Abolition Panel a Salve for Duffield Street Concerns?
The Bloomberg administration announced yesterday that it was creating a six-person panel charged with formulating a plan to honor Brooklyn’s role in the abolitionist movement. The formation of the $2 million panel is largely a response to the controversy surrounding the EDC’s plan to seize and demolish six Duffield Street row houses that are believed…
The Bloomberg administration announced yesterday that it was creating a six-person panel charged with formulating a plan to honor Brooklyn’s role in the abolitionist movement. The formation of the $2 million panel is largely a response to the controversy surrounding the EDC’s plan to seize and demolish six Duffield Street row houses that are believed to have ties to the Underground Railroad, but it leaves the future of those houses unclear. In fact, the city’s press release yesterday affirms that an EDC-funded study did not directly connect Underground Railroad activity to the houses, but it did confirm a great deal of abolitionist activity in the area. While the city’s announcement is unlikely to stanch community outcry about the EDC’s plans, blogger Duffield Street Underground notes that If the new panel has some real power, then there is hope to develop Downtown Brooklyn through the promoting of the Abolitionist history at 227 Duffield. Sounds to us like the city’s just throwing a bone, albeit a $2 million bone, to the pesky preservationists to push them out of the way. Do you think this has a chance of silencing the protesters?
Mayor Appeases on Underground Railroad Rancor [NY Observer]
Panel to Honor Brooklyn’s Role in Abolition [City Room]
Honoring Brooklyn’s Role in Ending Slavery [Duffield St. Underground]
Busy Day for Brooklyn’s Underground Railroad History [Gowanus Lounge]
Underground Movement on Duffield [NY Post]
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]
If you check Curbed.com, you will see that 227 Duffield Street is in foreclosure, a well known fact in the neighborhood. Ms. Chatel’s claim of historical significance of her property smack of an attempt to line her own pocket.
Please note that the posts at 12:39PM and 11:35AM are forgeries.
No, 11:59, time to do a proper job and really find out the truth.
I said “IF Duffield Street was a hotbed of Abolitionist activity….worthy of some kind of preservation.” If it’s not, then fine.
But from everything I read, this EDS study had about as much credibility as a study by the tobacco industry on the effects of smoking. We destroy way too much in the name of Progress, and then regret it later.
Is it going to hurt to spare at least one 20′ wide building until all the facts are revealed, preferably by a study made by neutral, and credible, parties? Why such a rush to reduce everything to a brass placque on the side of a bland boring new building?
I think the mayor took a sensible, conciliatory stance on this. Some notable historians, including a board member of the Landmarks Commission, agree that these old houses had links to abolitionist families.
The point Brower Park is that unlike Plymouth Church there is no evidence that this was actually was an underground railroad site. Time to move on.
Feeble attempts to humorously tie anything that has to do with African American history and/or black people together, such as the vast leap hooking the Underground Railroad to Sonny Carson, are what’s pathetic.
This is about American history – all of us. It is not that politicians, et al, take the path of least resistance, but that they finally are shamed/bullied/persuaded to take a look around, and perhaps right a wrong.
This issue is more to say that perhaps those in positions of power and influence need to be more cogniscent of history and its place in everyone’s lives. If Duffield St. was indeed a hotbed of abolitionist activity, then that is important, and worthy of some kind of preservation. Not because it was about black people, but because it is about people, black and white, who took risks, defied wrongful laws, and acted upon their beliefs. In doing so, they were clever, ingenious and innovative, and eventually, immoral and evil laws were abolished. That deserves to be shown, preserved and touted.
The rebuilding of downtown Bklyn can spare some square footage to celebrate and preserve a part of American history at its finest. A museum celebrating the Underground Railroad and the Abolitionist Movement, which was a powerhouse movement in Brooklyn, due in great part to the efforts of Ward Beecher, only blocks away, at the Plymouth Church in Brooklyn Heights, could be a tourist attraction, and an asset to the area and the city at large.
What’s your problem 9:49? Don’t you know that Sonny Carson lived there!
Couldn’t have said it better myself, 9:49.
Whenever there is something that might be deemed as racist if denied or questioned, politicians, media, and others will blindly follow the path of least resistance.