Last Chance To Tell The LPC To Landmark Lady Moody’s House & The Coney Island Pumping Station
There’s still time to make your voice heard and support the effort to save two of southern Brooklyn’s most cherished historic sites.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) has extended the period in which people can submit written statements or register to speak at the upcoming October 8 hearing at which the agency will consider granting landmark status to several locations in Brooklyn — including Gravesend’s Lady Moody House and the Coney Island Pumping Station — an LPC spokesperson said.
The commission originally set an October 1 deadline for people to submit written statements or register to speak, according to the LPC’s website. However, a spokesperson said it will accept statements until October 22, two weeks after the hearing. And, although the agency is urging people to register as early as possible, you can sign up to testify as late as the day of the hearing.
In July, the LPC announced it would hold hearings throughout the five boroughs to address a backlog of 95 properties that have been awaiting landmark status for five years or more. The October 8 hearing takes place at LPC’s offices, on the 9th floor of 1 Centre Street in Manhattan, at 9:30am.
To submit statements or register, email backlog95@lpc.nyc.gov. You must indicate the property, or properties, you intend to address and any affiliation you have with an organization. Each speaker will be afforded three minutes to testify.
Here is a list of all the Brooklyn properties being considered for landmark status. From the LPC website:
1. 183-195 Broadway Building, 183-195 Broadway Fact Sheet | Research File
2. Ukranian Church in Exile (Holy Trinity Cathedral), 177 South 5th Street Fact Sheet |Research File
3. St. Barbara’s Roman Catholic Church, 138 Bleecker Street Fact Sheet | Research File
4. St. Augustine’s Roman Catholic Church and Rectory, 130 6th Avenue Fact Sheet |Research File
5. Lady Moody-Van Sicklen House, 27 Gravesend Neck Road Fact Sheet | Research File
6. Greenwood Cemetery Fact Sheet | Research File
7. Coney Island Pumping Station, 2301 Neptune Ave Fact Sheet | Research File
Two historic southern Brooklyn sites, Lady Moody’s and the Coney Island Pumping Station, have languished on the LPC’s list for decades awaiting landmark status. The special designation would protect the buildings from alterations or replacement.
The pumping station, completed in 1938 by famed architect Irwin Chanin, is prized for its limestone and granite Moderne structure and jewel-shaped windows. The building, located at 2301 Neptune Avenue, was constructed to deliver water to firefighters in Coney Island, but was shut down in the 1970s after its systems became outdated.
Several efforts have been made to salvage the pumping station — in 1980 the LPC first considered making the site a landmark and in 1990 the city designated $23 million to revitalize the pumping station and turn it into homeless shelter, according to the New York Times. Neither effort materialized.
The Art Deco Society of New York has created an online petition, intended to go to the LPC for the upcoming hearing, that has received 240 signatures.
Meanwhile, the Lady Moody House, at 27 Gravesend Neck Road, is currently up for sale at the price of $869,000. The house is one of a handful of remaining Dutch Colonial homes in New York City and is built on property that once belonged to Lady Deborah Moody, founder of the town of Gravesend. (Though its disputed whether she actually lived in the home.) Regardless, the structure seen today has remained remarkably unchanged since the 18th century.
As As Gravesend historian Joseph Ditta wrote for this publication, the Lady Moody House “has been a constant, visual reminder to this community of its history, and provides a link (however nebulous) to its remarkable founder.”
All seven of the locations being considered on October 8 nearly lost their chance to achieve landmark status last year, when they were among 95 sites the LPC attempted to “de-calendar.” The effort was halted after the commission received pushback from local politicians, community advocates, and preservationists.
Meanwhile, a controversial City Council bill currently being considered would require the LPC to hold hearings within 180 days of the application, and take final action within 180 days of the hearing. The bill would also force the LPC to settle its backlog in just 18 months. The bill has come under fire from preservationists who say the legislation would severely limit the LPC’s power to designate landmarks.
