A Row of Downtown Brookyn's Oldest Townhouses May Be Doomed

"For the past 35 years, a row of four vacant 19th-century townhouses on Duffield Street in Downtown Brooklyn has drawn curious looks from passerby. It's rare to see empty houses, and a row of them at that, sitting vacant in a part of town defined by construction cranes and tall towers. They seem like the kind of thing that must have always been there,"

"but in fact the houses were relocated from Johnson Street, three blocks away, to 182-188 Duffield in 1990, after the Landmarks Preservation Commission selected them to be saved as representatives of the historic middle-class enclave being razed to build the MetroTech campus. In exchange for the 16 acres that developer Forest City Ratner needed for the campus and office park, it agreed to move, preserve, and use the historic houses for "institutional, commercial, or residential purposes in keeping with their architectural significance.""

"Instead, they've largely gone to seed. The dilapidated wooden trim and sagging porticos were spruced up a few years ago after preservationists complained to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, but the upstairs windows reveal glimpses of peeling paint, crumbling plaster, and collapsing ceilings inside. Neither Forest City Ratner nor Brookfield Asset Management, which took over MetroTech from Forest City in 2018, ever found a use for the houses, and Brookfield offloaded the houses a couple years ago."

Four 19th-century townhouses were moved in 1990 to 182-188 Duffield as preserved representatives of a middle-class enclave displaced for the MetroTech campus. Forest City Ratner agreed to move, preserve, and reuse the houses as institutional, commercial, or residential space in exchange for 16 acres for the campus and office park. The houses fell into disuse and deteriorated despite exterior repairs prompted by preservationist complaints. Neither Forest City Ratner nor Brookfield Asset Management found a use, and Brookfield sold them. New developer Watermark Capital plans to open the rear of the houses and graft them onto a 99-unit mixed-use tower, effectively turning them into a decorative façade.

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