Landmark Grants to Bronx Neighborhood Help Restore Historic Buildings
This is a great program that doesn’t get nearly enough credit. There are pretty stringent income restrictions for private individuals but non-profits are also eligible.
Landmarks Preservation Commission helps Mott Haven restore history
BY DORIAN BLOCK
Monday, August 4th 2008, 3:20 PM
Three Bronx historic districts are getting a fresh coat of paint to bring back their historical face, with a little help from the city.
Unbeknownst to many, in between the high-rise housing projects and old tenement buildings of Mott Haven, there are three historic districts lined with about 50 landmarked brownstones. The mini-neighborhoods are three of 10 historic districts in the Bronx.
Those historic houses that weren’t burned or torn down during the dark, burning years of the 1970s were often “fixed up” with painting over bricks or layers of stucco plastered over architectural details.
The city Landmarks Preservation Commission is now administering Community Development Block Grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to restore the facades – just as it has done for homes on Morris and Alexander Aves.
“As much as the historic districts in the Bronx are beautiful, there are a lot of buildings that need help,” said Tenzing Chadotsang, director of the Historic Preservation Grants Program.
The first grant in Mott Haven went to a resident on E. 139th St. this spring. It was for $15,000, which homeowner Ariane Randall matched, and Chadotsang oversaw the hiring of a contractor and the daily work of ripping stucco placed over brick, among other things.
Randall’s neighbor was so impressed that he applied and was approved for a grant.
“We do one building and then we might be able to get the next, and as a result the whole neighborhood suddenly realizes what the historic buildings look like,” said Chadotsang. “It does have a ripple effect.”