By Phoebe Neidl
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

GRAVESEND — One of the last remaining Dutch farmhouses of Brooklyn, “Hubbard House� in Gravesend, will be coming before the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) on Tuesday, June 24.

The owner, John Antonides, has been trying to get his home designated as a NYC landmark for the past 10 years, an effort documented in a November 2007 feature in the Eagle. Click here.

Antonides resides in one of the 13 remaining Dutch farmhouses in Brooklyn. They are an endangered species — in 1950, there were as many as 70 still standing. Four of the remaining 13 are not landmarked, leaving them vulnerable for demolition. In 2003, the Van Pelt-Woolsey House in Flatlands was demolished and replaced with condos. It dated back to 1791.

An LPC hearing on Hubbard House was held in 1997, but the commission determined that “further study� was required. A spokesperson said in November that the review had been taking so long because it was originally believed to be an 18th-century house, but further research indicated it was an early 19th-century house, so commissioners were “looking at it through a different lens.�

Hubbard House was built between 1830 and 1835, and is listed on the national and state registers of historic places. Antonides received a $50,000 grant and a low-interest loan from the non-profit New York Landmarks Conservancy to help with a restoration in 2000, and the house was also featured in Christopher Gray’s 2001 Streetscapes series in the New York Times.

Below is an excerpt from a summary of Hubbard House put together by the LPC for the upcoming hearing:

“A late example of Dutch-American design, it presents an interesting blending of traditional Dutch forms and structure with 19th-century construction innovations including sawn timbers and cut nails, testifying to the strength and persistence of Dutch culture in the rural areas surrounding New York City in the early 19th century. It retains an exceptional amount of original fabric including original siding and windows. It is one of the few Dutch-American houses in New York City retaining its original orientation on its original site with sufficient surrounding property to give some sense of its original setting. Moreover, it has the further distinction of being the smallest and simplest of the surviving Dutch-American houses in the borough.�

Tuesday’s hearing on landmarking Hubbard House is expected to begin at 4:30 p.m. at LPC offices, 1 Centre St., ninth floor, in Manhattan.

Readers can email letters of support to comments@lpc.nyc.gov. All letters should be addressed to Robert B. Tierney, chair of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.

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