Locals ask Landmarks for mercy
Former Angel Guardian home residents push for landmarking of convent building
BY ROSE ADAMS
Former Angel Guardian
home residents urged landmarks
offi cials to salvage
what’s left of the historic Sisters
of Mercy complex at a city
hearing on Aug. 11, arguing
that the sprawling site carries
deep emotional value.
“The Angel Guardian home
was the only visual photo I
had of my childhood, along
with a three-and-a-half page
history I had of my foster life,”
said Sylvia Rivera, who lived
in the former orphanage from
infancy to 18 months, but continued
to visit it frequently.
“Overlooking these tall iron
gates was the safe haven I always
treasured … Please let
it be named a historic landmark,
and not let it be erased
like a page omitted from history
books.”
The hearing, held by the
Landmarks Preservation
Commission, is the fi rst step
towards the proposed preservation
of the Angel Guardian
home — which, if approved,
would make the stately, 1899
building Dyker Heights’ fi rst.
More than a dozen locals,
former staffers, and residents
who found families through
the orphanage celebrated
the building’s potential landmarking
COURIER L 24 IFE, AUGUST 14-20, 2020
— but urged the commission
to landmark the adjacent
convent building as well.
“The convent building
is also designed as the same
high style as the orphanage
building, and we feel also deserves
landmark protection.
We fear if it is not preserved,
it will be destroyed,” said Josephine
Beckmann, the district
manager of Community
Board 10.
The convent building,
which sits to the left of the
main orphanage on 63rd
Street, is the only other remaining
structure on the
block-long Angel Guardian
campus bordered by 12th and
13th avenues and 63rd and 64th
streets. The walled-off property
used to feature multiple
buildings and a bucolic landscape
of winding pathways
and large trees, but almost all
of it was demolished after the
Sisters of Mercy sold the land
to a developer in 2018.
The lot behind the two remaining
buildings on 12th Avenue
will house condos, and
the lot facing 13th Avenue will
feature a public school. Scott
Barone, whose management
company bought the property
and divided it up into
three parcels, said that he always
planned to save the main
building.
“It was always part of our
mission from day one to preserve
this building,” he said
at the hearing. The structure
will house “luxury” assisted
living for seniors, he told
Brooklyn Paper in 2018.
Local leaders say they lobbied
the Landmarks Preservation
Commission to save the
entire lot just after its hushhush
sale, but the commission
did not calendar a hearing until
after most of the campus
was demolished.
“We supported landmarking
from the position of the
entire lot, but unfortunately,
since then pieces of the lot
have been sold off and we’re
left with two buildings, the
main building and the convent
building,” said Dyker Heights
Civic Association head, Fran
Vella-Marrone, at the hearing.
“The convent’s got architectural
value, it’s got historic
value, but more importantly,
we need to be recognized in
our community.”
The commission did not
respond to the speakers’ concerns
during hearing, which
included only public testimony,
and did not respond to
an immediate request for comment.
The agency will soon calendar
a vote regarding the
Angel Guardian home’s landmark
status, offi cials said at
the hearing.
The convent, located to the left of the home’s main building on 63rd
Street, has the same historic merit as the central structure, locals say.
Photo by Caroline Ourso
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