Four historic districts landmarked in Sunset Park

The Sunset Park Landmarks Committee, an activist association of neighborhood preservationists, celebrated a major victory on June 18 when the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) responded to their six years of organized advocacy by voting unanimously to protect four historic residential sections of Sunset Park.

The Sunset Park North, Sunset Park South, Central Sunset Park, and Sunset Park 50th Street historic districts join six preexisting individual landmarks (and one interior landmark) in the neighborhood. Collectively, the districts comprise more than 500 buildings, stretching from 44th Street to 59th Street between Fourth and Seventh avenues. Owners now have to earn LPC approval for exterior renovations to their properties.

Built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Sunset Park’s rowhouses historically belonged to working-class and middle-class immigrant families. The neighborhood contains many examples of Romanesque and Renaissance Revival architecture. Councilman Carlos Menchaca, assemblyman Félix Ortiz, and congresswoman Nydia Velázquez all supported the grassroots landmarking push.

A similar effort by the Gowanus Landmarking Coalition also appears to have begun to make progress, as the LPC agreed on June 25 to calendar five properties in Gowanus for landmarking consideration in advance of the neighborhood’s upcoming rezoning. These are the Gowanus Flushing Tunnel Pumping Station and Gate House, the American Can Factory, the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Powerhouse, the Norge Sailmakers Corporation Building, and the ASPCA Memorial Building.

The LPC – created in 1965 by Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. to safeguard sites of architectural, historical, and cultural significance – kept busy last month, additionally approving Bay Ridge’s first landmarked historic district. Created on June 25, the Doctors’ Row Historic District protects 54 homes (circa 1906 to 1913) on Bay Ridge Parkway.