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April 10, 2007

NLG Extra: Duffield St., "Buildings Communicating"

DUFFIELD ST. HEARING RESCHEDULED, AGAIN
The City Council hearing on the fate of the Duffield St. houses, threatened by eminent domain to make way for a parking garage, has been rescheduled, yet again, for Tuesday, May 1, though we hear that the hearing may be moved up to Tuesday, April 17.

From "Yero" at Daily Gotham:

In their messy attempt to help squelch any further exploration of this history, the City Council has in the space of about three weeks rescheduled the public hearing on this three times. The EDC, with AKRF (a private entity dedicated to destroying communities in the way of big development plans), spent two years studying the historical record. The 500+ page report was released 3/13/07 and the first public hearing was scheduled 3/20, giving the public no time to review the report. After some pressure from [City Council Member Letitia] James and others, they rescheduled the meeting to 4/11. On April 5 at about 5:00 pm, Council Member Katz's office let word out that the meeting will be delayed until May 1. Or maybe not.

DUFFIELD ST. BACK STORY
If you've been following the coverage of the Duffield St. land grab, you'll remember that the property owners believe that their buildings were once safe houses, which were part of the Underground Railroad network that delivered slaves to free states or Canada. You'll also recall that the company that performed the study of the veracity of these claims was forced to redo its work after it was revealed that the study contained serious errors.

That same company, AKRF (yup, the folks who issued the Atlantic Yards Environmental Impact Statement), is on the ropes again for the second study, which continues to downplay compelling evidence of connections to the abolitionist movement.

"BUILDINGS COMMUNICATING"
For example, though the AKRF study published this map, it failed to provide the "key," which indicates that the dashed line represented "buildings communicating." The significance is explained in Appendix II of Volume X, No.1 of the journal Village Views, published by the Society for the Architecture of the City:

The plate showing Duffield Street connects the rowhouses in the terrace running from 129 to 143 Duffield with dashes across the front areaway vaults. 141 Duffield St. was the original numbering of the Truesdell House, now known as 227. This is exactly as described by residents in oral histories: they said years ago the basements were connected through vaults at the front under the sidewalk, connections now vestigial, due to demolitions and alterations.

We've annotated details from the map and key: the yellow area highlights the dashed lines and 141 Duffield St. (now 227 Duffield) is circled in red.

Above: detail from Plate 28 of Brooklyn Perris Map.

Right: detail from key to Brooklyn Perris Index Map Volume 1.

Look out for discussion on these items and more during the City Council hearing, as the homeowners fight to save their homes and preserve vital African-American historial artifacts.

Posted by lumi at April 10, 2007 8:38 AM