“Marian Sameth, that indispensable mainstay of the Citizens Housing and Planning Council, gave me free rein to her organization’s splendid library, a priceless repository of those fugitive unpublished plans and reports that tend to be lodged in wayward corners of institutional libraries or else escape them altogether” - author, Louis Winnick 1990
Since 1937, CHPC has been at the forefront of every debate regarding legislation and policy that has shaped the physical environment of New York City and the housing market for New Yorkers.
Due to this esteemed history, the Marian Sameth and Ruth Dickler Archival Library offers invaluable, first-hand insight into the policy, legislation, and design decisions that created New York City today. The archive includes correspondence, speeches, newsletters, legislation, press releases, reports, memos, proposals, plans, photographs, reports, clippings, and hand-written notes from a wide variety of influential organizations and individuals.We are indebted to the work of CHPC staff members Marian Sameth and Ruth Dickler whose devotion to the archival library over decades of their careers ensured its survival.
As an independent organization, CHPC has a long history of working with the City’s community, policy, and legislative leaders. The broad spectrum of unique and influential voices represented in the archive’s material includes correspondence between CHPC board members and prominent public figures such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Robert Moses, Jane Jacobs, Fiorello LaGuardia, Al Smith, and William O’Dwyer. The collection also documents the history of CHPC’s organizational activities and public advocacy through committee meeting minutes, newsletters, publications, and internal staff correspondence.
The campaign to save the archive
As you can see, our archives represent not just a history of CHPC, but a history of the struggle for a more prosperous and livable city.
In 
collaboration with a graduate level researcher and volunteers, we have generated preliminary lists, such as an index of public housing projects and the original category titles for the folders, as temporary solutions for access to a portion of our collection. However, despite its substantial value as a historical resource, the content of the archive remains generally unknown to its projected audience of historians, analysts, journalists, researchers, and students investigating 20th century housing policy and urban studies in New York due to its limited catalog.
Despite limited staff and a highly restrictive budget, our main aim is to reopen this valuable resource for academics, doctoral students, and other researchers. We are currently attempting to:
- Scan and digitize the rarest, most fragile documents
- Create a digital catalogue for the books, reports, and other materials
- Rebind books and reports as necessary
- Store the collection appropriately for long term preservation
- Provide greater access to the resources
- Promote the archives through cooperative partnerships
