In a blow to preservationists, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development ruled yesterday that the city should use eminent domain to seize the Duffield Street homes believed to be associated with the Underground Railroad. The EDC has long intended to knock down the homes in order to build a public parking lot for a hotel in Downtown Brooklyn. The news comes about a week after the city announced it was setting up a $2 million panel charged with devising a plan to honor Brooklyn’s role in the abolitionist movement. Although the announcement of the panel’s formation fanned some hope that the city would consider studying the homes’ historical value and, perhaps, end up preserving the structures, it now looks likely that the move was simply an attempt to put a pretty PR face on the inevitable destruction of the properties. Even though this is not necessarily the final nail in the coffin of the Duffield Street homes, it does seem to signal the last chapter in what has been a sad story of the city’s unwillingness to carefully examine claims of the houses’ role in the abolitionist movement.
City Gets Go-Ahead To Seize Duffield Homes [Brooklyn Eagle]
Oh, Those Keystone Condemners [Duffield St. Underground]
Goodbye Duffield Street Underground RR Homes [McBrooklyn]
Seizures Coming for Underground Railroad Buildings [Gowanus Lounge]
Abolition Panel a Salve for Duffield Street Concerns? [Brownstoner]
Duffield Preservationists Fight Back with Lawsuit [Brownstoner]
LPC Turns Its Back on Underground Railroad Houses [Brownstoner]
Undergound RR: Consultants Caught In Another Lie [Brownstoner]
LPC Head Tries To Save Underground RR Site [Brownstoner]