James Baldwin Jr. has lived in Lenox Terrace since 1971. He remembers when the complex was the address in Harlem — home to Congressman Charlie Rangel, jazz musicians, teachers, postal workers, and the families that made Central Harlem a community.

"Everybody knew everybody," he said. "If your kid was acting up on 135th Street, someone else's mama would handle it before you even heard about it. That's how it worked."

Now 78, James has spent the last six months recording conversations with longtime Lenox Terrace residents as the complex faces its most dramatic transformation: a $1 billion redevelopment plan that would replace the current 1,700 apartments with nearly 4,000 units in towers up to 30 stories tall.

Developers say the plan will add affordable housing. Residents say it will erase a community.

"They're not building for us," said Dorothy Williams, 82, who has lived in Lenox Terrace since 1968. "They're building for the people who are replacing us. We just have to survive the construction."

The oral history project, based at the Schomburg Center, has recorded 23 interviews so far. The recordings capture not just complaints about development, but rich memories of a Harlem that younger residents have never known.

"I want my grandchildren to hear these stories," said James. "Because once the buildings come down, the stories go with them. Unless someone writes them down."