Spend Your Weekend Speaking Out For Responsible Development

Rally to save St. Saviour’s: A new park & community center is what we need.Help us make this a reality for Maspeth! Join Councilman Tony Avella and the Juniper Park Civic Association in calling for the city to acquire and convert the historic former St. Saviour’s Church property into a museum, community center and public […]

Standing Up for Duffield Street Houses

Yesterday, over 3 dozen residents, historians and advocates including Council members John Liu and Letitia James came together at Duffield Street, standing in front of the Truesdale House to protest the City’s intended demolition of these 150-year old homes for a parking garage. For more, see: History on Duffield Street New York Sun, NY A […]

New York Times Gets Word from Washington Group – Brooklyn's History Is Endangered

June 14, 2007Brooklyn Waterfront Called Endangered Site By ROBIN POGREBIN Correction Appended The mighty Monitor, the ironclad Civil War ship, was built on Greenpoint’s gritty waterfront. The Graving Dock at the Todd Shipyards in Red Hook was the terminal for ships traveling from the Erie Canal. The Old Dutch Mustard Company in Williamsburg churned out […]

Coda on 2 Columbus Circle

From the New York Times June 5, 2007Renovation Slowly Adds Some Light to Lollipops By ROBIN POGREBIN The controversial white block of a building is still shrouded in dark netting. The hard-hatted men perched on the surrounding scaffolding won’t wrap up their work until the middle of next year. But behind the scrim, the “lollipop” […]

PS 64 – back on the chopping block

From the Village Voice Court Backs East Village ‘Dorm for Hire’posted: 7:18 AM, June 4, 2007 by Sarah Ferguson So far Singer has stripped off all the dormer windows on the 10th Street side of P.S. 64. He hopes to demolish a lot more. It looks as if developer Gregg Singer’s proposed 19-story megadorm off […]

The Denial Method of Historiography?

From Courier Life Publications05/26/2007Historian gives credence to underground Railroad claimsBy Stephen Witt A key city historian offered his views last week on the Duffield Street abolitionist houses and appears to have landed on the side of preservationists. Christopher Moore, a curator at Harlem’s Schomburg Center, and regarded as one of the city’s foremost African-American historians, […]

Duffield Street Press Round Up

From the Daily Eagle article, “Councilwoman Cites Flaw…. “Linh Do, senior vice president of AKRF Inc, said, “SHPO doesn’t have a role in terms of the review of the Downtown Brooklyn development plan, so that’s one of the reasons they were not contacted.” She added that she’d have to review the contact logs before she […]

SHPO Never Consulted About Duffield Street!

Historic Duffield Street Homes:State Historic Preservation Office Not Contacted Regarding Eligibility to National Register of Historic Places Council Member James Calls for Halt to any Seizure of Property(Brooklyn, NY)- May 23, 2007, Council Member James has learned today that the New York State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) had never made a determination on the eligibility […]

Imminent Eminent Domain Hearing

This one’s for all the marbles. CITY OF NEW YORKDEPARTMENT OF HOUSING PRESERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT PLEASE TAKE NOTICE, that in accordance with Sections 201-204 (inclusive) of the New York State Eminent Domain Procedure Law (the “EDPL”), a Public Hearing will be held by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development on behalf […]

Eulogy for the Purchase Building

From the New York Times May 20, 2007Streetscapes Old Fulton Street, BrooklynFrom Ghost Town to Park GatewayBy CHRISTOPHER GRAY At the foot of the street, a boisterously ornate ferry terminal went up in 1865, but the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883 drew away much of the traffic. Merchants gradually left, and in 1891 […]