Sunset Park Mansion Landmarked To Save It From Wrecking Ball

SUNSET PARK, NY — The city quickly moved to landmark a more than 100-year-old Sunset Park mansion that was in danger of being torn down for apartments.

The Landmark Preservation Commission (LPC) designated the Dr. Maurice T. Lewis House, the neighborhood's only mansion 404 55th St., a landmark on Wednesday after a developer filed plans to demolish it and build a seven-story building with 24 apartments in its place.

"This building is worthy of landmark status and I am delighted that the Commission voted to designate it today," LPC chair Meenakshi Srinivasan said in a statement.

"The Lewis House is a valuable part of the history and character of this neighborhood as attested by the Sunset Park community, who showed overwhelming support for its designation during the public hearing."

Residents and elected officials banded together earlier this year to call on the city to save the three-story mansion when they discovered plans to tear it down.

The LPC quickly added the home to be considered for protection last month and members voted to landmark it at their hearing this week.

"We’re incredibly grateful to the LPC for recognizing the importance of this building in the context of our neighborhood," Lynn Tondrick, of the Sunset Park Landmarks Committee who pushed for saving the mansion, said in a statement. "We’re ecstatic at the vote to move forward with landmarking this property."

The home was first built in 1907 for Lewis, the former president of the Bay Ridge Savings Bank, and was designed by famed architect R. Thomas Short, according to the LPC. Lewis lived in the home until he died in 1931, Brownstoner reported.

The mansion stood out in the neighborhood at the time, which was mostly filled with multi-family row houses for working class people, and remains one the largest single-family homes in Sunset Park, according to the LPC.

It went through some alterations over the years, including replacing all the windows, but it kept its original limestone and brick facades along with other features typical in Renaissance Revival homes, the LPC said.

The home was sold to SL 218 LLC for $2.8 million last year and they filed an estimated $3.3 million plan to tear down the building for apartments, city records show.

Image: Landmark Preservation Commission