Mary Ellen Green Murphy, also known as Mickey Murphy, was born in 1917.^[1] Murphy was one of fourteen women who graduated from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in 1939.^[2] In the 1940s and 1950s, she worked first as a reporter for the New York Post (on “general assignment”) and later for Time-Life.^[3] To acknowledge her lifetime commitment to civic activism, the Historic Districts Council named a grassroot advocacy award in her honor: the Mickey Murphy Lifetime Achievement Award.^[4] Three New York Water Taxis were named in her honor.^[5] Murphy passed away on January 10, 2002, at Long Island College Hospital, after a brief illness.^[6] She is survived by her children, Timothy Murphy and Sarah Murphy Proudlock, grandchildren Robin, Samantha, Mark, Lucero, and Lee, and great-grandchildren, Justin, Reggie, and Keegan.^[7]

Brooklyn Heights Association: Waterfront Committee^[8]

Brooklyn CB2 (Community Board 2): Piers Subcommittee Member^[9]

Chair of the Community Board 2 Subcommittee on Landmarks

Board member on the Historic Districts Council

In the late 1980s Murphy advocated for the preservation of parkland along the river in what would become Brooklyn Bridge Park. She was a member of the Brooklyn Heights Association Waterfront Committee (later renamed Committee on the Redevelopment of Brooklyn Piers 1-6 – Piers Committee) as well as the Community Board 2 Piers Subcommittee.^[10] This committee fought to maintain public access and encouraged the creation of a public park, opposing the development sponsored by the City.^[11] Beyond active committee membership, Murphy spoke out at the first community meeting on the development of Brooklyn Bridge Park in the late 1990s.^[12] She explained that the river served as an escape when she could not afford to leave the city.^[13] Her words influenced the landscape designer of the park, Mr. Van Valkenburgh, who said, “it was one of those paradigm shifts…where we realized this park wasn’t about scenery…the nature of this park is the river.”^[14]

Murphy’s waterfront advocacy activities encompassed all of the nineteenth-century structures along the East River waterfront. She specifically sought to preserve historic structures along the Fulton Ferry waterfront area, including Empire Stores, Tobacco Warehouse, and the Old Fireboat House. Murphy’s efforts to preserve the waterfront as a space for all New Yorkers resulted in her memorialization through the Mickey Murphy Lifetime Achievement Award bestowed by the Historic Districts Council each year.^[15] Three New York City water taxis bearing her name also memorialize her efforts, making daily crossings along the river she worked so hard to preserve.^[16]

She died before the infamous demapping of the Empire Stores and Tobacco Warehouse section of the park occurred (and the Brooklyn Heights Association sued to return it to parkland), but throughout Murphy's lifetime of waterfront advocacy activity, her interests encompassed all of the nineteenth-century structures along the East River waterfront.