Fight To Landmark Bed-Stuy Mansion Gets CB Support Ahead Of Hearing

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — A neighborhood push to save a beloved Bed-Stuy mansion from the wrecking ball has received a boost from the local community board — just in time for its hearing with the city's landmarks commission.

Community Board 3 voted last week to support landmarking the 441 Willoughby Ave. property, which residents have been scrambling to save since learning of a developers plan to replace the 120-year-old home with condos.

The near-unanimous vote comes as the mansion, known as the Jacob Dangler house, heads to a hearing with the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission on July 12.

"An individual landmark for 441 Willoughby avenue will prevent demolition, allow opportunities to restore the building and preserve it for ongoing community use," the board wrote in its resolution. "Brooklyn Community Board 3 stands with the residents and preservationists."

The July 12 meeting will be the first time neighbors will plead their case publicly to the landmarks board, who decided in a surprise vote last month to add the mansion to their calendar.

Neighbors first asked the board to landmark the building in the hopes to protect it from demolition with a 1,300-signature petition earlier this year. Developers in the process of buying the property have inching toward a demolition permit for the Jacob Dangler house since at least December.

Landmarks board staff said they had already been researching the 441 Willoughby Ave. site, but decided to ramp up its consideration given the ticking clock of a demolition permit.

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.

Before the landmarks board vote, 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.

Find out more about the upcoming LPC hearing here.