Beloved Bed-Stuy Mansion Could Be Saved From Demo With Landmarks Vote

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — A beloved Bed-Stuy mansion neighbors have been scrambling to save from demolition got a surprise reprieve this week from the city's landmarks board.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously on Tuesday to add 441 Willoughby Ave. to its calendar, a move that will at the very least postpone developers' plans to replace the mansion with condos as the board considers designating it a city landmark.

The vote — added to the agenda at the end of a four-hour meeting — comes months after neighbors first asked the board to landmark the building with a 1,300-signature petition. Developers in the process of buying the property have inching toward a demolition permit for the 120-year-old home for months.

"Given ... the concern that a [Department of Buildings] permit may be imminent, we would like to recommend that we vote to calendar this item to give us more time to consider the significance," Landmarks Chair Sarah Carroll told the board Tuesday.

Officially adding the property to the board's calendar will bar the DOB from acting on a demolition permit for 40 days while the landmarks board holds a hearing about the property, according to the board and reports.

The delay could last longer given that the application for demolition had not been completed as of Thursday, according to the DOB.

"At this time the application associated with the demolition permit for 441 Willoughby Avenue is not deemed complete," a spokesperson said when asked about the status of the permit and the LPC vote. "The Department of Buildings has up to 40 days to review complete applications."

Developer Tomer Erlich did not return a request for comment from Patch about his plans.

For the landmarks board, Carroll said a last-minute letter of support from Councilmember Chi Ossé received by the board earlier that day had been the final straw in adding it to their agenda for official consideration.

The board's staff had been researching the 441 Willoughby Ave. site, known as The Jacob Dangler house, before its potential demolition popped up earlier this year, Carroll said. The property has been listed as a "site of interest" for the board as far back as 1992, according to officials.

The French Gothic-style mansion was first built in 1902 for Dangler, a prominent merchant who ran a meat-packing business on Myrtle Avenue. It has more recently been used by the Oriental Grand Chapter of the Eastern Star, a masonic organization that bought the property in 1941, officials said.

"In addition to its historical significance representing the turn-of-the-century residential development of Bedford-Stuyvesant, [the building] also has cultural significance as the longtime home of the masonic organization made up almost exclusively of African-American women," Landmarks Executive Director Lisa Kersavage said Tuesday.

News of the landmarks board vote came as a pleasant surprise to neighbors who had nearly given up on saving the entire mansion.

Members of the Willoughby Nostrand Marcy Block Association had started setting their sights instead on saving certain parts of the property, including beloved plants the developer let them dig up last week.

"I really thought it was a done deal," block association member Lauren Cawdrey told Patch on Wednesday. "[The vote] is very exciting. We're cautiously optimistic."

Both LPC and DOB did not immediately respond to questions from Patch about the designation process and demolition permit status on Wednesday.

The landmarks board's next meeting is scheduled for June 14.