Walt Whitman's Brooklyn Home Should Be Landmarked, Group Says

CLINTON HILL, NY — A coalition of writers and preservationists has been formed to ask the city to reverse its decision not to landmark the Clinton Hill home Walt Whitman lived in when he published one of his most famous works.

The Walt Whitman Initiative was launched last week and is considering legal action to landmark the 99 Ryerson St. home after the city deemed earlier this month that the spot wasn't historically significant enough to warrant protection.

"The site’s significance in American — and world — cultural history makes it too important not to landmark," said Brad Vogel, a Brooklyn poet who helped found the coalition. "Architecturally pristine buildings are not the only landmarks that mean a great deal to New Yorkers."

Whitman lived in Brooklyn for 28 years, bouncing around between different jobs and homes. But he lived at 99 Ryerson St. when he first published one of his most influential works, "Leaves of Grass," in 1855, according to the Poetry Foundation.

While the home has been modified throughout the years, it's the only property in the borough still standing that the famed poet lived in. Vogel called on the Landmarks Preservation Committee to look at the property in October, but the agency decided earlier this month that it didn't warrant consideration because Whitman only briefly lived there.

"It was only briefly associated with Walt Whitman, and the house does not retain the historic appearance or fabric present when the Whitman family lived there," said Zodet Negron, spokeswoman for the LPC, in a statement.

Despite Whitman's brief time in the home, the coalition called the decision "absurd"

"Whitman had deep roots in New York, especially Brooklyn, and to not preserve his only remaining NYC home is absurd — history best comes to life when physically encountered," said Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council, in a statement.

The group has also garnered support from the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project — because Whitman was an early literary voice for the LGBTQ community — local businesses and the United State's former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky.

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