Biking Through Bed-Stuy's History

On Saturday, as part of the Historic Districts Council's "Six to Celebrate" series, the Bedford Stuyvesant Society for Historic Preservation and the Landmarks Committee of Brooklyn Community Board 3 sponsored a bike tour of the historic and landmarked portions of Bed-Stuy.

The Six to Celebrate series showcases neighborhoods and the architectural history behind them, six at a time. Simeon Bankoff, HDC executive director, said that Bed-Stuy was chosen because of how involved the community is in keeping the neighborhood's buildings intact.

"Bed-Stuy is a fantastic neighborhood and its architectural merit deserved to be better known," said Bankoff. "There's also a lot of community interest in preservation and getting building's landmark consideration. There is just a lot of energy and excitement about it."

The sold-out tour was lead by two long-time Bed-Stuy residents, Morgan Munsey, an architectural historian and Suzanne Spellen, a contributing writer to the blog Brownstoner.

"I think that as a resident, it's important to give walking tours a local perspective," said Spellen. "A community is so much more than standing around saying 'so-and-so designed this building in 1886.' I mean, who cares? They do care to know that that in spite of all of the urban ills that the community went through, strong people continued to live here, raise families and prosper."

From the brownstones of MacDonough Street to Restoration Plaza (which used to be an old milk bottling plant, check out the stone cows cut into the side), the two-wheeled tour covered the very best of Bed-Stuy architecture.

Approximately 20 cyclists followed Spellen and Munsey on a winding course through the neighborhood, stopping often to catch the history of each structure. According to Munsey, poverty and redlining — the process of decreasing services to certain demographic areas — ironically were two major factors that have allowed Bed-Stuy to preserve its unique look.

But as Munsey added, the most important factor was that families have not left. "A lot of Bed Stuy's most ardent champions of landmarking are the children and grand children of these original homeowners," he said.

Munsey, an architect, said that in time, he hopes to get more of Bed-Stuy's amazing buildings the recognition they deserve. "It's a wonderful area, and there are so many beautiful places that should be landmarked."

Spellen added, another big motivation for preserving Bed-Stuy's historic architecture comes from the families that have lived here for centuries.

"For a lot of old timers, getting landmarked will be a vindication that they were right to sacrifice so much in order to buy these homes. They see it for what it truly is, a reward for being the preservers and protectors of history and home."