One hundred and fifty years ago, escaping slaves found a safe shelter at the home of Quaker abolitionists who lived at 339 West 29^th St. in New York City. The family risked their lives in harboring the slaves. During the Draft Riots that erupted in the city in 1863, the family came under attack for their views and some members escaped by running across the roofs of their home and neighboring homes to safety. A century and a half later, two women are fighting to preserve the 19^th century landmark where a developer has allowed a fifth-floor addition to remain despite the city’s recent order to tear down the penthouse that alters the home and juts above its neighboring landmarked row houses.

The owners of 339 West 29^th St., known as the Hopper-Gibbons House, have been under orders by the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) to remove a noncompliant fifth-floor addition by Dec. 7 and to have nothing above the fourth floor but a stair structure to allow egress by the residents below. Instead, construction at the site apparently is proceeding and the penthouse remains, all while the city DOB has made repeated inspections. The two women who have led this preservation campaign, Fern Luskin and Julie Finch, have documented continued construction. Two visits to the street in the past 12 days by Mindfulwalker.com to check out the situation revealed that, indeed, construction is going on at the row house and no evidence exists that the builder is removing the addition.

Neighborhood citizens, led by Luskin and Finch; preservationists; and city and state officials had been watching to see if the developer of 339 West 29^th St. would honor the city’s order. On Nov. 23, the DOB ordered the developer to remove any noncompliant additions to the house and gave the owner 14 days – until last Tuesday, Dec. 7 – to comply by removing an illegal fifth-floor penthouse.

339 West 29th St., the Hopper-Gibbons House, with fifth-floor addition, on Dec. 7

But the deadline came and passed with no demolition, and the owner’s actions to apparently not follow the city’s order have turned initial jubilation and relief on the part of the preservation activists to shock and anger.

“I don’t even know what to say,” Luskin says of her reaction to the continued construction in the face of the order. “Landmarking can only work if the owner is law-abiding.” Of the women’s resolve, Finch says, “Am I going to let someone who cares nothing about the history do what he wants to do?”

“An Eyewitness”

Since 2007, Luskin, Finch, other local citizens, and a group of supportive elected officials and their staffers have been fighting to restore the historical integrity of this row house. The house at 339 West 29^th St., built in the mid-19^th century as part of a contiguous row of homes, was once the residence of noted Quaker abolitionist Abigail Hopper Gibbons, known as Abby; her husband, James Sloan Gibbons; and their family. The home was a “safe house” on the Underground Railroad, where the family provided passage for runaway slaves on their escape route.

It’s part of a block that has a remarkable history, both as a focal point during the struggles of abolition, the Civil War, and the Draft Riots in New York and as a rare intact set of row houses from the mid-19^th century among the taller towers in this part of Midtown Manhattan. The house was, as one city landmarks official termed it, “an eyewitness to the dramatic events that shook New York City during the Draft Riots.” Citing this history, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission last year accorded landmark status to the 12 row houses from 333-355 West 29^th St., including the Hopper-Gibbons House, as the Lamartine Place Historic District.

Landmark status was a victory, but thus far it hasn’t provided the tangible benefit of protection and restoration sought by Luskin and Finch, who organized an initiative known as the Friends of the Gibbons Underground Railroad Site and Lamartine Place Historic District. Happy at the landmark designation, they also felt encouraged last year when the Department of Buildings issued orders to halt construction, specifying that ongoing work at the time didn’t conform to the owner’s approved plans. Then, due to additional violations, the DOB revoked the owner’s application for further work.

But this wasn’t the end of the neighbors’ battle with the owner. Problems bubbled up anew this autumn when the builder restarted construction on the Hopper-Gibbons house in October, according to Luskin. Finch and Luskin got into gear, notifying the city and the Landmarks Preservation Commission and working with the help of the offices of state Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, state Senator Tom Duane, and New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Many telephone calls and e-mails later, the neighbors and advocates received what they had hoped for: The DOB issued its late-November order that the owner must remove the partially built fifth-floor addition and stipulated that the only structure allowed on the fourth-floor roof would be a stair bulkhead.

