Brooklyn Building With Abolitionist History Wins Landmark Status After 17-Year Fight
The preservation campaign stalled for years over difficulties in documenting Underground Railroad ties that were clandestine by design.
A stretch of Duffield Street near 227 Duffield before its redevelopment.
Source: The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1934
A Brooklyn home that oral history suggests was a stop on the Underground Railroad has been granted landmark status, after a 17-year battle by advocates who lamented a "grave disparity" in the preservation of buildings with Black history.
On Feb. 2, at the start of of Black History Month, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission announced the designation of the Harriet and Thomas Truesdell House in downtown Brooklyn as an individual landmark, saving the home at 227 Duffield Street from its current owners' plans to demolish it and build a 13-story apartment building in its place. The Greek Revival rowhouse that was once home to abolitionists is the last historical residence on a block that’s recorded as participating in helping escaped enslaved people find freedom.