In Conversation with Anthony Wood & Rosanna Wolff

Join us on Friday, July 18, 2025 at the Bryant Library when noted historic preservationist and author, Anthony Wood, discusses his new book: Servant of Beauty: Landmarks, Secret Love, and the Unimagined Life of an Unsung New York Hero.

Roslyn Landmark Society Board Trustee, Rosanna Wolff, will moderate a conversation with Wood about his book and issues and concerns associated with the preservation of New York's historic landmarks.

About the Book

Servant of Beauty: Landmarks, Secret Love, and the Unimagined Life of an Unsung New York Hero is the true story of the interplay between the two all-consuming passions of this unheralded civic champion: his love of beauty in the public realm that would forever change New York City, and his love for a younger man that would forever change Bard. Albert Sprague Bard (1866-1963) fought for cities to have the right to protect their beauty, propelling him into a David versus Goliath combat with Robert Moses and paving the way, after four decades of advocacy, for New York City's Landmarks Law (1965). Today the law protects over 37,000 buildings, mostly in historic neighborhoods, and it has inspired cities across the nation. Bard was delighted and disappointed by his two enduring loves: one for a troubled younger man, the other for the beauty of New York City. Persevering against the odds, resilient in the face of disappointment, and a man who became embroiled in a spy scandal at the same time as he served as a stand-in father to three, Bard is an uncelebrated renaissance man and civic hero whose story will inspire and inform generations of citizens who continue his battle to preserve the beauty of the places they love.

About the Author

Anthony C. Wood is a preservationist, historian, and grant maker. He is the author of Preserving New York: Winning the Right to Protect a City’s Landmarks [Routledge, 2008] and Servant of Beauty: Landmarks, Secret Love, and the Unimagined Life of an Unsung New York Hero, a biography of preservationist Albert S. Bard. He has worked at the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the Municipal Art Society, The J.M. Kaplan Fund, and is currently Executive Director of the Ittleson Foundation. He is founder and Chair Emeritus of the New York Preservation Archive Project. He is a past Chair of the Preservation League of New York State and Partners for Sacred Places. He has served as an Advisor and Trustee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He is the Chair Emeritus of the Historic Districts Council and serves on the board of the Drayton Hall Preservation Trust. For over twenty years Mr. Wood was an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Historic Preservation at Columbia University. He is the recipient of the Fine Arts Federation’s Bronze Medal and the Historic District Council’s Landmarks Lion Award.

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