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A (Nearly) Unknown 20th-Century Preservation Hero: Albert Sprague Bard, a Servant of Beauty
In Conversation with Anthony C. Wood and Robert Jaeger on Wood’s new book Servant of Beauty: Landmarks, Secret Love and the Uniminaged Life of an Unsung New York Hero
Anthony Wood, award-winning preservationist and author of Servant of Beauty: Landmarks, Secret Love and the Unimagined Life of an Unsung New York Hero (Bloomsbury, 2025), and Robert Jaeger, preservationist, co-founder of Partners for Sacred Places and author of Sacred Places at Risk, will discuss Wood’s new book and preservation battles in 20th-century New York City. They will focus especially on the life and work of unknown civic activist and preservationist, Albert Sprague Bard, whose story is told for first time in Servant of Beauty.
Wednesday, September 17
6:30–8:00 pm
St. Paul and St. Andrew United Methodist Church
263 West 86th Street New York, NY 10024
Anthony C. Wood is a nationally recognized preservationist who has worked for, founded, served on the board of, and chaired multiple New York preservation organizations including Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts, the Preservation League of New York State, and Partners for Sacred Places; winning awards such as the 2020 New York Landmarks Conservancy’s Lucy G. Moses Award for Preservation Leadership. Wood has served as an adjunct faculty member at Columbia University and founded the non-profit New York Preservation Archive Project whose mission is to document, preserve, and celebrate the history of preservation in New York. He is also the author of Preserving New York: Winning the Right to Protect a City’s Landmarks (Routledge, 2008).
Albert Bard; Courtesy of Chi Psi Fraternity
Anthony C. Wood; Photo: Eric Vitale Photography