November 30, 2025 | By Adrian Untermyer, Board Vice Chair

An unassuming U-Haul lumbered down the New York State Thruway on the afternoon of July 2, 2025. To other drivers, the ten-foot box truck looked utterly ordinary. But the U-Haul’s orangeand-white body masked a remarkable trove: over two tons of paper documenting a lifetime of battles at the forefront of New York City’s historic preservation movement.

Spanning a whopping 142 boxes, the Christabel Gough archive depicts Gough’s role as “Preservation’s Dr. Watson.” This Sherlock Holmes-inspired moniker was earned after she spent four decades reviewing each item that came before the Landmarks Preservation Commission. She testified on nearly every single one. (See NYPAP Fall/Winter 2022 Newsletter.)

A co-founder of the Society for the Architecture of the City, Gough complemented her public efforts with behind-the-scenes tactics. These efforts ultimately led New York Magazine to dub her the “quietest influence in New York,” and her archive’s journey to the Archive Project was the result of an extended period of dialogue. The donation process unfolded under the guidance of two executive directors (Brad Vogel and Emily Kahn) and one persistent founder (Anthony C. Wood). Each played a role in ensuring that this singular collection—one that mirrors the evolution of preservation policy and practice in New York—would be stewarded with care and vision.

What makes this trove so important is not just its size. Its scope is equally significant. Gough attended virtually every Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing for decades. She offered testimony on nearly every item. Her notes, correspondence, and clippings form an unparalleled record of the City’s preservation decisions – one that is both meticulous and deeply personal.

Now that Gough’s collection is in the Archive Project’s hands, the next step is to assess it with an eye toward a permanent home. The Archive Project is exploring potential institutional partners to ensure the papers are preserved, cataloged, and made accessible to future researchers, students, and advocates.

What’s inside Christabel’s boxes? As the Archive Project team inventories her collection, a few gems have already surfaced. Among them: a series of “spreads” from Village Views, the periodical Christabel published via the Society for the Architecture of the City. These “spreads” are essentially printing layouts that include two facing pages—typically a left and a right page—that are designed and viewed together as a single unit. They offer a window into Gough’s community-based advocacy over decades.

Another find is a printed protest sign used at a rally. The sign reads: “It’s Our History! Save St. Saviour’s,” and its bold lettering still echoes with urgency. The sign refers to a fierce preservation battle in Maspeth, Queens, where neighbors fought to save St. Saviour’s Church, a Gothic Revival structure designed by Richard Upjohn and built in 1847. After the property was sold to a developer in 2005, the community—led by the Juniper Park Civic Association and Newtown Historical Society—rallied to preserve the church and its tree-filled grounds, proposing it be turned into a public park in a neighborhood sorely lacking one. Despite their efforts, the developer cut down all 185 trees in 2007, and the church was dismantled in 2008 with plans for reconstruction that remain unrealized. 

This episode is just one of many stories preserved in the Gough archive—each one a thread in the broader fabric of New York City’s preservation history. For now, this remarkable legacy dwells temporarily in a storage unit on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. But its impact is anything but dormant. These 142 boxes are filled with clues, and future researchers will undoubtedly use them to solve the mysteries of how preservation decisions were made, challenged, and executed over time.

So, the next time you see a U-Haul on the highway, consider this: it might just be carrying the history of a city as mighty as New York. If you’re inspired by Christabel Gough’s legacy, we invite you to support the Archive Project’s work by making a donation in her name. And share your ideas, as you may know of another invaluable archive needing preservation for generations to come.

This article was printed in the Archive Project’s Fall 2025 newsletter.