A bipartisan majority of the New York City Council has called on Mayor Zohran Mamdani to use eminent domain for the seizing a structure located next to a city-owned property with a connection to the Underground Railroad.
The New York Post reports 32 Council members have asked the mayor to step in and prevent a proposed a nine-story commercial building from being constructed next door to the Merchant’s House Museum in Manhattan’s NoHo district. The museum building dates to the early 1830s and a secret passageway used to smuggle slaves to freedom in the pre-Civil War era was discovered at the facility in February.
The Council members warned the proposed building will create irreparable damage to the adjacent three-and-a-half-story city-owned museum, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is the city’s earliest known location of Underground Railroad activity.
“The city should, as it has done in the past, take the steps necessary to continue preservation of this historic property, especially given its recent discovery as an African American Heritage Site,” said the lawmakers in their letter to Mamdani.
Kalodop II Park Corp. owns the property now at the site, a one-story garage used to store food carts. The company proposed constructing an office building with ground-level space that could either be a restaurant or art gallery. However, since the site is in the NoHo Historic District Extension, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission must still approve the proposal.
Mamdani’s office did not comment on the lawmakers’ letter.
Photo of the existing garage at 27 East 4th Street in Manhattan that New York City Council members want the mayor’s office to seize; courtesy of Google Maps.
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