'Too important' to lose: Bed-Stuy residents race to save historic Stuyvesant Avenue mansion from private sale * Brooklyn Paper

"The building is classed as a "community center," and contains one residential unit and one commercial unit, according to PropertyShark. The interior has Arts and Crafts details and should be preserved, said a recent story in the Amsterdam News. From the 1970s through the 1990s, it was used as a community center for seniors, a certificate of occupancy from 1976 shows, and more recently it has housed a school, Seasons plant nursery, cafe, and exercise and art classes."

"It was purchased by Dr. Josephine English in 1973, the state's first Black woman gynecologist and the first to open a private practice. But since English's death in 2011, the future of the mansion, and other properties she owned, including the landmarked Paul Robeson Theater at 40 Greene Avenue and the former Adelphi Medical Center at 54 Greene Avenue, has been uncertain. All of the properties have fallen into states of disrepair."

Residents of Bedford-Stuyvesant are mobilizing to take community ownership of a Renaissance Revival mansion at 375 Stuyvesant Ave. They plan to form a community land trust and raise millions to purchase and repair the early 20th-century building before a court-ordered sale transfers it to a private buyer. The 1914-1915 brick mansion, built by Henry P. Kirby and John J. Petit, was purchased by Dr. Josephine English in 1973 and later served as a community center, school, nursery, cafe, and arts space. The property and other English-owned buildings have fallen into disrepair amid family disputes and yearslong court fights, with a stipulation requiring sale of the properties together for at least $9.2 million.

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