Bed Stuy's Order of Tents Kicks Off Mansion Restoration

On a recent crisp fall afternoon, around three dozen people gathered on the lawn of the 19th century mansion at 87 MacDonough Street in the Stuyvesant Heights Historic District to fete the start of long-awaited restoration work on the magnificent but dilapidated building. The moment marked not just a new chapter for the building but a “homecoming” for the members of the secretive women’s aid society that has owned it since the 1940s.

Standing in front of a crowd that included many women dressed in the United Order of Tents signature purple on Friday, October 25, Eastern District #3 member Erica Buddington thanked “every Tents sister, neighbor, elected official, preservation partner, and friend who came to stand with us this afternoon.”

“Thank you for your patience, your prayers, presence, and your belief that this is home, our home, and that it is worth saving…this is not just a groundbreaking, it’s a homecoming, a celebration of survival and sisterhood, a testament to what happens when Black women refuse to be erased.”

Purchased in 1945 by the Order of Tents, the oldest Black women’s aid society in the U.S., the Second Empire Italianate mansion dates to 1863. As well as being in the historic district, it is listed on the New York State and National Register of Historic Places and was called a jewel of Bed Stuy by Brownstoner columnist Suzanne Spellen. But in recent years the building has fallen into disrepair due to bad contractors, financial hardship, and opportunistic property developers, according to the group.

Buddington, part of a new and growing younger generation of members and the president of its cooperation board, said the groundbreaking is a time when “preparation turns into progress.” Working together with Think Wilder Architecture, the New York Landmark Conservancy, Legal Aid, and Landmarks Preservation Commission, Tents members have recently completed architectural drawings, inspections, and Landmarks reviews for the upcoming work. The first phase will focus on the exterior and vestibule.

“We will repair the brick masonry and cornices that have weathered over time, will restore the wood trim and ironwork, and we’ll add ADA compliant everything so every guest and every elder can enter this space,” Buddington said.

As the exterior work begins, the group will continue to fundraise for the interior repairs. So far, they’ve raised $600,000 in donations and grants, a testament, Buddington said, to how deeply people care about the building’s legacy in American history. In 2023, the organization was also given a boost with a tax exemption.

“It’s essential that we have third spaces that support the community in multiple endeavors, and that’s the Tents mission. We were founded to support community through mutual aid and we’re still doing that work, and the space is a very big part of that,” Buddington said.

Plans for the interior include a memorial room, an archive, space for collaborations with local nonprofits, and community rooms “that echo the Tents’ founding purpose, to care for and uplift one another and to advance the progress of Black women and girls.”

The investment in the organization’s future comes at a time when many Black institutions are under threat, and it was crucial to the Tents to keep this “rare surviving Black women-owned historic property” that provides a space for ceremony, education, and service, Buddington said.

“It belongs to the United Order of Tents, but it also belongs to the community. Once we’re able to restore it to its original greatness and beyond, we will be able to serve in a different way,” she said, adding “we’re doing this work for young women who do not even yet exist.”

Vickie Wilkinson, president of Eastern District #3 (the last remaining chapter in the northeast), said the organization’s work and the importance of restoration is “all rooted in legacy and connection and lineage.”

The Tents and local community are invested in 87 MacDonough Street not just as an historical structure, but as “beacon of light” through the Tents work to “heal the sick, to help bury the dead, and give mutual aid, to be a light unto this world,” she said.

“I’m excited and proud and honored to be able to be in a position and space to continue a legacy that started so many generations ago, it is on their shoulders that we stand. To be able to continue the work is meaningful to me,” Wilkinson, a Brooklyn native, said. “Many organizations that were founded during the time that we were founded are no more, they’re a historical footnote. Our story continues.”

Honoring legacy and history was pertinent throughout the celebration, with Wilkinson, Buddington, and other speakers turning to elder Tents members in the crowd to show gratitude for their work. Tents member Ebony Noel Golden recited a poem celebrating the legacy, land, and the building.

Stephen Wilder of Think Wilder Architecture and a recent appointee to the Landmarks Preservation Commission spoke at the ceremony on behalf of his firm and said architecturally the project is straightforward preservation work. “These are the types of projects we like to work on.”

“I was so inspired by the story, being an architect and just having roots that are tied to the mission, also just being really in love with preservation and restoring our culture and different places like this, I knew it was very important for me to come here and introduce myself and figure out exactly what I can do to help.”

Landmarks Preservation Commission records show a permit has been approved for limited exterior and structural repairs at 87 MacDonough Street, including cleaning biological growth, repointing and replacing damaged brick, repairing the rubble stone foundation, and rebuilding parts of the rear facade and chimneys, all with matching materials.

The permit says work will be done in phases, with this first phase prioritizing structural stabilization. The first phase will also help resolve a violation for failure to maintain the facade, which remains active and requires work to be completed by May 2026. Future repairs will include the roof, cornices, and stairs. Department of Buildings permits are not necessarily required for all the work, and records show the organization has not yet applied for any building permits.

To close the ceremony and kick off the next chapter for the organization, the elder generation of Tents members gathered in front of the crowd, each with a purple-ribboned shovel in hand, and plowed into a pile of dirt beside the grand structure.

The breaking of ground, Buddington said, is “breaking open a future, breaking through all the things that might have been erasure, new ground for the next generation of women who will carry this order forward.”

“Thank you for helping us protect sacred ground,” she said. “This one is for Brooklyn, for our ancestors, and for Black women everywhere.”

[Photos by Susan De Vries]

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• Bed Stuy’s Secret Tents Society Launches Fundraiser to Restore Its Grand But Crumbling HQ

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