, but it does not seem like the Handbook was ever finished. Makla and Wilson were able to retain some of their friendship throughout their professional relationship, although Wilson did address a June 21, 1969 letter to him “Dear Deadly-Friend Bob” ([Letter from Irene Wilson to Bob Makla], 1969/06/21; Park Slope Civic Council records, BCMS.0083, Box 4, Folder 14; Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.). 

Irene Wilson also owned cats, Zwicki Picasso, Playboy, and Red the Backyard Bum, who made appearances in her less formal correspondence:

To Bob Makla, December 5, 1964: Zwicki jumped on this piece of paper, so you get it instead of the Mayor or whomever! (Box 4, Folder 16)

To Elizabeth Van Brunt, January 4, 1974: Playboy is very jealous [of Red the Backyard Bum], but they touch noses when they meet and only occasionally take a swipe at each other. … Red has filled out into a big cat with very thick fur and he is still an outdoor cat; he will sleep in here all afternoon and into the evening; then insist on going out for the night even into the sleet and cold; then is back up next day. The two of them are taking more time than I can spare, feeding and petting equally. (Box 6, Folder 18)

The Park Slope Civic Council records also include the papers of Carl Kaiserman: an architect, PSCC Trustee and active member in the organization Revitalization of the Southern Area of the Slope (ROSAS). Kaiserman worked with Mort Fleischer, who was Civic Council President from 1982-1984 and a Trustee, on PSCC's annual House Tour. A significant portion of his papers are related to the organizing efforts of ROSAS, which was formed in 1978 by merchants and residents who wanted to be involved in the residential and commercial development of their neighborhood.  

Kaiserman’s distinctive handwriting annotates meeting minutes, research materials, and photographs he took on site visits to buildings and houses around Park Slope. His papers include his research for presentations on “Lost Theaters” and “Lost Mansions” of the neighborhood; as well as files with notes and photographs related to his work at the architecture firm Rothzeid Kaiserman Thomson & Bee (RKT&B). His roles as architect and community advocate, took him to several significant sites around Park Slope, such as the Montauk Club, Raintrees Restaurant, and the Pavilion Theater. 

A particularly fun part of the collection are the House Tour materials under the Administrative files and Carl Kaiserman papers series. The Park Slope Civic Council Annual House Tour started in 1959 as a way to attract newcomers to the neighborhood and raise funds for the Council. Color posters and flyers from the 1960s to the 2010s show locations and landmarks included in the tours, as well as graphic design aesthetics throughout the years. In recent years, proceeds from the house tours have benefited PSCC’s community grants, which go to arts, education, youth, or civic improvement groups in the neighborhood. The Brooklyn Heights Association and the Prospect Lefferts Gardens Neighborhood Association have also held annual house tours as a part of their fundraising efforts.

The final series of the Park Slope Civic Council records are “NB Research” files related to PSCC's Landmark Campaign, a campaign to receive historic district status from the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). These research files are undated, but since Park Slope was designated a historic district in 1973, we can estimate that they were gathered in the 1960s. Initially stored in binders, and now in archival folders, these typewritten pages and handwritten notes include block and lot numbers, lot size, grantor and grantee names, occupation of inhabitants, significant architectural details, architect, and cost.

The first of these binders had an adhesive label note on it: “one of 5 notebooks in our files detailing the history, house by house, of many of the buildings in Park Slope. Tremendous research!” Center for Brooklyn History researchers will no doubt find the Park Slope Civic Council records to be a tremendous resource.

The Park Slope Civic Council records are still being processed and will be available for research later this month. The processing of this collection was made possible in part by a grant from the Documentary Heritage Program of the New York State Archives, a program of the State Education Department. The processing of records of the Prospect Lefferts Gardens Neighborhood Association and the Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus by Processing Archivist Aimee Lusty was also made possible in part by this grant. Read more about them in Aimee’s blog post from last month: “Community-driven Change in Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Greater Gowanus.”