Jeffrey Kroessler, a longtime board member of the Historic Districts Council (HDC) in New York City, preservationist, author, and historian, passed away on Sunday, February 5th at the age of 71.
Kroessler served on HDC’s boards of directors and advisers for 36 years, helping to craft the organization’s advocacy strategies and educational programs on preservation across the city.
Kroessler was a champion of preservation in New York, who wrote many op-ed pieces, articles and writings. He was the author most recently of Sunnyside Gardens: Planning and Preservation in a Historic Garden Suburb (Fordham Univ. Press, 2021), which received critical acclaim in The New York Review of Books.
He also authored The Greater New York Sports Chronology (Columbia Univ. Press, 2009) and New York, Year by Year (NYU Press, 2002). He contributed to The Encyclopedia of New York City, The Encyclopedia of New York State, and Robert Moses and the Modern City: the Transformation of New York, and published in Journal of Planning History, New York History and Long Island History Journal.
He was a passionate advocate for the borough of Queens, including co-founding the Queensborough Preservation League, involvement in the effort to landmark Long Island City’s New York Architectural Terra Cotta Works Office Building, and helping lead the successful campaign to designate the Sunnyside Gardens Historic District.
He also served on the Municipal Art Society Preservation Committee and recently as president of the City Club of New York.
Jeffrey Kroessler, his wife, Laura, my husband & I were good friends. He, Rob & I graduated from Garden City High School, on Long Island. We loved reading his books and he was very helpful with The Garden City Historical Society in trying to help preserve our hometown St. Paul’s School. We will miss him very much.