Historic Kelly Street property receives LPC repair grant
BY KYLE VUILLE
The NYC Landmark Preservation
Commission selected
a Bronx residence as one of its
fi ve recipients for a matching
$35,000 grant for restorations.
The LPC announced on
Thursday, January 16 a Neo-
Renaissance-styled house at
736-34 Kelly Street in Longwood
was selected to receive
renovations through the Historic
Preservation Grant Program.
The grant program assist
low-to-moderate income homeowners
and non-profi t make
much needed repairs to their
properties.
“The LPC Historic Preservation
Grant Program is a
great resource that enables us
to support homeowners and
non-profi t organizations,” said
Landmarks Preservation Commission
chair Sarah Carroll.
“I am thrilled that this year’s
grant recipients, who represent
all fi ve boroughs, will get the
funding they need to maintain
their landmark buildings and
bring pride of place to these
communities.”
The grants are funded
through the U.S. Department
of Housing and Urban Devel-
opment’s Community Development
Block Grant Program.
The property on Kelly Street
falls under the non-profi t category
because the Roman brick
twin family attached property
is the location for Homes for the
Homeless.
According to the LPC’s press
release, the grant money will
go towards restorative work to
the building’s façade including
repointing, repairing masonry
and replacing doors.
Homes for the Homeless
has been sheltering families
and providing social services
to those in need in Queens and
the Bronx for over 40 years.
According to Managing director
of Communications and
Marketing of HFH, Linda Bazerjian,
the non-profi t has occupied
the Kelly Street location
since 1986. Bazerjian said the
property was formerly a hospital.
Warren Dickinson, a turnof
the-century architect, designed
the building when the
neighborhood was predominantly
occupied by European
Jews. It is mostly African
American and Latin today.
According to Bronx historian
Lloyd Ultan, Kelly Street,
in particular, has housed some
notable people throughout its
early years.
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A Yiddish writer by the
pen name of Sholem Aleichem
whose work inspired the musical
‘Fiddler on the Roof’ is from
the area. His funeral had the
most mourners ever for the entire
city at the time of his death
in 1916, according to Ultan.
Other notables who lived
on Kelly Street were Clifford
Odets, a popular playwright in
the 1920s and 30s and former
U.S. National Security Advisor
Colin Powell, who learned
to speak Yiddish from his Jewish
friends in the neighborhood.
However, the work done at
736-34 Kelly Street is more focused
on civic work nowadays.
For Bazerjian, it is not so
much about the historic structure,
but the 88 families who
are housed there at any given
time with approximately 125
children who benefi t from the
after school programs offered
there.
“We want to make it as comfortable
as we can, especially
for the children,” Bazerjian
said. “We want them to feel like
they’re not missing out.”
Homes for the Homeless employees Gretchen Hernandez, Julissa Lantigua
and Wilfredo Gonzalez stand in front of 736-34 Kelly Street, “The
Prospect” House in the historic Longwood District. The shelter received
a $35,000 grant from the Landmark Preservation Commission for restorative
work. Photo by Kyle Vuille/Schneps Media
Bazerjian estimated around
3,000 families have been housed
at the shelter.
To meet growing needs HFH
expanded to other Kelly Street
brownstones over the years.
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