First Joy, Then…

“I was jubilant and so was Julie (Finch). We were screaming with joy,” says Luskin, describing their initial reaction to the DOB’s demolition order. However, in the days afterward the two advocates and others saw no evidence that the owner planned to obey the order. In fact, Luskin says she first began noticing the opposite – more construction rather than demolition of the addition – for example, when builders installed additional protective material on the upper story. “I was incensed,” Luskin says. “I ran up to look at it and I couldn’t believe it.”

Close-up view of the fifth floor, 339 West 29th St., on Dec. 7

A recent news report and New York Department of Finance records have listed the property owners as “339 West 29^th St. LLC” and other press reports have identified the owners as Tony and Nick Mamounas. Mindfulwalker.com called the Queens office linked with Tony and Nick Mamounas, but neither was available for comment.

In the days since the deadline last week, the two women have pressed the DOB to enforce its order. In response to complaints, city inspectors have returned to the site three separate times but thus far have found no violations, according to DOB records.

Meanwhile, Luskin says she discovered even more work proceeding on the row house. In a Dec. 12 letter to the DOB, she and Finch implored the city to enforce its order, claiming that the owner – rather than demolish the addition – has instead now installed partitions for new apartments on the fifth floor, put in new dividers for an interior hallway, and installed new piping. They sent photos to the city DOB that they say fully support their contentions that the owner continues doing illegal work. Both have said they fear that the owner is speedily seeking to complete the addition, thereby making it even harder for the city to force the owner to demolish the top floor.

DOB spokeswoman Carly Sullivan last week confirmed the order and said that the DOB would follow up with inspections to determine if there are any violations. She could not be reached for further comment or word on the DOB’s exact plans on Monday afternoon, Dec. 13.

What’s At Stake

To some, a fifth-floor addition might not matter on a four-story row house, in a city of towers and skyscrapers where one story might not seem so much. To those waging this battle on behalf of the Hopper-Gibbons House, it’s a matter of principle in adhering to landmark laws and protection of the house’s actual historic integrity. When the city Landmarks Preservation Commission awarded landmark protection to the row of houses as the Lamartine Place Historic District, the house played a key role in that designation.

Developer William Torrey, in association with Cyrus Mason, a New York University professor, constructed the 12 row houses on West 29^th Street, completing them in 1847. The storied history at 339 came fully to light only in recent years. When the current owner of the house began to build the addition in 2007, Luskin was upset over the alteration of the row house above its neighbors. A professor and an art and architecture historian who lives on the block, she began to dig into the house’s history and discovered documentation that it was a safe house for the Underground Railroad. Finch, a Chelsea resident who cares deeply about the house’s history, then joined in Luskin’s efforts to stop the construction and obtain landmark protections. Abby Hopper Gibbons’ correspondence, fugitive slave records, reports on the Draft Riots, and other historical records were critical to documenting this history.

Inspired by their Quaker faith and strongly opposed to slavery, Abby Hopper Gibbons and her husband took great risks to shelter runaway slaves and to meet in their home with others who supported the abolitionist cause. During the Draft Riots, a vicious mob targeted the family’s home and set it afire. Family members, helped by a friend, lawyer Joseph Hodges Choate, escaped the threatening crowd by fleeing over the rooftops.

This history is a huge part of what motivates Luskin and Finch. “The important reason (to remove the fifth-floor addition) is that during the Draft Riots, the two daughters of Abby Hopper Gibbons and her husband ran onto the roofs to escape,” says Luskin, “and so if you let that fifth story stand, you erase that part of history, of what happened there.” The addition, she adds, “changes the nature of the block and it’s no longer historically accurate.”

The latest developments – from the unabated construction to the DOB’s lack of enforcement thus far of the demolition order – are “mind-boggling,” Luskin and Finch noted in a letter. They are asking DOB representatives to meet Luskin on Tuesday, Dec. 14, for a rooftop inspection of the house to confirm that the owner has failed to follow the DOB’s order to demolish the addition.

The two women do not show signs of letting up in their campaign, working with elected officials and others, to keep the heat on. To both, the stakes are high. As Luskin says, “This is such a rare building, that it is still intact and that it was a stop on the Underground Railroad and important in the Draft Riots, it’s worth saving for our heritage.”

Further Reading

To read more about the history of Lamartine Place and the Hopper-Gibbons House, and the initiative to protect the house, also see:

Lamartine Place: Saved For Posterity

Teach-In Set At Underground Railroad House

Sparks Over An Underground Railroad Site