Talk Gives Spirited Preservation Overview
By Harold Egeln
Brooklyn Eagle
BAY RIDGE — The inaugural presentation by the new Preservation Committee of the Bay Ridge Community Council on Tuesday evening became a stage for taking sides on the impending demolition of Bay Ridge United Methodist Church, popularly called “the Green Church.”
The church, built in 1899 at Ovington and Fourth avenues, was briefly mentioned by Victoria Hofmo, chair of the Preservation Committee during her illustrated presentation on “Saving Bay Ridge History.” Later, the controversy over the church erupted from the audience. The church is one of 100-plus members of the Council, founded in 1951.
“This is the final hour at the green church. The Bay Ridge Community Council has yet to get the parties together. Can we set up a meeting?” asked an audience member after Hofmo’s slideshow talk. “You mean, can we reach out?” said Bob Cassara, BRCC president.
“We’ve been having meetings for four or five years,” replied church member Marjorie Sullivan of the church’s board of trustees, standing up to answer for the church. “The building is falling down. It’s crumbling. The building is not safe.” In response to Sullivan, her questioner cited the example of the Huguenot Church in Staten Island that had fallen into disrepair, but was saved and restored.
“The building is not falling apart. We need proof. This is a community outrage!” said a resident of 72nd Street, on the south side of the block where the church property is located.
Dorcas Kimball, a resident who lives next to the church-owned house on Ovington Avenue where Pastor Robert Emerick lives, stood up, and said that she’s fearful of any damage to her property if the house is demolished. The developer to whom the 30,730-plus square-foot property is being sold plans to build 50 units of condos. A new, much smaller church building is being planned.
Also coming down is a three-story brown-brick building now being used for a HeartShare Human Services school, and the pastor’s house on Ovington Avenue, from which he is reportedly already preparing to move
Preservation and Development: What Can Be Saved
In introducing Hofmo, Cassara talked about the council’s role in opposing the uprooting of a slice of neighborhood residential blocks in the early 1960s for the construction of the expressway connected to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. He also mentioned its role in initiating the Bay Ridge Special Zoning District 30 years ago to protect the character of the community. He also referred to the destruction in the mid-1960s of the old Penn Station, built in 1910, reading from a
NY Times editorial in 1963 lamenting its demolition.
“I am certainly no authority on preservation, but I do know what I like and what I see,” he said. “While our neighborhood does not contain a Roman Coliseum, or a Parthenon, if you are willing to make the effort to identify and protect our heritage and have a little patience, over time preservation will become a valuable community asset.”
In her detailed overview of preservation in Bay Ridge of historic places and sites - which she said sprang from her “journey and perceptions” - Hofmo zeroed in on the issue of the tensions between development and preservation. Hofmo, founder of the Bay Ridge Conservancy, showed what has been lost and saved.
Among places saved after a three-year fight was the Bennett House in the 90s, although an area twice the size was lost. Lost recently were three Victorian houses on 73rd Street, and a three-story house on 80th Street which even caught the interest of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Rosemarie O’Keefe, a Bay Ridge civic leader and a city commissioner in Mayor Giuliani’s administration, tried to purchase the property but was unable to do so, Hofmo noted.
For religious institution “success stories,” Hofmo cited Bethlehem Lutheran Church (her church) and Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Bay Ridge, and New Utrecht Reformed Church, dating back to the late 17th century, in Bensonhurst, and how they were helped.
“Laws are in favor of development,” Hofmo said, noting provisions for “community facilities” that permit medical offices and the use of variances to break zoning rules. “The city sends a mixed message, saying we need more housing, but housing can remain vacant. And the American Institute of Architects are trying to change contextual zoning.”
Tools for preservation, she said, include the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, which land-marked the fanciful “gingerbread/Jones house” and its property on Narrows Avenue near Fort Hamilton H.S. There are also the State and National Register of Historic Places, the Citizens Emergency Council to Preserve Preservation, the city Board of Standards and Appeals.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2008
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