Underground Railroad Hearing Set For Tomorrow
The clock is ticking over on Duffield Street, where the city wants to use eminent domain to seize several houses with strong connections to the Underground Railroad of the 19th Century in order to create a parking lot and public plaza. To review, the ESDC hired consulting firm AKRF to produce a report refuting preservationists’…
The clock is ticking over on Duffield Street, where the city wants to use eminent domain to seize several houses with strong connections to the Underground Railroad of the 19th Century in order to create a parking lot and public plaza. To review, the ESDC hired consulting firm AKRF to produce a report refuting preservationists’ claims that slaves were once spirited through tunnels (like this one in Lewis Greenstein’s basement) in the basements of the houses at numbers 223 through 235 Duffield Street. The report’s flaws have been reported ad nauseum, to the point that it’s hard to believe the city hasn’t just tossed it in the garbage. All the controversy will come to a head tomorrow at a HPD hearing at the Klitford Auditorium of City College of Technology at 285 Jay Street at 10 am. Those fighting to save the houses are seeking prominent historians and African American leaders to assist in the cause. Anyone interested in helping or testifying can contact Barbara Skinner at barbara_skinner AT hotmail DOT com.
Photo by no land grab
227 Duffield Street was once owned by Thomas and Harriet Lee Truesdell.
An Abolitionist Underground Railroad conductor and Cotton broker. They were contributors to the anti slavery society. Harriet Lee-Truesdell and Juliana Tappen were almost killed in Philadelphia Pennsylvania at a Underground Railroad convention in 1838 that Harriet help plan. This is documented.
I’m not here to try to change anyone’s opinion about Councilman Charles
Barron. I just want to set the record straight. Mr. Barron was the only one
who didn’t vote to have our houses taken away from us.
Also this house 227 Duffield was built in 1848 and I have the papers to
prove it. Mr. Lewis Greenstein and myself has open these homes for
people such as yourselves to view.
And for your information in the early 1900’s Black people in this country
where still enslaved.
All we would like to see is a Museum at these locations to mark what happen to Blacks in America. New York was the second largest slave
Owning state in the nation- South Carolina was the first.
Don’t the African Americans in this state deserve to have the only houses
Left, standing as a testament to what happen in the time of slavery?
in july of 2004 only one city councilman stood up to the developer who were about to grab all these historical houses on duffield street by Eminent Domain Abuse. that was Charles Baron It appears that he was was not getting money from the developersto go along with the rest of the good old boys
just so you understand the department of finance aassing unit gave the ironious date to most houses in a special make work program in 1937 most building if they look very old they were given 1899 if the building look old but in good condition then the instructions were to date them 1915 there is nocorelation to actual age. if you go to cityregister and look up the dead history you will find that all the houses currently left on duffield street were built between 1848-1850
Azman, what in the world does that mean?
I think it could be a nice museum, similar to the LES tenement museum, but maybe not as nice?
Underground railroad or no, downtown Brooklyn does NOT need another parking lot. For that reason alone, the project should be stopped.
Drew- my temper got the better of me. But I do stand by my interpretation of “whiner’s” holocaust comment. first of all, there was no reason to bring up the issue, and his comment “ad nauseum” was offensive. He claims we have a double standard- unfortunately we do. But so does he. Slavery still exists in many parts of the world, including Africa. It is well documented that some African tribes profited immensely by the slave trade. But only rarely have I heard that fact mentioned. Slavery was not only a white institution. By the same token, there were Jews who collaborated with the Nazis- we can all point fingers. and 150 years isn’t all that long ago- I also remember Black people being refused service in a chain restaurant in NJ when i was a child. It was horrible and I never forgot it. But there are still many victims of Hitler’s camps alive today- not all of them Jewish. these people are living history. whiner says he is being force fed the Holocaust- my comment was to make a rebuttal point, his was to vent his anti-semitism.
All of that said, it would be criminal to tear down those houses and their history should be properly verified. The Underground Railroad is far too important of American history to be forgotten.
If these houses were waystations on the underground railroad, then they should be preserved, no question. How many buildings do we have in Brooklyn, or even NYC that are? To raze them with the help of eminent domain is just wrong. For a parking lot? They are unique and rare survivors anyway, and provide a glimpse of life in the mid 1800’s in downtown Bklyn. Why is there even a question? We save lesser buildings for lesser reasons.
The underground railroad, as j mentions above, was one of the more significant moral highgrounds of the 19th century. People of conscience, both white and black, free and slave, circumvented the law of the land, and in an amazingly organized and secretive way, smuggled thousands of slaves from the South through the North to freedom. With great danger to all concerned, citizens of this country decided that the law was wrong, and that their consciences dictated that they do something about it. Any remainder of that effort should be preserved and celebrated. It’s important, not only for black history, but for everyone’s history. How many people today would put home, property and personal freedom on the line for strangers? Let’s preserve a small piece of that heritage for the future.
In answer to the question of why Property Shark, and even ACRIS show most of Brooklyn to be built in 1899 – there was a large fire that year, and thousands of records were lost – really. When the city reconstructed the records,anything they couldn’t document otherwise was put in as 1899. I think they had another SNAFU later, as well, or else they were just lazy, because the year 1915 seems to show up alot too on buildings that obviously are older. My house, which actually was built in 1899, I have the documents to prove it, is listed as 1934 on my mortgage. I was told not to bother getting it changed, as it was more trouble than it was worth, and didn’t really affect anything.