Servant of Beauty: Landmarks, Secret Love, and the Unimagined Life of an Unsung New York Hero is the true story of the interplay between the two all-consuming passions of this unheralded civic champion: his love of beauty in the public realm that would forever change New York City, and his love for a younger man that would forever change Bard. Albert Sprague Bard (1866-1963) fought for cities to have the right to protect their beauty, propelling him into a David versus Goliath combat with Robert Moses and paving the way, after four decades of advocacy, for New York City's Landmarks Law (1965). Today the law protects over 37,000 buildings, mostly in historic neighborhoods, and it has inspired cities across the nation. Bard was delighted and disappointed by his two enduring loves: one for a troubled younger man, the other for the beauty of New York City. Persevering against the odds, resilient in the face of disappointment, and a man who became embroiled in a spy scandal at the same time as he served as a stand-in father to three, Bard is an uncelebrated renaissance man and civic hero whose story will inspire and inform generations of citizens who continue his battle to preserve the beauty of the places they love.
Anthony C. Wood is a nationally recognized preservationist who started as a preservation advocate in New York City and has gone on to work for, found, serve on the board of, and chair 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 Lucy G. Moses Award for Preservation Leadership. He has served on the adjunct faculty at Columbia University and he founded the non-profit New York Preservation Archive Project, whose mission is to document, preserve, and celebrate the history of preservation in New York. Wood is also the award-winning author of Preserving New York: Winning the Right to Protect a City's Landmark (Routledge, 2008), and has been featured in several documentaries.
Albert Bard's name is not known to many people in 21st century New York, but it should be, because he laid the groundwork for the historic preservation movement in the city, and the legislation he fought for became the legal basis for allowing towns and cities in the state to protect their important buildings. But as Anthony Wood shows us, Bard was more than our forgotten advocate of civic beauty and architectural preservation. He was also a man who lived a rich, complicated, and unusual life of both public and private passions. His story, meticulously researched and recounted by Wood, is not just a tale out of New York's past, it is a compelling story about the future, and about the long and patient struggle to shape a better city. --Paul Goldberger, Architecture Critic and author of Why Architecture Matters Anthony Wood has masterfully brought Albert Bard's civic legacy to the fore while also giving us insight to his complicated personal life. Bard was a giant in the scenic conservation movement. The Bard Act in New York State alone is a signature law that should be duplicated throughout the country and indeed the world. Much of Bard's philosophies and accomplishments lay the foundation for the work that Scenic America does today. --Mark Falzone, President, Scenic America "A spellbinding biography of Albert Bard, one of New York City's greatest civic activists, laced with a fascinating twist of espionage. While Bard was helping to preserve the city -- even fighting against the 'power broker' himself Robert Moses -- he was privately dealing with an international scandal. Anthony Wood excavates a most extraordinary story from the shadows of history, not only rescuing a forgotten figure of American culture but discovering new and even provocative new details about his life. Servant of Beauty provides a captivating snapshot of public action and private lives in the mid 20th century." --Greg Young, Writer, Co-creator and Host of the Bowery Boys Podcast Anthony C. Wood not only provides a thorough history of pioneering preservationist Albert Bard whose advocacy ultimately created the New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission, but he uncovers the secret story of a gay man whose life had to be hidden from all of his colleagues. Wood adds an important layer to our understanding of the character of early preservation activists by making tangible the previously invisible life of a prominent civic leader. --Andrew S. Dolkart, Co-Founder, NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project Persistent and visionary, Albert Bard is responsible for the 1956 Bard Act that enabled New York to enact its tremendously influential landmarks preservation law. Wood's enthralling biography highlights Bard's deep commitment to beauty-and the legal tools that make it possible-while revealing the hidden history of his other great love and a queerness common to other influential preservation pioneers. --Thomas M. Mayes, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel, National Trust for Historic Preservation
