[title]
The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) just voted to calendar the Linden Street Historic District—a group of 32 brick and brownstone row houses in Bushwick on Linden Street between Broadway and Bushwick Avenue—to turn the area into a recognized landmark.
According to officials, the group of row houses built between 1885 and 1901 by a variety of Brooklyn-based architects represents “a highly successful integration of late 19th-century styles,” making them instantly recognizable and architectural artifacts to be safeguarded.
RECOMMENDED: The oldest gay bar in NYC may officially become a landmark
In addition to their importance design-wise, the homes are significant on a historical level, pointing to the sort of cultural environment that defined the era during which the structures were brought up. According to the commission, the homes were built while Bushwick was undergoing rapid urbanization thanks to the nearby Broadway elevated train line that created the opportunity “for a thriving transportation and commercial corridor” to arise back in 1888.
Given the proximity to such a useful line of transportation, folks naturally began flocking to the area and setting up homes. According to the committee, the earliest residents were mostly middle and working-class families.
When thinking about the various world events that affected the neighborhood during the following years (including World War II and the chaotic scene that plagued New York City throughout the 1970s and 1980s), it is striking to think that the various row houses were left intact—a fact that only leads to the confirmation of their deserving landmark status.
To make the status permanent, the LPC will host a public hearing about the topic in the near future and then call a vote.