Inwood Homeless Shelter Files Permit To Build On African Burial Ground

INWOOD, NY — An Inwood homeless shelter proposed for a former enslaved African burial ground and Native American ritual site became more likely this week when building permits were filed to the city, records show.

Bowery Residents' Committee, a nonprofit, filed plans to construct a four-story shelter at 3972 Tenth Ave., off West 212th Street on Wednesday, Department of Buildings records show.

The proposed building would be 54-feet tall, with about 30,000 square feet for community facility space, according to permits.

Designs will come from Edelman Sultan Knox Wood Architects, a New York City-based firm that focuses on essential housing, schools and healthcare facilities, according to the permits and the company's portfolio.

The permits come years after the Bowery Residents' Committee, which provides housing services to vulnerable New Yorkers, began the process of purchasing the plot of land at 10th Avenue and 212th Street with plans to develop the shelter.

The site is currently an auto parts lot, though, and the nonprofit said it had no knowledge of its historical and cultural significance

After Upper Manhattan community stakeholders informed the group of the history of the address, the Bowery Residents' Committee put a pause on the purchase and filed an extension to allow more time for education and consideration on if it will go through with development plans.

Part of this effort was organizing three co-sponsored listening sessions with the Manhattan Borough President's Office and the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum to hear more from the community about the subject.

"In listening to the community, Bowery Residents' Committee now believes there is a unique opportunity to both move forward with the building of a shelter in keeping with the city's needs and BRC's mission, and also reclaim the site's significance, respect and dignity for Indigenous and African people and their descendants," Bowery Residents' Committee wrote in a description for a public meeting that took place after the listening sessions.

Marking the former site of the cemetery for enslaved Africans in Inwood has been a longtime priority for Community Board 12 and was one of the conditions on former Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer's response to the Inwood Rezoning plan.

The conversation during the listening sessions centered around what the Upper Manhattan community would like to see in the space, and how the Bowery Residents' Committee could incorporate a tribute within its shelter development if it was built.

During the latter part of 2021, the Advisory Group for the Inwood Sacred Site (AGISS) was also formed to provide recommendations to the Bowery Residents' Committee regarding how to "best develop the site in a way that appropriately honors the African and Indigenous peoples who once lived and honored the land."

The Advisory Group for the Inwood Sacred Site is compromised of African and Indigenous peoples, Inwood's community residents and leaders, historians, advocates, BRC staff — and is chaired by Meredith Horsford, the Executive Director of the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum.

You can learn more about the Inwood cemetery for enslaved Africans at 10th Avenue and 212th Street in a video from Upper Manhattan historian Cole Thompson.

Read More:

• Shelter On Inwood African Burial Ground: Experts Discuss History
• Homeless Shelter Plan For Inwood African Burial Ground Advances
• Homeless Shelter Considered For Inwood African Burial Ground