Kids & Family

Landmarking Bed-Stuy: Stuyvesant East May be Next in Line

The Stuyvesant East Preservation Action League (SEPAL) will hold a public forum on May 31, to discuss next-steps

Slowly but surely, Bedford-Stuyvesant is moving closer to receiving the historic designation and preservation it deserves.

Wednesday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to calendar Bedford Historic District as the next for consideration for proposed landmarking. If landmarked, Bedford Historic District will be the second after Stuyvesant Heights to receive historic designation.

And now it appears as though the eastern section of Bedford-Stuyvesant, identified by LPC as “Stuyvesant East," soon may be next.

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Stuyvesant East is comprised of fifteen, beautiful tree-lined blocks of well-maintained late-19th Century brownstones, running roughly from Halsey to Bainbridge Streets, north to south, and Saratoga Avenue to Malcolm X Boulevard, east to west.

“The Eastern part of Bed-Stuy is really an amazing collection of buildings,” said Reno Dakota, member and facilitator of the Stuyvesant East Preservation Action League (SEPAL).

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“It’s about 98 percent in tact as it was built 120 years ago. If you took away the street lamps and the cars, you could be walking around like it was 1895. It’s all pretty incredible.”

However, before moving forward with landmarking Stuyvesant East, SEPAl will hold an informational forum for the community on Thursday, May 31, 7:00 p.m., at P.S. 5, 820 Hancock Street, near Ralph Avenue. 

Owners of every building in the proposed district are invited to attend the forum, as well as the residents of the Bed-Stuy community at-large.

The Historic Districts Council will be on-hand to field questions and provide residents with information about what historic designation means for homeowners.

“It’s really about protecting the fabric of the neighborhood as it is,” Dakota said. “With the legal protection of historic districting, the neighborhood can protect itself from the encroachment of developers that could easily buy three brownstones, tear them down and then put up some Williasmsburg-looking apartment building-- something that’s architecturally incorrect.”


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