Three cheers for Lady Moody’s House!

Landmarks Preservation Commission keeps Gravesend farmhouse on its calendar

February 23, 2016 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle

The Gravesend home known as Lady Moody's house will be considered for city landmarking this year. Eagle photos by Lore Croghan

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Three cheers for Lady Moody’s house!

It passed muster with the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

The LPC decided on Tuesday that the 18th-Century (or maybe older) Gravesend farmhouse built on land that belonged to Lady Deborah Moody will remain on its landmarking calendar — and be prioritized for consideration by the end of this year.

The Colonial house at 27 Gravesend Neck Road has been on the preservation agency’s calendar since 1966.

The LPC made its decision to keep preservationists’ hopes alive about Lady Moody’s house during an epic meeting at its Lower Manhattan headquarters.

During the meeting, commissioners heard recommendations from LPC staffers about how to proceed with Backlog95 — a list of 95 sites citywide that have been in landmarking limbo for up to a half-century.

Joseph Ditta, an author about Gravesend’s history, had been campaigning for landmark protection for Lady Moody’s house, which is up for sale.

The English noblewoman, who was an Anabaptist, came to New Netherland in 1643 and was granted freedom to practice her religion. She was the first woman to establish a colony in North America.

Three Brooklyn churches also pass muster

At the meeting, the LPC also decided that two Brooklyn Catholic churches will remain on its calendar, prioritized for designation in 2016.

They are St. Barbara’s at 138 Bleecker St. in Bushwick and St. Augustine’s Church and Rectory at 49 Sterling Place in Park Slope.

The Bushwick church is a stunning Spanish Mission Revival/Neo-Plateresque-style design, built by a German immigrant congregation in 1907-1910.

The Park Slope church is Gothic Revival-style, built in 1888. It has been on the LPC calendar since 1966.

During a discussion about St. Barbara’s at Tuesday’s meeting, Commissioner Michael Devonshire said the LPC is aware of financial pressures that churches endure — and that “within reason,” the commission will approve “appropriate substitute materials” for renovations if their properties are landmarked.

The third Brooklyn church that will remain on the LPC calendar, prioritized for consideration this year, is housed in the former Williamsburgh Trust Company building at 177 S. Fifth St.

The eye-catching domed Williamsburg property has been the home of Holy Trinity Cathedral-Ukrainian Orthodox Church since the 1960s.

Thumbs-up for a cast-iron Williamsburg building, too

Commissioners also decided to keep 185-195 Broadway in Williamsburg on the calendar for landmarks designation consideration on a prioritized basis.

The Italianate-style property, constructed in 1882, is “one of the finest surviving cast-iron buildings in Brooklyn,” according to a 1990 LPC research staff hearing statement.