Editorial: Expanding the Fort Greene Historic District

This editorial, by Paul Palazzo of the Fort Greene Association, is reprinted from the association’s newsletter this month.
On September 26, 1978 the FGA had its greatest impact upon our neighborhood when then under the leadership of Herbert Scott Gibson the Fort Greene Historic District was established. But the victory has always been incomplete. In the early days of Historic Preservation, just as today, there was fear of what this new Historic District [HD] might bring. While the original request was to create a contiguous HD between what in now the BAM HD and the Fort Greene HD the Landmarks Preservation Commission [LPC] approved only a small disparate BAM HD and a ragged Fort Greene HD, shown above, leaving many important buildings in the neighborhood unprotected.

In late 2003 then chair Howard Pitsch began to stoke the embers to try to unify the BAM and Fort Greene HD’s garnering interest from Community Board 2 for researching this potential by noting that “in 1984 both the National and New York state Registers of Historic Places exceeded the boundaries of what is currently Historic Fort Greene.” In 2005 the FGA HD Extension Committee was formed and with the help of neighborhood residents Gustav Peebles and Joan Reutershan and FGA Board Members Dorris Gaines Golomb and Paul Palazzo, the FGA was awarded a grant allowing for the evaluation of the HD Extension request. The detailed findings were assembled and published in a report by Andrew S. Dolkart on December 2006. Professor Dolkart was already experienced with the architectural bounty of Fort Greene as he had written the original 1978 historic designation of the neighborhood. In 2007 the report and request was officially submitted by then chair Phillip Kellogg to LPC for review and finally last year, with the help of former resident Stephanie Levinsky, the FGA received a first glimpse of what a newly expanded Fort Greene HD would look like.

While the LPC went a great way toward the goal of unifying our neighborhood the FGA took exception to some of exclusions and resubmitted a request to LPC to reexamine the areas in red on the map.
From the FGA correspondence dated June 24, 2010
The FGA is generally pleased that so much of our request has been honored and while some of the initial study was improbable, the following are exclusions to which we take objection:
North – Carlton Avenue: The FGA would like to add the West Side of Carlton (Willoughby/Myrtle) extended north up to and including the fire house which was built to produce some of the earliest pumper fire engines. On this side of the block are some fine wooden homes, at least one with scallop shell exterior and ocular windows.
The proposed district should extend to all houses on the East Side up to and including the old Drake’s Cake factory building (now a coop) which is already on the National Register. Moreover, this would include 165 Carlton, once home to Richard Wright, an iconic must-have for our district’s multi-ethnic heritage.

The FGA looks forward to meeting with you in person as we move forward with our shared goal of the Expansion of the Fort Greene Historic District.
Respectfully submitted,
 Paul Palazzo for The Fort Greene Association

In response to the FGA comments LPC made partial remediation by including the East- Vanderbilt Avenue and West – Fort Greene Place boundaries within the new HD. Further enhancement has been recently garnered by Councilperson Letitia James’ request for individual landmark status for St. Casimir’s Roman Catholic Church now known as The Paul Robeson Theatre. Research investigation and public hearings have been held on the building. At this time The Paul Robeson Theatre is currently calendared for final determination by the LPC.

Conspicuously missing from consideration is the frontage surrounding Fowler Square which the FGA Board deems essential before consideration of turning Fowler Square into Fowler Plaza.

The fear and misconception that Historic Preservation is detrimental to neighborhood potential continues to arise in today’s news. As recently in the debate for the newly designated West End HD groups like the Real Estate Board of New York continue to argue that the historic districts limit the economic potential of the neighborhood, adding an “economic burden.” The FGA and every Fort Greener know differently that Historic Preservation is linked to real estate enhancement, job creation, and economic development. The facts are clear; it is evident and proven in what has become today’s Fort Greene.

So please join your neighbors at our next FGA Neighborhood Meeting on Monday, September 19th as we continue to build our Fort Greene. See you there.