Landmarked Harlem Home To Be Demolished After Years Of Decay

HARLEM, NY — A landmarked home on a historic Harlem street that has fallen into severe disrepair is finally being torn down, years after the city unsuccessfully sued its owner to force her to restore it.

The three-story brick rowhouse at 28 West 130th St. was built in 1883, part of the "Astor Row" stretch between Fifth and Lenox avenues. The city designated it as a historic landmark in 1981 along with its 27 neighboring buildings, praised by preservationists for their Victorian-style wooden porches.

But on Friday, the city filed plans to demolish the 138-year-old building, saying its dilapidated state posed an immediate danger to the public.

The Astor Row homes were built starting in 1880 on land owned by John Jacob Astor, quickly becoming one of Harlem's most desirable developments. After a period of decay and abandonment, the homes were restored in the 1990s through a fundraising campaign. Since then, most have been occupied — except for the home at 28 West 130th, which has sat empty ever since its owner, Nina Justiniano, purchased it in 1986.

By 2015, the home's walls and floors had collapsed and its roof was mostly missing. In a rare move, the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission sued Justiniano in 2015, seeking to force her to repair it.

"For almost three years, the Commission has been trying to have Defendant Justiniano make repairs to the Building, but to no avail," the city wrote in its lawsuit. Photos submitted to the court showed the house's crumbling wood interior and boarded-up facade, with a "KEEP OUT" sign affixed to the front door.

"I've been going through hell"

Justiniano, a public schools employee, told the city she had hired a contractor to do stabilization work. But, short on cash, she said she needed to sell her Queens home in order to pay for it.

"I’ve been going through hell," she told DNAinfo in 2015.

After a four-year fight in the courts, a state judge sided with the city in 2019, holding Justiano in contempt for failing to fix up the Harlem home.

Since then, the city has still been unable to force any repairs. As recently as this July, neighbors complained that water was leaking in through the open roof, damaging adjacent buildings. Finally, in June, the Department of Buildings ordered it demolished after an inspector found it was at risk of "imminent collapse."

After that initial order, Justiniano and her contractor came up with an alternate plan to demolish parts of the building while reframing some interior floors and taking other steps to make the building safer, a DOB spokesperson told Patch.

The city approved those plans, but work on them stopped in August, the spokesperson said. By Aug. 23, a second teardown order was issued "in the interest of public safety," and demolition is now underway, according to DOB.

A Landmarks spokesperson told Patch on Monday that the commission had urged Justiniano to sell the property if she could not afford to make repairs.

"[B]ut as of earlier this summer, when the DOB found the building to be unsafe and ordered demolition, she had not sold it despite numerous offers," spokesperson Zodet Negron said.

Justiniano could not be reached for comment on Monday.

Have a Harlem news tip? Contact reporter Nick Garber at nick.garber@patch.com.