What It Takes to Preserve a Building Tied to Black History
A former abolitionists’ home in Brooklyn with ties to the Underground Railroad may have a chance at landmark status after a 16-year battle.
An eviction notice at 227 Duffield Street after owner Samiel Hanasab moved to demolish it in 2019. The former abolitionist home is being considered for landmark status.
Photographer: Rebecca Bellan
As protesters demand a national reckoning on America’s whitewashed history, activists are rallying around a former abolitionists’ home in downtown Brooklyn with ties to the Underground Railroad as a chance to diversify historic preservation. High-profile endorsements to designate the building with landmark status, including by Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Attorney General Letitia James, have bolstered a campaign by activists that goes back 16 years.
The former home of prominent abolitionists Harriet and Thomas Truesdell, 227 Duffield Street is the last historical residence on a block with a record of abolitionist participation — a neglected slice of history among shiny new high rises, office buildings and chain hotels. Oral history has it that the home was a stop on the Underground Railroad, but the unrecorded connection has been hard to prove. The current owner, developer Samiel Hanasab, wants to tear it down and build a 13-story apartment building in its place.