The Bushwick United Methodist Church. (Photo: Bushwick United Methodist Church on Facebook).
BY COLE SINANIAN
Take a stroll down Bushwick Avenue, and you’ll find the forces of neighborhood change on full display: On one corner, a glistening condo tower of glass, sheetrock and sharp angles. On another, a picturesque row of brownstones — like the 19th-century Ulmer Rowhouses — or the towering brick steeple of the Bethesda Baptist Church, a striking example of late-romantic architecture built in 1896.
Bushwick, which traces its roots to a 17th-century Dutch settlement, displays a rich architectural heritage. But as the neighborhood gentrifies and historic structures — many of which lack protection under the City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) — face slow decline, some residents fear these buildings could soon be lost.
“I’m concerned about all of our surviving properties,” said Dina Alfano, co-founder of the Bushwick Historic Preservation Association (BHPA). “We’ve just lost so much, and we continue to fight to protect what remains.”
Her concerns are well-justified. On June 19th, the South Bushwick Reformed Church — among the oldest churches in Brooklyn and known locally for its tall white steeple — burned to the ground in a dramatic blaze that left the community in shock. Quickly, rumors began spreading of foul-play, with the Fire Department ultimately confirming to Brownstoner that the fire is under investigation as arson. With the steeple unsalvageable and a portion of the church’s parish hall structurally compromised, the City moved to demolish what remained of it earlier this month, before abruptly halting the scheduled demolition on July 14.
The Parish Hall of the ruined South Bushwick Reformed Church on Friday, July 17. (Photo: Cole Sinanian).
On Friday, July 17, the lot remained walled-off, with a posted Department of Buildings (DOB) sign indicating that demolition would be completed in August. But according to Alfano, the City is giving the church’s pastor, Reverend James Steward, time to assess the damage with his own contractors in the hopes of ultimately restoring the 173-year-old structure.
It’s crucial that the hall remains standing, Alfano said, as it would allow the property to keep its landmark status, preventing it from being sold to developers.
“The good news is that we’ve managed to keep the landmark,” she said. “As long as the parish hall is still there, the property can maintain its landmark status, and we get to hold on to that history.”
But it’s a different story for the neighborhood’s other old buildings. The BHPA has kept a list of historically significant properties on and around Bushwick Avenue that could qualify for landmark status. Some, like the iconic “Mayor’s Row” — an alignment of near-identical, 2.5-story rowhouses built in 1889, where former NYC Mayor John Hylan once lived — the BHPA has designated as in “serious danger” of alteration or redevelopment due to current zoning conditions.
Historic buildings in Brooklyn have been divided or demolished to make way for development in the past. In 2008, a congregation in Bay Ridge decided to demolish its Bay Ridge United Methodist Church to make way for market-rate housing, and use the $9.75 million made from the sale to rebuild the sanctuary. But the new church was never built, and ten years later, the entire lot had been sold to developers.
Also on the BHPA’s high-risk list is the Bushwick United Methodist Church on the corner of Bushwick Avenue and Madison Street. Built in 1887, the church is noted for its unique, octagonal Renaissance Revival tower constructed in red sandstone and gray brick.
There’s also the Bethesda Baptist Church, which sits only blocks away from the South Bushwick Reformed Church’s ruins. Built in 1896 and exemplary of the late Romantic style, the church was recently operated as a vintage store, before the City put it under vacate order in 2023. Last Friday it appeared vacant, the front door bolted and debris strewn throughout the property.
Brooklyn Community Board 4 Chair and Bushwick resident Robert Camacho, who’s lived in the area his entire life, suggested Bushwick’s increasingly lucrative housing market has a role to play in the decline of the neighborhood’s historic buildings. He said both himself and neighbors receive regular calls and emails from real estate companies looking to buy their properties for redevelopment.
“They want to get rid of Bushwick,” Camacho said. “They don’t even need to demolish it.”
Alfano said her organization plans to arrange a meeting with the Landmarks Preservation Commission to discuss getting these historic sites under landmark status.
“Once history’s gone, there’s no getting it back,” she said. “There are plenty of new buildings sprouting up here and there. But once these old buildings that have tales to tell are gone, they’re gone, and there’s no getting them back.”
