CALA faculty member, Kelly Carroll, spent her summer conducting outreach for national support to save the home of Aleksander and Walentyna Janta, two Polish war heroes. Walentyna translated Jan Karski’s reports of the holocaust for the Allies and was present at some of the Nuremberg trials. If the home is not protected by landmark status the plan is to demolish it for an apartment building.
The Queens Eagle recently covered this initiative and interviewed Carroll: “This house was known as the nucleus of the Polish emige elite and the couple hosted esteemed Polish authors such as Czesław Miłosz, Jerzy Giedroyc, and Marek Hłasko. Jan Karski also paid visits to this home,” wrote Kelly Carroll, the director of advocacy and community outreach at HDC, in a letter of support.
Carroll pointed out that the home, built alongside four other similar houses in 1911, has only one recorded alteration in its 109-year history.
“The house’s value as a physical touchstone to the story of these people’s lives far outweighs its negligible alterations,” Carroll wrote. “We urge you to designate this home of these heroes so that their stories will not soon be extinguished.” Read full article from QueensEagle
We love our city! You can get lots of information about CALA’s Certificate in Historic Preservation here: Historic Preservation Studies
This fall, staring on September 21, Kelly Carroll is teaching Behind The Scenes in New York: Preserving a City of Historic Neighborhoods