If New York City had such a thing as the Most-Endearing-House-in-the-Five-Boroughs Award, the tiny four-story frame house at 493 Dean St. in Brooklyn, built sometime in the 1830s, would be a contender. Fronted by a fenced herb garden, casement windows above and a small Alice-through-the-looking-glass door below, the house seems to beckon visitors in from the street. At Sunday’s Garden Walk 2007, held by the Brownstone Brooklyn Garden District Association, the owner, Jerry Campbell, said his grandfather bought the house 50 years ago, moving to Brooklyn from Sugar Hill in Harlem. He wanted a house he could afford on his own, not share, Mr. Campbell said. Sugar Hill had gotten expensive.

Mr. Campbell’s house and his neighbor’s at 491 Dean were chosen for the walk in part because their backyard gardens grow at the edge of the neighborhood’s first known garden, Parmentier’s Horticultural and Botanic Gardens, established in 1825 on 25 acres by a Belgian nurseryman, André Parmentier. The remaining “petits Parmentiers” are imperiled, the tour organizer, Patti Hagan, said, because they occupy the western edge of Bruce Ratner’s proposed Atlantic Yards development, which the association’s brochure calls a “24-acre House & Garden Grab.” Arguing that the area’s heritage is important, Ms. Hagan said it was known as Rose Hill a century ago, when it was Irish. Indeed, roses still bloom in nearly every garden on the tour. Of the 16 listed gardens, only two are in the Atlantic Yards footprint, though nearly everyone — owners and visitors alike — expressed dismay at the looming threat of eminent domain.

An intellectual property rights lawyer who splits his time between London’s Battersea and New York’s Brooklyn, Mr. Campbell has no intention of selling his property, whether voluntarily or by force. “We’re defending our homes flower by flower,” he said, smiling. “My grandfather was the dean of Dean Street. He lovingly restored every inch of the house, and he planted the garden.” The lichen-barked apple tree may be an heirloom from one of Parmentier’s 242 varieties, the brochure notes. As Mr. Campbell stood beneath his grandfather’s magnolia tree, his Uncle Lloyd appeared. A photographer, who was Malcolm X’s official photographer, among many other assignments, he says the lush garden reflects his family’s roots in Barbados.

“I’m not giving up my family’s house,” Mr. Campbell said. But he added that he’s not “overly bothered” by the threat from Atlantic Yards because any eminent domain action will have to be based on a finding that the neighborhood is blighted — which it clearly isn’t. Condos priced at a million and a half dollars are selling down the street. “By Ratner’s definition, half of Brooklyn would be blighted.”

A representative named Andy from Mr. Ratner’s organization called him a few months ago, Mr. Campbell said. He was “gloriously ambiguous,” saying that they regretted that they had taken his house but they would find him a far better one. But you haven’t taken my house, Mr. Campbell recalled saying, and you’re not going to. “Nothing has happened, and we have no interest in leaving.”

A realestate agent at Brooklyn Properties, Suzanne DeBrango, said Mr. Campbell’s house would be priced at around $2 million. Her firm has a nearby newly renovated, mint two-family brick double duplex priced at $1.95 million. Like Mr. Campbell, she was outraged at the contention that the neighborhood is blighted. “If $2-million houses mean blight, what wouldn’t be blighted?” she asked. She wants to see the area developed, but with “respectful, contextual development,” not 60-story towers, and “certainly not an arena.”

Mr. Campbell’s immediate neighbor, Ioana Sarbu, paid just over a million for her house, also from the 1830s, in July of last year. Originally from Bucharest, Ms. Sarbu planted window boxes — “I wanted something to hang and be gorgeous and smell gorgeous” — to remind her of Romania. No one from Mr. Ratner’s organization has contacted her, so she is both apprehensive and relieved. “Why would we sell?” she asked. “We love this block.”

A lawyer, Jennifer Kalb, who lives two blocks away from Dean Street, just outside the Ratner footprint, said, “We fought hard for our neighborhood, bringing it back from a time of crack, crime, and muggings.” A visitor who had just entered Ms. Kalb’s serene garden of greensward, crape myrtle, lilies, roses, and columbine said, “And no one is taking our homes and gardens away from us.”