Another Historic Building Demolished In Bed-Stuy

BED-STUY, NY — The demolition of yet another historic Bed-Stuy structure left onlookers frustrated with the "brutal" process and loss of local history, locals said.

The former site of the St. Lucy-St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church — built on Willoughby Avenue and Taaffe Place in 1856 — came crashing down Monday, some months after city officials OK'ed the full demolition.

The teardown, first reported by Brownstoner, left locals shocked and upset, according to Lauren Cawdrey, owner of Willoughby General.

It's a case of deja vu for many neighbors who fought hard to save the Jacob Dangler mansion at 441 Willoughby before it was demolished in 2022.

"Another one bites the dust — literally," Cawdrey said.

Cawdrey watched part of the demolition Monday and was troubled by the environmental impact and brutality of historic building demolitions — something she's thought before watching buildings go down.

Local history in the form of stained glass windows and decades-old architecture is "bit-by-bit getting bulldozed and paved over" in Bed-Stuy, and the only recourse seems to be a challenging organizing effort on the part of locals, Cawdrey said.

Molly Salas, a Bed-Stuy resident, agreed historic demolitions should be handled with more dignity — such wreckage does a "disservice to what came before it," Salas said.

And many people agreed on social media. Thousands took to Instagram to express their frustration about the tear-down.

"The craftsmanship that went into this building no longer exists; the beams, glass, wood work… all just being destroyed to go into a trash heap, such a crime," one person commented on a video posted by Brownstoner.

For Salas, the most recent demolition is a further indication of how hard community preservation can be with opaque systems.

"It's really harrowing to see some of these buildings come down," Salas said.

See Also:

• Part Of A 135-Year-Old Bed-Stuy Factory Will Become 5-Story Condo
• Locals Object To Proposed Bed-Stuy Building In Historic District

Watermark Capital Group's Wolfe Landau bought the property at 924 Kent Avenue, or 295 Willoughby Avenue in July, 2023 for $12.25 million — seven months after appraisers estimated the property was worth about $10.5 million, property records show.

Little remained known about the developers' plans for the new property — but it is not Watermark's first stab at a historical property. Watermark also redeveloped a 1919 school building in Greenpoint into a luxury apartment complex, according to its website.

In Downtown Brooklyn, the developer is responsible for the Bridge Building — a 70,000-square-foot apartment complex on a former community center near the Manhattan Bridge.

In 2022, the Diocese of Brooklyn announced it would sell the Church of St. Lucy-St. Patrick on account of financial troubles and declining patronage.

"After careful consideration of the pastoral and financial needs, a determination was reached that the cost of maintaining the Church of St. Lucy – St. Patrick as an additional worship site was prohibitive to both the Parish of Mary of Nazareth as well as to the Diocese of Brooklyn, especially in light of the significant financial hardship being experienced by both entities," Rev. Robert J Brennen, Bishop of Brooklyn, wrote in a statement in 2022.