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Almost two years after Willoughby Avenue’s historic Jacob Dangler mansion was torn down during a landmarking review process, sending many neighbors into mourning, Willoughby Avenue and Hart Street locals were jubilant Tuesday after the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to preserve their blocks of predominantly late 19th century Neo-Grec brownstones.
The packed viewing room broke into applause and tears as the commissioners declared the two block area between Nostrand and Marcy avenues the city’s newest historic district: The Willoughby-Hart Historic District.
“It’s bringing tears to my eyes, to be here, to hear this,” unofficial Willoughby Avenue “mayor” Michael Williams told the commissioners from the audience after the vote passed.
“Growing up, my parents, they worked so hard, on Willoughby Avenue, that area was redlined, my parents couldn’t get a loan to have a business, so my brother and sister and I, we struggled so hard to maintain that building and to this day I still love this block and that building and I appreciate what you’ve been doing for us, thank you, from the bottom of my heart,” he said.