Earlier this week, a court ordered the immediate sale of Stuyvesant Mansion, a stunning three-story standalone building at the corner of Stuyvesant Avenue and Decatur. And now, residents and activists in Stuyvesant Heights are scrambling to save the local landmark from getting bought up by developers.
According to Black Owned Brooklyn, the mansion was once the home of pioneering OB-GYN Dr. Josephine English, who was the first black woman to establish her own private practice in New York (reportedly delivering over 6,000 babies in her career, including all six daughters of Malcolm X and Betty Shabbaz). Outside of her work in medicine, English was known for her philanthropy, activism, organizing, and passion for the arts, establishing care facilities for women, children, and the elderly all over the city, and rallied support to turn an old church on Greene Avenue in Fort Greene into the Paul Robeson Theater (which is now landmarked as well). Upon her death in 2011, English left the home to her children, but stipulated that a portion of the building was to be used as a community center for the neighborhood. It remains a vital hub for local organizers—several arts, activism, and education groups currently gather there.
The neighborhood is hoping to preserve the building by transferring the property to the BLAC Land Trust, a community land trust established to protect structures, buildings, and properties of historic significance in Black communities across the borough. The BLAC Land Trust has partnered with Gumbo Workshop, Freebrook Academy, and GrowHouse (all of which use Stuyvesant Mansion as a community space) to raise money for a legal team to push back against the court order, along with repairs to the building.
Sign a petition for the mansion’s transference to the community land trust and donate now to help locals fund a legal defence for its preservation.
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