Apartment Tower Could Replace Brooklyn Abolitionist Building

DOWNTOWN, BROOKLYN — The stakes were raised this week in the fight to save a historic Brooklyn home as permits were filed to turn the house into a 13-story apartment building.

Advocates have set up an emergency rally Tuesday afternoon to make a last-ditch effort to save 227 Duffield St., which they have been trying to have designated as a landmark for years.

That fight first ramped up earlier this summer when demolition permits were granted for the house, which was once home to two abolitionists, and more than 1,000 people signed onto a petition asking it to be saved.

That threat seems even more imminent now that permits were filed to replace the home with a 20,000-square-foot apartment and retail building. Advocates told their supporters to continue urging the Landmarks Preservation Commission to designate the home before its too late.

"Please do not demolish 227 Duffield Street," they told their supporters to tell the commission's director. "We need to landmark 227 Duffield, because it is well-documented that it was used as a meeting house for the abolitionist movement as well as a stop on the Underground Railroad."

227 Duffield St. was once the home of abolitionists Thomas and Harriet Truesdell, who were friends with and hosted the more well-known William Lloyd Garrison.

Advocates say that landmarking the home would not only save it from being demolished, but would help with their ultimate goal of turning it into a museum.

"The property embodies the role Brooklyn and New York City played in the Abolitionist movement at a time when the Fugitive Slave Act was the law of the land," they say in the petition. "We cannot allow such an invaluable piece of our history to be erased."

The petition touts the home as the "last known standing historic site in Brooklyn where well-known abolitionists lived and where people found freedom through the Underground Railroad."

This is far from the first time the house has been threatened with demolition, or that activists or its owners have worked to have it preserved.

Back in 2007, the city settled a lawsuit that owner Joy Chatel had filed to protect her home from being taken by eminent domain as part of a redevelopment plan for Downtown Brooklyn. The plan would have taken over the property to make room for Willoughby Park, which just opened a pop-up version of the green space in July, according to Brownstoner.

Brownstoner reports that the current owner of the house is Samuel Hanasab, who has been buying the property in stages over the years. Chatel had signed the deed to her mother, who sold a 50 percent interest in the building to an investor to avoid foreclosure. That investor then sold part of the house in 2015 and Chatel's mother sold her piece in 2017.

Tuesday's rally will be held from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at the Landmarks Preservation Commission headquarters at 1 Centre St. in Manhattan.