Preserving That which brings us Joy

by Bernice Elizabeth Green
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the passing of Joy Chatel, an iconic figure in Brooklyn preservation activism history.
“Mama Joy,” as she was known, believed in the sanctity of places with an ancestral African presence. Especially places like the 19th-century Greek Revival brick row house at 227 Abolitionist Place-Duffield Street in Downtown Brooklyn where she lived with her family for 17 years.

Built c. 1848-1851(and extended in 1933), it was the house abolitionists Harriet and Thomas Truesdell lived in from 1851 to 1863. 227 Duffield Street may have been a stop on the Underground Railroad. It is reported that enslaved Africans seeking freedom, were sheltered at the house.

In 2004, as part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s upzoning of Downtown Brooklyn, the Bloomberg Administration promised to commemorate Brooklyn’s Abolitionist history by developing a greenspace. Work began on it in 2010. Three years prior, in 2007, Chatel and friends rescued 227 from dreaded Eminent Domain.

In 2019, five years after Mama Joy’s death, some of those same friends, neighbors, community Brooklyn residents with Mayor Bill DeBlasio successfully rallied to save the building from demolition. The developer’s plans were to raze it and build a 13-story tower on its site and adjacent to it.

In 2021, The New York Landmarks Preservation Committee (LPC) designated 227 Abolitionists Place as an individual New York City landmark.
A month later the City of New York purchased it for $3.2million, further assuring support of the building’s permanence.

This spring Abolitionist Park, formerly the site of Willoughby Square, opened up next door to 227, at 225, in May. It did not replace the building as was planned years prior.
Neighbors and preservationists recall how Joy beat the drum loudly, calling for the building to be saved from destruction. How one woman gathered a team and saved a building in the face of every dart aimed at her dream, is a story.

Ten years after Mama Joy’s passing, her will keeps pushing through.
The new park, designed by landscape architecture firm Hargreaves Jones, includes a children’s play area, lawns, ornamental plants, a waterplay feature and multiple seating areas.
Abolitionist Park Place is managed and programmed by the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. It will feature a public art installation by Brooklyn-based multimedia artist Kenseth Armstead to be installed starting in 2026.