NEWS: LPC's Chris Mooore urges preservation of Duffield Street Houses
From the Daily News: http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/story/413864p-349896c.html
Underground Railroad link vital, big sez
BY MELISSA GRACEDAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
A city landmarks commissioner is pushing to save several downtown Brooklyn rowhouses because of their connection to the Underground Railroad – and turn them into a museum.
Landmarks Commissioner Christopher Moore said the Duffield St. homes were at the “hub” of the nation’s network of escaping slaves and that an abolitionist lived in at least one of the houses.
“Duffield St. may be the last remnant in downtown Brooklyn of this important era,” said Moore, head of the 11-member City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
“If you really believe that what happened here was significant in American history, we should have a museum.”
The houses are set to be demolished to make way for a parking garage, park and office tower.
In a letter sent last month to the consulting firm AKRF – which is studying the historical significance of the homes – Moore argued they should be memorialized because many other parts of the Underground Railroad in black neighborhoods in Brooklyn have been destroyed.
“Destroying the houses on Duffield St. would certainly continue that legacy,” said Moore, a historian with the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
Moore said the best preserved examples of the borough’s abolitionist movement are in Brooklyn Heights, which is largely white.
He suggested that at least some of the seven Duffield St. homes be saved and formally linked with the former Bridge St. AWME Church, a famed former abolitionist center just blocks away at Polytechnic University.
AKRF was hired to study the homes by the city’s Economic Development Corp. after the property owners and Brooklyn City Council members balked at the development plan.
City officials declined to comment on Moore’s proposal yesterday.
“[The] EDC will use the results of its research to inform our next steps regarding the houses on Duffield St.,” spokeswoman Janel Patterson said.
The EDC plans to release a report this month that sources have said will offer little support for saving the houses.
Originally published on May 2, 2006