Petitioners hope to revamp Erasmus Academy Building
A petition to save the over two-centuries-old Erasmus Academy Building in Flatbush has surfaced online and brought back a debate that started almost nine years ago – a plea to the city to save the dilapidated city landmark from demolition by neglect and turn it into a useful community institution.
Through a Change.org petition, already flooded with over 1,300 signatures (1,500 being the goal), supporters of the Erasmus Academy Building — nestled inside the courtyard of the Erasmus Hall Educational Campus on Flatbush Avenue — penned a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio, asking for his help to “save one of the City’s oldest landmarks.
“The Academy Building once housed classrooms, administrative offices, a library and a museum,” the letter reads. “Abandoned since 2000, the wooden building has been deteriorating steadily as a result of an unusual city agency dilemma: although the Academy Building is under the auspices of the city’s Department of Education (DOE), the DOE has maintained that it cannot use any of its resources for stabilizing and/or renovating the building since it cannot be used as classroom space.”