When Graduate School Paper turns into a Book and More

Alumna Debra Pickrel M.A.H.P. ’07 (left) recently spoke at a ceremonial unveiling of a plaque dedicated to the late James Vincent Forrestal at his former home at 17 Beekman Place in New York City. Forrestal was the first US Secretary of Defense and the original owner of the house, now owned by the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to serve its diplomatic missions. This culmination was initiated by a paper Debra wrote in her Goucher M.A.H.P. urban history class on the history of the house, which received the 2006 Julia Rogers Research Award. The paper was later expanded into a book that tells the house’s complete story – The Luxembourg House on Beekman Place: Three Portraits in Time.