Landmarks To Judge Building’s Role in Abolition Movement
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Lewis Greenstein first learned the city planned to seize his building when one of his tenants phoned him.The city had posted a letter on the front of a building he owns at 233 Duffield St. in downtown Brooklyn that said the property – once an abolitionist’s residence, later a fortune-teller’s parlor, now two apartment units – could be condemned to make way for a downtown development project.
Mr. Greenstein objected – on behalf of escaped slaves who might have taken refuge in basements along Duffield Street more than a century and a half ago, as users of the Underground Railroad.
Thus began a two-year effort to preserve a slice of Brooklyn history that culminates on Friday when Mr. Greenstein must submit a final report on the role his building played during abolition. His report and others will go before the city’s Landmarks Commission, which will judge the historical significance of the neighborhood.
The city’s Economic Development Corporation says its project would help the local economy. Mr. Greenstein’s building is near the site of a planned underground parking garage.
“They are trying to privatize the Underground Railroad,” a candidate for the local Assembly district, Bill Batson, said. “But rather than unearthing it, they are trying to bury it.”
