Franny Eberhart: You Have a Friend

For preservation-minded New Yorkers, it’s easy to be cynical when the voices of naysayers are never far away: things change, get over it; big real estate always wins; you can’t fight City Hall. Discouraging as such sentiments can be, there’s also the inspiration of Franny Eberhart, board president of the Friends of Upper East Side Historic Districts, and a long-time exemplar of how informed civic engagement can make a difference.

She was born in Chicago on August 6, 1945 — “the day we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima,” Eberhart once reminded a young interviewer. As a teenager, her interest in the arts was stirred when an older brother took her to a Dada exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago. Her parents were both “very involved in the civic and social life of the city.” A summer trip to Italy with her grandparents, including a visit to the Giotto Chapel in Padua, sparked her passion for Renaissance painting.

After graduating high school in 1963, Eberhart attended Wellesley College, where she was an art history major. After graduating in 1967, Eberhart moved to New York, working briefly for an architectural firm, and then for Martin Gordon, a Madison Avenue art dealer specializing in late 19th and early 20th prints. Marriage to David Eberhart—of the Eberhart Brothers, a century-old Yorkville-based real estate company—and children followed. And though she left office work behind, her history interests remained.

By the late 1970s, Eberhart became involved in the repair and restoration of her family parish, the Church of the Holy Trinity—erected in 1899 at 316 East 88th Street—and began talking classes in the Columbia University Historic Preservation program. The coursework proved stimulating. Eberhart completed her degree and, somewhat to her surprise as a self-described “middle-aged mother of two that hadn’t worked in quite a while,” she was hired for a public affairs position with the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.

“Preservation is always controversial and a vast majority of folks either don’t know anything about it or don’t like it,” Eberhart said. “So that became my job and introduced me to the politics of preservation.” Those politics were—and remain—controversial, with many people resenting the fact that the 1965 New York City Landmarks Law applies to them.

“Building owners of all stripes don’t want another level of on top of everything else that they have to deal with the city,” Eberhart explained. “We all understand that, but it has been upheld by the Supreme Court that preservation is a common good protected under the health and welfare provisions of the constitution. So we’ll just keep on fighting the good fight.”

By 1992, Eberhart was ready for a change and became the first paid executive director of the Historic Districts Council. She stayed with HDC for six years, and also taught an undergraduate course in preservation at NYU for a decade. Then she “retired.”

This term is in quotes because, though her titles have changed over the years, Eberhart was and remains a driving force behind Friends of the Upper East Side, the not-for-profit advocacy and educational organization founded in 1982.

Friends’ achievements have been substantial and at last count, their bailiwick included 131 individually designated landmarks within seven historic districts, totaling 1,907 protected buildings.

Among the Friends’ recent actions are reviewing Mayor Adams’ massive City of Yes for Economic Opportunity zoning plan; challenging a state-level proposal that could encourage more “supertall” luxury buildings at the expense of affordable housing; and supporting greater regulation on the placement of LINKNYC 5G towers which have blighted many historic neighborhoods like an invasive species.

Friends is also active in education, including walking tours and, to nurture future generations of preservationists, a Young Friends program for children.

Speaking of which, Eberhart plays another important Upper East Side role as a doting grandmother to a 3 ½-year-old girl. Asked if they have a favorite playground, Eberhart immediately answered, “Carl Schurz Park!”