New HD in Williamsburg?
From the Brooklyn Paper
A one-block landmark in W’burg
By Ben Muessig
The Brooklyn Paper / Allyse Pulliam
The city is aiming to protect at least one Williamsburg block from the high-speed development that has forever changed the neighborhood’s shape.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission is considering turning Fillmore Place – a one-block stretch of 29 mid-19th century rowhouses between Driggs Avenue and Roebling Street – into Williamsburg’s first Historic District, forever shielding the tiny street lined with matching three-story brick homes from demolition or major cosmetic alterations.
Neighborhood preservationists are thrilled about the prospect of saving the quaint rowhouses, which served as middle-income housing when they were constructed in 1852 – three years before the village of Williamsburgh became a part of the city of Brooklyn.
“In Williamsburg, there have been so many teardowns over the decades that you rarely have a continuous row that was all developed in one point,” said Ward Dennis, a Community Board 1 member who is also on the Williamsburg Greenpoint Preservation Alliance. “It would be a compelling historic district for the neighborhood and the city”.