A $4 million restoration completed two months ahead of schedule in Crown Heights
Restoring a Monument to Black Self-Determination
On February 27, 2026, Mayor Zohran Mamdani stood in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, to announce the completion of a $4 million restoration of the Hunterfly Road Houses at the Weeksville Heritage Center, the last surviving physical structures of one of the largest free Black communities in pre-Civil War America. The restoration, which began in fall 2024, was completed two months ahead of schedule. The announcement was made during Black History Month, a timing the administration described as intentional.
What Weeksville Was
Weeksville was founded in 1848 by James Weeks, a formerly enslaved man from Virginia who purchased land in what is now Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant with a group of free Black men. By the 1850s, the community had grown to more than 500 residents. It served as a sanctuary during periods of anti-Black violence, including the 1863 Draft Riots in Manhattan, when Irish immigrant workers turned on the city’s Black residents in one of the deadliest civil disturbances in American history. The community also operated its own school, church, and hospital, and published one of the first Black-owned newspapers in the United States. In 1968, local preservationists rediscovered the surviving houses, which had nearly been lost to urban renewal. The Hunterfly Road Houses were designated a New York City Landmark in 1970 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. They are the only African American historic site in the Northeast located on its original site.
What the Restoration Accomplished
The $4 million project restored the exteriors of four wood-frame homes, including facades, siding, windows, doors, and front-entry porches. The work also installed a climate-controlled storage room in the cellar of one home to preserve historical artifacts, upgraded plumbing and exterior lighting, installed a new fire alarm system with smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and added a CCTV monitoring system. Funding came from the Mayor’s Office, the Brooklyn Borough President’s office, and the New York City Council. Assemblymember Latrice Walker’s office directed $2 million in capital funds to the project, and Governor Kathy Hochul announced an additional $1 million state investment.
Mamdani’s Statement
Mayor Mamdani framed the restoration explicitly as an act of historical justice and community affirmation. He said Weeksville tells the story of Black New Yorkers who built freedom for themselves in a country that tried to deny them it, calling it a sanctuary that offered safety, dignity, and opportunity in the face of economic injustice and systemic racism. He also acknowledged that Weeksville nearly disappeared through urban renewal, a process that destroyed Black neighborhoods across the country in the mid-20th century.
Weeksville Today
The Weeksville Heritage Center today operates as a vibrant community institution, hosting yoga classes, arts and crafts, film screenings, exhibitions, and intergenerational events. Dr. Raymond Codrington, President and CEO of Weeksville Heritage Center, called the restoration a major milestone for Brooklyn’s cultural landscape. As Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant continue to face gentrification and displacement pressures, the preservation of the Hunterfly Road Houses represents what Chief Equity Officer Afua Atta-Mensah called a bastion of community memory. The Weeksville Heritage Center is open to the public and hosts educational programs for schools and community groups. The National Park Service’s African American Heritage program provides context on the broader effort to document and preserve sites of Black history across the United States.
