Top 5 Stories on Brownstoner This Week: Changing Gowanus

Extensive Construction in Gowanus Forecasts a Very Different Neighborhood Ahead

Gowanus, an industrial and low-lying neighborhood, has been undergoing a sudden and sweeping transformation over the past year and a half. Swathes of low slung 19th and early 20th century brick industrial buildings have been demolished. In their place, ubiquitous on many blocks, are active construction sites ringed by green construction fences. Walls are starting to rise on a handful of developments, and at least two sets of towers and a nine-story apartment building have topped out.

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Congregation Fears Loss as City Razes Collapsing Bed Stuy Shul

Rabbi Baruch Yehudah had his bar mitzvah at Bed Stuy’s Black synagogue B’nai Adath Kol Beth Yisrael. Years later, he circumcised both his sons there. As well as religious services, there’s been coat drives, soup kitchens, and plenty more community gatherings held out of the corner building at 1006 Greene Avenue at Patchen Avenue since his congregation moved there in the ‘60s, Yehudah said.

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Oldest Surviving Synagogue in Borough Park Demolished Without Permits

Borough Park’s Jewish community is mourning the loss of the neighborhood’s first and oldest surviving synagogue after developers tore down the historic building last week.

The 122-year-old Chevra Anshei Lubawitz at 4024 12th Avenue was reduced to rubble March 17 to the dismay of activists who have been trying for years to save the synagogue since a developer purchased the property in 2017 for $3.1 million.

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The History of the Whitman Close Townhouses

This 2012 story by Suzanne Spellen about the 1960s townhouses built as a housing component of the Cadman Plaza development was popular this week. As Spellen wrote at the time: “If it had been left up to Robert Moses, the housing component of Cadman Plaza would look very different than what we have now. His original plan was for a 400 foot long, 20 story apartment building that would have stretched across the length of the plaza, filled mostly with luxury studio, and one bedroom apartments. Imagine if you will, a building much larger than the Supreme Court building, only in 1960s Upper East Side white brick, plopped where the present day Cadman Plaza housing is. It almost makes you want to go out and hug one of the present towers.”

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Two Apartment Buildings to Replace Petite 19th Century Church on Williamsburg Corner

A small 19th century church in Williamsburg that was once used as a synagogue will be demolished and replaced by two four-story apartment buildings, if the new owner’s plans go ahead. The quaint house of worship has sat on the corner of Leonard and Stagg streets since 1855, when it was built for a German congregation in what was then a German enclave in the borough.

Related Stories

• Top 5 Stories on Brownstoner This Week: 19th Century Williamsburg Church Will Be Demolished
• Top 5 Stories on Brownstoner This Week: Gowanus Shelter Meeting Draws a Crowd
• Top 5 Stories on Brownstoner This Week: A Fort Greene Church Sells for $15 Million

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