Society for the Preservation of Weeksville and Bedford-Stuyvesant History

Collecting area: History of the Weeksville and Bedford-Stuyvesant areas of Brooklyn. Does not actively collect but will accept artifacts relating to the Weeksville area.

Weeksville was a 19th century black community located in present day Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. It was named for James Weeks, a free black man who purchased land there in 1838.

Weeksville originated as an early ninettenth century neighborhood in the north-eastern section of Brooklyn and became famous mainly because it consisted of free African-Americans. Today there are several historic houses that remain in Weeksville. The four remaining buidling have been restored by The Society for the Preservation of Weeksville and Bedford-Stuyvesant which has evolved into the Weeksville African-American Museum. Weeksville was established in 1838 by James Weeks, an African-American longshoreman who purchased land from the Lefferts family estate. Weeks worked in downtown Manhattan in what is today's South Street Seaport and, though there were several earlier landowners who lived in that part of Brooklyn, the area soon became known as Weeksville. By the early 1800s, there were many free Black Americans living in Manhattan, many of whom influenced other African Americans living in the Weeksville section of Brooklyn. Numerous homes were built in the original settlement of Weeksville between 1840 and 1883. There were schools, churches, and assorted social organizations-all of which thrived for over a century. But, by the 1950's, much of it had disappeared. The original settlement had deteriorated dramatically. Today, only four houses remain standing from the original pre-Civil War community. In 1968, several people developed an interest in maintaining what was left of Weeksville. They saw a neglected neighborhood with broken-down wooden cottages. After doing some detective work, thsoe indiviuals who tried to identify this area soon realized that they had discoved the remains of Weeksville. Two years later, these Hunterfly Road houses were added to America's National Registry of Historic Places and, in 1981, The Society for the Preservation of Weeksville was born. Thereafter restoration of the few remaining historic houses took shape with the help of the Federal Community Development Block Grant funds. Today Weeksville, the once-thriving community that existed in the 1800's, has been revived by a new generation of African-Americans, one that represents a more diverse population. With the help of The Society for the Preservation of Weeksville and Bedford-Stuyvesant, the history of those early pioneers who once resided in Weeksville is a testament ot the preserverance of the early African-Americans.

As of 2010, there were over 400 different neighborhoods within the five boroughs of New York City. The origins of New York City neighborhoods are thought to have stemmed from the original six wards that were chartered under Governor Thomas Dongan in 1686 in what is now lower Manhattan. Over the years, neighborhoods gradually became defined by several factors: the people that lived within the neighborhoods; neighborhood churches; and neighborhood businesses and their customers. As wealth grew in New York City, neighborhoods became increasingly segregated according to class and ethnicity. For example, in Manhattan, the wealthy began to move into enclaves uptown, while the working poor remained in the tenements of lower Manhattan. Further, Jewish and African American neighborhoods had historically been segregated.

In Brooklyn, several other factors helped to grow and define its neighborhoods. As Brooklyn consolidated, first into a city (1834) and then as a borough (1898), areas that were once independent villages or towns often became neighborhoods. Further, many working class and ethnic groups moved from Manhattan to Brooklyn to escape cramped living conditions or discrimination. As mass transit became more widely accessible during the late 19th to early 20th centuries, workers were able to live in Brooklyn and commute to their jobs in Manhattan.

Throughout the boroughs, as the middle and upper classes grew, property values within the middle and upper class neighborhoods rose. Rising property values often led to gentrification, discrepancies in public services amongst the neighborhoods, and the displacement of long-time residents. As some neighborhoods thrived, others declined. With the rise of the historic preservation movement, such as the Municipal Art Society's work in the 1950s and 1960s to preserve historic structures and neighborhoods throughout New York City, many new neighborhood associations and civic organizations drew inspiration from the movement and modeled their community organizing after it. For example, the Brooklyn Heights Association, the oldest ongoing neighborhood association in New York City (since 1910), succeeded in making Brooklyn Heights the first Historic District in New York City in 1965. From the 1960s onward, neighborhood associations and civic organizations have greatly influenced city policies and have played an important role in the preservation, restoration, and development of neighborhoods.