Oral history interview with Don Colflesh, 2016

Biographical Note

Don Colflesh moved to New York City from Cleveland, Ohio in 1954 to study art at the Pratt Institute, and he ultimately made a name for himself as a silver designer. He and his wife Elinore moved into the Blennerhasset apartments in 1964 and would raise two children in the building. He went from being a renter to purchasing his apartment in the 1970s and played a major role as the Blennerhasset tenants developed a co-op. A longtime resident of the Morningside Heights neighborhood in New York City, Colflesh still called Blennerhasset home at the time of the interview in 2016

Scope and Contents

Don Colflesh starts the three-session interview recounting how in the late 1970s, the company Morningside House had plans to tear down the Blennerhasset apartments and seven other buildings in the Morningside Heights neighborhood to build an old-age home. They wanted to build the home in the vicinity of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine for the view. Colflesh also describes working against a proposed campus expansion of Columbia University. He describes the activities of the associated Morningside Heights, Inc. and their police car. In subsequent sessions, he returns to the topic of the tenants' opposition to the Morningside House plan, and the formation of the building's co-op. Topics addressed include buyout offers and eviction threats from the landlord; the landlord putting tin on the windows and resulting crime increase; and the tenants' advocacy and retention of an attorney. He describes the influence of politicians on the process, including Governor Nelson Rockefeller and Congressman Bill Ryan. He describes awareness campaigns, including displaying a banner when the Archbishop of Canterbury visited the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. Colflesh concludes comparing the past neighborhood characteristics and tenants of Blennerhasset to those at the time of interview in 2016

Subjects

• Cathedral of St. John the Divine (New York, N.Y.)
• Colflesh, Don--Interviews.
• Columbia University--History.
• Gentrification--United States--20th century.
• Home ownership--Social aspects.
• Interviews.
• Morningside Heights (New York, N.Y.)--Buildings, structures, etc.
• Morningside Heights (New York, N.Y.)--History.
• New York (N.Y.)--History.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Phillips, Tom, interviewer.

Access Conditions

Copyright by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, 2018