Construction permits pulled at Underground Railroad site

Chelsea Now reports today on the Lamartine Gibbons Home in "Construction permits pulled at Underground Railroad site":

The efforts of a group of preservationists to halt construction work at a Chelsea rowhouse that was a stop on the Underground Railroad recently led the city to revoke the developer’s permits to build a penthouse addition....

Last week, the city Department of Buildings revoked the developer’s construction permit “related to the job to vertically and horizontally enlarge the building,” said DOB spokesperson Carly Sullivan. The plan includes the addition of a fifth floor and penthouse to the 1847 building, with much of the construction already completed despite the fact that it had already been deemed illegal.

In May, the DOB levied a stop-work order on the property, even though ongoing construction work had inexplicably been allowed to continue after the developer’s plans failed a DOB audit in 2008.

For the full article, click here.

According to defenders of the building history, "Although the building permit has been revoked, the architect is apparently still fighting and the owner still has wiggle room to amend the permit before the building is landmarked in the fall."

Hopper-Gibbons Safe-House Gets Reprieve

The Underground Railroad Free Press reports on the good news about the Hopper Gibbons home:

In October, a group of neighbors and local historians secured a last-minute reprieve for the only documented Underground Railroad safe-house in Manhattan Borough of New York City. The current owners of Hopper-Gibbons House had sought to substantially modify the building and the City of New York had mistakenly issued a work permit for the changes. The group's efforts got the permit revoked after a city review found that the architectural plans violated building and zoning codes. The home, located at 336 West 29th Street in Manhattan, dates from 1847 and was purchased by Quaker abolitionists Abigail and James Gibbons in 1851. The Gibbons home is part of an elegant two-block oasis of townhouses built as a piece in 1847 and known as Lamaratine Place at the time.

Mobs of the 1863 Draft Riots, which lynched blacks and attacked the homes of abolitionists, assaulted the Gibbons home, threw furniture out the windows and set fire to several rooms. Gibbons daughters Lucy and Julia escaped only by scrambling over rooftops to the neighboring Hebrew Orphans Asylum.

For more info, visit the Underground Railroad Free Press.

For a video of Hopper-Gibbons and Fern Luskin, please click here.