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Community Corner

Gowanus Recognized for Historical Signficance

The Historic Districts Council includes Gowanus on list of six historically significant neighborhoods.

The charms of Gowanus may elude the casual observer. 

It is easy to dismiss the neighborhood as only an undifferentiated collection of low-slung warehouses or discount it for that famous aroma rising up from its namesake canal.

Yet a fine haul of architectural treasure lies within its boundaries, and the Historic Districts Council wants to keep it there.

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On Wednesday, the preservation advocacy group released a list of "Six to Celebrate," a roster of New York City neighborhoods slated for extra preservation attention over the next year. And right there, next to the ornate brick row-houses of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Jackson Heights' garden homes, the organization listed our humble old Gowanus.

The HDC selected its six neighborhoods after requesting nominations from the hundreds of community groups that it works with. Criteria for selection combined architectural and historical merit, threat to the neighborhood, and active involvement of local advocates.

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Over the next year, the HDC will work with local organizations in the neighborhoods to build awareness of their historical resources and develop strategies for preservation and development.

Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Housing Districts Council, admits that his staff and budget are small, but said they can offer valuable strategic advice, direct advocacy, educational programming, and historical expertise.

"Our goal is to help local groups guide the inevitable development and change into a positive, constructive direction that respects the history of the neighborhood," said Bankoff. 

The architecture of Gowanus is intimately bound to Brooklyn's industrial development. As a vital link between the Brooklyn interior and the Red Hook seaport, the canal created a corridor of industry in the 19th century.

The architectural tributes to this history include the brick Romanesque Revival Brooklyn Rapid Transit Power House on Third Avenue, built in 1902. They also include more modest, though equally iconic, structures like the 1949 Kentile Floors building, whose neon sign greets F and G train riders as the subways rise above ground at Smith and Ninth streets.

While most of the companies that first constructed these buildings are long gone, industrial tenants, from clothing manufacturers and cement factories to stained glass artisans, still dominate the area.

The first threat to Gowanus came from the heavy industry that defined its historical character, as pollutants like lead and arsenic built up in its waters and along its banks. When local activists gradually got the area cleaner, the neighborhood caught the eye of commercial developers. Battles over rezoning plans erupted as projects like the and the Toll Brothers residential complexes took hold. These plans ground to a halt last year when the area was declared a Federal Superfund site.

Linda Mariano, archivist and founder of Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus, put in the application for Gowanus to be considered on the HDC's list.

She recounts with sorrow the fate of the Blades Foreman Lumber Company building, a 1918 poured-concrete structure that the Army Corps of Engineers had nominated as a historic site.

In December 2007, the building was torn down in the middle of the night to make way for a large-scale residential project planned by Toll Brothers.

"They demolished the building and they destroyed a landmark," she said. "Then because of the Superfund designation, they pulled out and abandoned that project, and so we're left with a missing link."

Now that circumstances have at least temporarily abated the development frenzy, Bankoff said, the neighborhood can think more carefully about how it wants to evolve.

"With the designation of the area as a Superfund, we thought this was a good moment to step back and examine it, now that we don't have to worry about crazy, speculative development coming along and ruining the place," he said.

This disruption in development has not pleased everyone, of course.

Carroll Gardens community activist Buddy Scotto, who worked for decades to have the Gowanus cleaned up, was not happy about the Superfund designation and its impact on the residential development and affordable housing he had advocated for the area.

He doesn't seem too impressed by the "Six to Celebrate" award either.

"I'm all for landmark designation—I fought like hell for it in the late 60s and 70s," he said. "But to tell you the truth, I don't see a hell of a lot down there that's suitable for landmark preservation. Most of them are run-down, underutilized and in some cases absolutely dilapidated multi-story buildings that are totally inefficient for manufacturing."

But David Krieger, managing director of the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation (an organization founded by Scotto in 1978), was excited that Gowanus found a place on the HDC's list.

"It's the kind of area that usually gets razed and bulldozed without recognition of what had been there," he said.  "I think what happens is because the history is a little less visible, less glamorous, less connected to the manifestations of wealth and culture and more about a working-class experience, it's easy to pretend it wasn't there."

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