Restoration work is complete on Hunterfly Road Houses at the Weeksville Heritage Center in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The $4 million city-funded project was led by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York City Department of Design and Construction, and began in the fall of 2024. The 19th-century wood-frame houses are the last remaining structures of Weeksville, one of the nation’s largest free Black communities before the Civil War.
The 18-month project focused on restoring the exterior of the four homes, including façades, siding, windows, doors, and front-entry porches. Additional upgrades included new plumbing, exterior lighting, a modernized fire alarm system with smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and a CCTV monitoring system. A climate-controlled storage room was also installed in the cellar of one of the houses to better preserve historical artifacts. Funding was provided by the Mayor’s Office, the Brooklyn Borough President, and the New York City Council.
Photograph of one of the Hunterfly Road Houses, via NYC.
Weeksville was founded in 1848 by James Weeks, a formerly enslaved man who purchased land in what is now Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant. By the 1850s, the community had grown to more than 500 residents and served as a refuge for Black New Yorkers, including during the 1863 Draft Riots in Manhattan. The houses were rediscovered in 1968 after nearly being lost to urban renewal, designated a New York City Landmark in 1970, and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. Today, the center operates as Brooklyn’s largest African American cultural institution, hosting exhibitions, educational programming, and community events.
Transit nearby the Hunterfly Road Houses includes the Kingston–Utica Avenues station, served by the 3 and 4 trains, and the Utica Avenue station, served by the A and C trains.
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Very cool. I had no idea this existed.
The Weeksville Heritage Center is a gem, a great asset in Brooklyn’s list of cultural institutions. The tours of the houses that are given often, if not daily, are something that every New Yorker would enjoy seeing. They bring the 19th Century to life. I’ve been there several times.