She was as tiny and as delicate as a flower and as gentle as a singing bird with the will and resolve of a beast of burden. That was Elly Guggenheimer, a friend, a colleague, a guide, a teacher and mentor for more than half a century. She lived on Park Avenue with her husband, Randy, who died a decade ago, in opulence so simple one who did not know would have thought that she was once a coal miner’s daughter. My first memory of Elly was on a picket line and at a sit-in at her office when she was a member of the City Planning Commission.
At that time, the alternate plan for Cooper Square was being debated by the commission, and although I and the people of the Cooper Square Committee knew that Elinor Guggenheimer would instinctively be on our side because our plan for the Cooper Square area was for all people, we decided to sit in on her as we had sat in on other members of the City Planning Commission as well. We were in Elly’s office until near sundown sitting on the floor with our children, strollers, disabled and the like chanting, singing and delighting in the idea that we could bring truth to power. When Commissioner Guggenheimer returned from lunch and was told that we had occupied her office, she calmly returned to it, asked that we remain silent enough for her to do her work and she proceeded to complete her day.
When she realized that the day was almost ending, she ordered some food, milk, diapers and the like for those who were picketing her. Elinor became a champion for Cooper Square and that little band of protesters who did not know how to protest from the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Subsequently the alternate plan for Cooper Square was approved and supported by then-Mayor John Lindsey. For many years, Cooper Square remained a dream until quite recently, as the city and private contractors began to renew the area in bits and pieces and finally in great volumes. We would never be able to say that it was what we wanted precisely; but it was and is the impetus for a new area downtown called The East Village replacing much of what was once called The Lower East Side. Elly Gug’s career and those of us who knew her in Cooper Square followed birth after birth and death after death until a new community was being realized after Randy had passed. The last time I saw Elly, it was on East 86th Street near Park Avenue while heading downtown. She said that she was looking for an apartment, for there was no longer any need for her to have the same kind of apartment where she had raised her children and grandchildren and there was no longer a need for an apartment large enough to hold almost 200 people in celebration of my having won a Fellowship to Yale University as a National Urban Fellow. That was the same year that our daughter was born: And, of course, her name is Elinor. From time to time, we would all see Mrs. Guggenheimer, but our daughter instinctively knew that there was something special about Elinor Guggenheimer of which she was a part. Little Elly stayed in touch with big Elly (age, not size) for her lifetime, visiting her nearly up to the time of her death. Her funeral will be held on Friday, October 3 at Temple Emanu-El. Suffice it to say that this is the closing of one glorious era and the continuation of another.