Activists Want Protections For Flatbush Church Facing Demolition

DITMAS PARK, BROOKLYN — A century-old Ditmas Park church could be knocked to make room for an apartment complex unless activists are able to get it designated as a historic landmark.

Owners of the Baptist Church of the Redeemer filed plans on March 14 to tear down the century-old structure on Cortelyou Road and Ocean Avenue and replace it with a nine-story apartment building, city records show.

While church owners argue the neighborhood needs the affordable housing that the new tower could provide, local advocates say the church should be preserved and Ditmas Park protected from a spate of new high-rise buildings.

“There has been a sense in the community that the wave of demolitions are not being responded to by the city,” said Harry Bubbins of the grassroots organization Respect Brooklyn.

“The potential loss of this amazing historic church, that almost 100 years old, is just another good reason of why there needs to be a greater protections in the area.”

The Romanesque and Art Deco church — designed by Frank J. Helmle and Harvey W. Corbett, the architects behind the Prospect Park Boathouse and the Master Building on Riverside Drive — has stood on Cortelyou Road since first constructed in 1919, noted Bubbins.

Bubbins believes the church should be granted historic landmark status — which would protect it from demolition — because it is an anomaly among the Helmle and Corbett portfolio.

“It was designed in this period where they were doing almost gaudy designs,” Bubbins said. “This wonderfully austere example of such amazing architecture from this team deserves preservation.”

The Baptist Church of the Redeemer is also were activists from the Flatbush Tenant Coalition often hosts its meetings, Bubbins said.

Respect Brooklyn, a local group with a mission to promote “sensible neighborhood planning,” is asking community members who support landmarking the church to email local representatives and sign a petition which they hope to present to the Landmark Preservation Commission at a future public hearing.

Reverend Sharon Williams — the church's owner, according to Department of Building records — declined to comment for the story, but she told Bklyner a new building would provide the community with affordable homes and space for the church to offer improved social services.

Photo courtesy of GoogleMaps/Sept. 2017