This series is composed of 27 volumes of daily summaries created by Harmon Goldstone while he served as Chairman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) and for some months afterward. Goldstone, an architect and author, helped form the LPC during the early 1960s. The journals, in his handwriting and dated October 21, 1968 through June 25, 1974, detail day-to-day issues encountered during the early years of the organization's professional formation and structured existence through its rise to authority and serious influence. (The volumes are numbered consecutively. Numbers 14, 16 and 17, however, are not included.)

The detailed entries are more extensive than a typical desk calendar, and Goldstone apparently designed his entries to facilitate subsequent referral. According to an entry in 1969, his diaries were being used as the basis of information disseminated at his Monday staff briefings. There are also references to his using previous entries to validate recollections and to provide information for subsequent analyses. It appears from the breadth and variety of Goldstone's entries that these diaries contain all that transpired in the LPC office on any given day. As such, information regarding landmark designations for this period, as well as policy, staffing, legal and political issues, are interspersed with more mundane concerns like meetings, lunches, signing appeal letters, dealing with graffiti and stolen plaques, and typing of reports.

During the years covered by the journals, Goldstone appears to have taken little time off, and as the Commission gains in significance, the journals are completed in shorter periods of time, indicative of the intense pace of the work. In addition to tracing the passage of historic district designations and individual building and monument designations, the journals offer accounts of the fights concerning erection of a tower over Grand Central Station (1968-1969), and describe meetings such as one held at a private home on Park Avenue on February 25, 1971, with many notable people in attendance, to discuss an idea that will apparently become the Central Park Conservancy.

The journals are arranged in chronological order in Boxes 1 and 2.

Another significant portion of this collection consists of copies of reports and related documents. Most are Landmarks Designation Reports produced by the LPC. Box 3, Folder 1, however, contains materials from Goldstone's earlier tenure on the City Planning Commission. Of the three reports included, two reflect Goldstone's dissenting position - an Addition to Flushing Meadow Park (1963) and the Remapping of West Broadway between West 3rd and Washington Square South (1966). In a third decision -- Breezy Point Map Change - Goldstone agreed with the majority but the acting chairman and one other member dissented.

Box 4, Folder 4 contains a report unrelated to the LPC. The Centreville Courthouse/Multi-Service Center Report was produced in May of 1979 for the State of Maryland by the firms of McLeod Ferrara Ensign and Gruzen and Partners. It describes a project whose goal is to "develop a coordinated series of building projects to house the Court and State agencies systems" for Queen Anne's County, Maryland. Harmon Goldstone served as a consultant on Architectural Styles and Guidelines.

The remaining folders in this series contain reports related to the designation of landmarks and historic districts. The predominant format is the Landmark Designation Report whose components include particulars of the public hearing(s) held on the proposed designation; detailed description and analysis from an architectural and historical point of view; and a summary of the Commission's findings and designations. Some of the reports contain photographs and/or floor plans. Historic District Designation Reports are lengthier, adding maps and detailed descriptions of individual properties within the district. Associated with some of the reports are summaries, press releases and, in one case (Box 3, Folder 7), a several-page hand-written spreadsheet. There are annotations on a number of the documents, presumably written by Goldstone. Box 3, Folder 5 contains a newspaper clipping which announces the voiding of two designations (included in the same folder) by the Board of Estimate.

The contents of Box 3, Folders 8, 9 and 10 were formerly housed in a brown folder labeled in Goldstone's hand, "LPC Reports 1976, 1977, 1978 with Questions." Folder 8 contains a few written questions. The other two folders include summary sheets annotated by Goldstone with question marks (?) where reports are missing.

The materials are arranged chronologically (except for boxes 4-5) and the container list reflects the districts, buildings and/or monuments within each folder. As these reports are all photocopies, their quality is not consistent. Some are very clear while, in others, portions are faint. All, however, are legible.

Five of the landmarks below are identified with an asterisk (*); they appear on the Landmark Designation Lists but their reports are not included in the collection.

This series is composed of personal and professional scrapbooks created either by Harmon Goldstone or a family member spanning from 1906 to 1978. The professional scrapbooks primarily deal with the Landmarks Preservation Commission. His other professional scrapbooks concern the Junior Council of MOMA, Municipal Arts Society, and Goldstone's book, History Preserved: New York City Landmarks and Historic Districts.

Notable among the personal items is the wedding scrapbook of his parents, Aline May Lewis and Lafayette Anthony Goldstone, who married on June 10, 1908.

This series contains newspaper and magazine clippings along with memorabilia both personal and professional. The professional items are arranged in roughly chronological order based on the period of Goldstone's career. The personal items are included at the end of the series.

Among the professional materials are descriptions of some of Goldstone's architectural projects such as the Aquatic Birds Building at the Bronx Zoo; press coverage of several of his dissenting opinions while on the City Planning Commission; copies of a speech transcript supporting the proposed Landmarks Preservation Bill; a photograph of Goldstone with Mayor John V. Lindsay; and a program commemorating the Landmarks Preservation Commission's acceptance of the New York State Award, given in 1972 by the New York Council on the Arts.

This series includes an original manuscript of Goldstone's book,History Preserved: New York City Landmarks and Historic Districts, along with an research index used during the writing process. Other highlights include an index to New York City landmarked buildings, an index to the Landmarks Preservation Commission diary, speech notes, and a few of Finnish architect Alvar Aalto's plans and photographs.

This series consists of published pamphlets dating from 1939 to 1985 that concern New York City. Some highlights include two World War II air raid precautions handbooks, a walking tour through Thomas Edison's "First District", a guide to New York City Landmarks, and a pamphlet on Landmark Preservation by John S. Pyke, Jr.

This series also contains four published books. Three of the four books deal with the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, spanning from 1969 to 1973. The last book is Who's Who in the East (and Eastern Canada), The Eleventh Edition, and features Harmon Hendricks Goldstone.

This series contains one folder and one photo album. The folder consists of a miscellaneous collection of photographs of events and buildings. The photo album is a collection of photographs from the Dorado Beach Hotel, which was designed by Harmon Hendricks Goldstone.

This series consists of miscellaneous oversized materials housed separately. The call phrase for these materials is Y- Goldstone, Harmon Hendricks.

The Oversized Material series is located with the Oversize Manuscripts Collection, 1648-1998.