☞ REVIVE: 547 West 149th Street Facade Saved

When the neighbors of the perfectly intact, mostly brownstone-lined block of West 149th Street (between Broadway and Amsterdam) saw that the DOB had hired a demolition crew to tear down a townhouse shell, things did not look good for number 547.  A group of neighbors banded together and called the government offices, local officials and the owner of the building to try to stop the destruction of an ornate facade that was part of three identical buildings.

Even with all the efforts at hand, Tuesday saw the removal of the intricate cornice along with the top row of bricks which left most of the Hamilton Heights neighbors defeated by late afternoon. Surprisingly, when all seemed lost, the building's engineer contacted the group at around 4:30 PM and got involved.  Paperwork had apparently been filed by the owner to stop the demolition a couple of months back and the developer (who was not aware of all the drama) promised to show up at the Department of Buildings with his people  before the wrecking crew showed up again Wednesday morning.  The above photo is from yesterday and the demo crew is now in the process of taking down the construction shed since they have officially been told to vacate the site.

So this is a good lesson learned for folks who want to look out for their block since efforts with local groups to sway the DOB can make a difference. We just are now wondering if anyone salvaged that cornice from the dumpster?