{"id":161769,"date":"2021-01-24T04:39:12","date_gmt":"2021-01-24T01:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/nyc-neighborhood-fights-to-save-underground-railroad-site\/"},"modified":"2021-01-24T04:39:12","modified_gmt":"2021-01-24T01:39:12","slug":"nyc-neighborhood-fights-to-save-underground-railroad-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/nyc-neighborhood-fights-to-save-underground-railroad-site\/","title":{"rendered":"#NYC neighborhood fights to save Underground Railroad site"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#NYC neighborhood fights to save Underground Railroad site<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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Clad in fake stoneface and mostly shorn of its old clapboard and ornament, the dingy, two story house at Riverside Drive and 159th Street isn\u2019t much to look at.<\/p>\n

But a group of neighbors, preservationists, historians and local politicians believe it was once a stop on New York\u2019s Underground Railroad, and they\u2019re fighting to restore its original, Italianate elegance from the mid-1850s, when it sat amid woods and farmland and fiery abolitionist Dennis Harris called it home.<\/p>\n

First, though, they have to save it from the wrecking ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s beyond frustrating because you feel the history when you stand there,\u201d Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can feel these abolitionists who really did try to get slaves freed. You can feel it.\u00a0And the idea of tearing it down for a 13-story building that means nothing is heart-wrenching,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

New owner Sigmund Freund and developer Michael Petrokansky have received preliminary city app<\/a>roval to demolish the structure to build a 13 story, 46-unit condo building; neither returned requests for comment from The Post on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the house has a crowd of local advocates on its side, including Harlem historian and preservationist Michael Henry Adams.<\/p>\n

\u201cDennis Harris, who built the house, was an abolitionist of the caliber of John Brown. It\u2019s unlikely that if he used his other properties that he didn\u2019t use this one,\u201d Adams told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince it\u2019s the only building that has any association with him, that makes it worthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Historian Joseph Amodio, who prepared a 36-page report<\/a> that was submitted to the city Landmarks Commission, detailed the home\u2019s significance.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth men were ardent abolitionists,\u201d the report says of Harris, who lived there in 1852-3, and Harris\u2019s friend, Judge John Newhouse, whose descendants occupied the home for the next half-century.<\/p>\n

\"Historian
Historian Joseph Amodio submitted a 36-page report on the importance of the home to the city Landmarks Commission.<\/figcaption>
Berenice Abbott\/NYPL; Robert Miller<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Harris, a Methodist minister and sugar refinery magnate, used his Vestry Street and West 158th Street pulpits to preach abolition and his shipping wharfs along the Hudson to help bounty-hunted southern slaves steamboat to northern freedom, writes Amodio, citing Pulitzer Prize-winning slavery authority Eric Foner in his report.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt serves as a potent reminder of a more rural phase of this neighborhood as the United States itself was on the brink of seismic change \u2014 and a link to the brave men and women who brought forth that change with passion, innovation and hope,\u201d Amodio wrote.<\/p>\n

The local community board and the Upper Riverside Residents Alliance, which has set up a website arguing for preservation<\/a>, have lobbied City Hall and enlisted historians to document the structure\u2019s significance.<\/p>\n

\"The
The rear of 857 Riverside Drive in Manhattan, which was built by abolitionist Dennis Harris.<\/figcaption>
Robert Miller<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Brewer, along with State Sen. Robert Jackson, Assemblyman Al Taylor and Council Member Mark Levine, say they will continue to push the city and Landmarks Commission to preserve the property.<\/p>\n

But in December, the commission rejected their arguments flat out, essentially arguing that the building looks nothing like it did 170 years ago, when Harris lived there. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a Catch-22 \u2014 because it no longer has its original appearance, the building can\u2019t be protected and restored to its original appearance.<\/p>\n

\u201cStaff review of 857 Riverside Drive determined that it does not appear to retain the integrity necessary for consideration as an individual landmark due to the extensive modifications that have been made to the house and its architectural details,\u201d commission chair Sarah Carroll wrote on Dec. 28 to Brewer and the other local pols fighting for preservation. <\/p>\n

\"Stained
Stained glass rectangular windows over the windows from the floor to ceiling.<\/figcaption>
Robert Miller<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe alterations include the removal of the octagonal cupola and wrap-around porch along with their decorative trim,\u201d replacement of windows and doors and removal of their enframements, and the addition of Permastone veneer,\u201d Carroll noted in her letter.<\/p>\n

Still, Gracie Mansion was restored despite decades of prior alterations, Adams noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is our history here in upper Manhattan. I feel certain if this house were in Greenwich Village it would have been designated a long time ago,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll tell you the basic problem with the mayor: He\u2019s a reverse snob,\u201d Adams said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe thinks anybody black or white who is concerned about old buildings is silly. He thinks affordable housing is the only thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Michael
Michael Henry Adams argues that the home is \u201cworthy\u201d because of its ties to Dennis Harris.<\/figcaption>
Robert Miller<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWell, creating luxury housing for rich white people and almost no\u00a0affordable housing doesn\u2019t cut it,\u201d Adams added. \u201cThat is a dead way of thinking, and [I] hope we\u2019re going to have an end to the growing inequality in our city. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll he has done is make New York the\u00a0luxury condo\u00a0capital of the world,\u201d he said.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#NYC neighborhood fights to save Underground Railroad site” Clad in fake stoneface and mostly shorn of its old clapboard and ornament, the dingy, two story house at Riverside Drive and 159th Street isn\u2019t much to look at. But a group of neighbors, preservationists, historians and local politicians believe it was once a stop on New…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":161770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/01\/857-house-split.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[90518,90603,76148,5378,90604,4952,73472],"class_list":["post-161769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-1-23-21","tag-gale-brewer","tag-historic-buildings","tag-history","tag-landmarks-preservation-commission","tag-manhattan","tag-washington-heights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}