Joe Svehlak

Native Brooklynite, historian, and community activist. Involved in planning and preservation issues in Brooklyn and in Downtown Manhattan for over 40 years. Former careers in Wall Street and Brooklyn real estate (brownstones and co-ops). Freelance custom tours for various organizations and family groups with focus on architecture, social history, ethnicity, planning, and preservtion. Member of various preservation organizations and historic societies. Since 1998 have created walking tours of Downtown Manhattan and various Brooklyn neighborhods for the Municipal Art Society and for several years was one of their principal Grand Central Terminal guides.