The fight to reclaim and save the landmarked Paul Robeson Theater in Fort Greene and the Stuyvesant Mansion in Stuyvesant Heights is at or near its boiling point.
On April 1, both buildings—previously owned by Dr. Josephine English, the late pioneering Black female obstetrician, who passed away in 2011—were put up for sale by court order, following extensive grassroots campaigning from local residents and community organizers. The listing is for both properties, putting a $5.25 million price tag on the mansion and $3 million on the theater, or a total of $8.25 million for the pair, though they can be bought individually.
But it doesn’t appear anything about the sale will move forward cleanly or quickly. An upcoming court date for a lawsuit claiming a developer had entered into a binding agreement with Barry Shephard, the current owner of the properties and heir to Dr. English’s estate, is poised to muddy up what has already been a protracted and contentious battle for who gets to lay claim to these historic properties. According to The New York Times, Shephard is getting sued by developer Pinestone Greene LLC for allegedly giving them development rights to both properties as early as 2017. A hearing for the case is scheduled for May 21, and any purchases of the properties will have to wait until the matter is resolved by the court.
In the meantime, the BLAC Land Trust, a community land trust established to protect structures, buildings, and properties of historic significance in Black communities, is keeping to its mission and using the expanded window granted by the lawsuit to bring in new donors and potentially give Stuyvesant Mansion, which has been locally dubbed “The People’s Mansion,” a second life. “In a space like that, when you walk in, you are faced with history,” said Monique Scott, the director and founder of the Freebrook Academy, a private school that ran out of the mansion.
So far, BLAC Land Trust has raised $7,765 but shows no signs of pulling the campaign until the work of saving the building from developers is done.
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