Joan Maynard’s Wishlist for Weeksville

Draft of wish list for the Weeksville Society

  1. Completion of restoration of the four 19th-century buildings comprising the Hunterfly Road Historic District of Weeksville including appropriate landscaping and interpretation on of the Huntertfly Road.
  2. Development of first-class museum program with special emphasis on the requirements of the fourth-grade curriculum in the study of local history as mandated by the New York State Board of Regents. The Society has provided outreach to many school classes through its live slide lectures since 1970.
  3. Re-development of Block #1356 which contains the historic site with architecturally appropriate, affordable housing and open spaces sensitive to the interpretation of the Hunterfly Road Historic District Landmarks.
  4. Development of a site orientation & Education Center to accommodate school classes visiting the historic site, for general lunch area and restroom areas. Building to include library space for students, scholars to have access to the data held by the Weeksville Society and other institutions established to provide African-American History materials.
  5. Creation/Development of the Weeksville Intergenerational-Storytelling Garden in the rear of the historic houses to provide a beautiful, secluded space for youngsters to interact with older members of the community in a relaxed atmosphere.
  6. Development of a Garden Restaurant & Banquet facility featuring food appropriate to Weeksville in the 19th century and today to serve the historic site visitors.
  7. Refinement of an ongoing annual street Summer Festival/Ritual to reenergize the basic philosophy behind Weeksville Restoration and to assist the institutionalization of the Weeksville Museum. This year for the first time, the festival will be contained within the historic property, eliminating the need to close off the public street from vehicular traffic.
  8. Refinement of the Neighborhood Preservation Program to extend the skills of the Historic Preservation/Restoration staff to benefit a broader cross-section of the neighborhood, This staff to continue to use the historic site as a base of operations after the completion of the restoration of the historic buildings so as to be constantly in place to maintain the integrity of the landmarks.
  1. Development of the historic houses as a stage set for outdoor live theater and for an ongoing Video dramatic series on 19th-century/early 20th-century African-American historical events, themes and personal histories.
  2. Continuation/refinement of the relationships between the Weeksville Society and the academic community i.e. the New York City Board of Education, the Weeksville School (P.S. 243), Medgar Evers College-CUNY, New York City Technical College-CUNY, the Pratt Center for Community & Environmental Development, etc. Also to be continued and developed are the professional relationships between local organizations i.e. the Brooklyn Museum, the Muse Museum, the Magnolia Tree earth Center of Bedford-Stuyvesant, the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corp­oration, the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Brooklyn Arts and Culture Association, Brooklyn Educational and Cultural Alliance and the many religious, civic, public and private institutions in the area.
  3. Continuation and refinement of relationships and networking with national professional organizations such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Foundation for Minorities in Historic Preservation, the American Association of Museums, the African-American Museums Association, the American Association for State & Local History.
  4. Market research on the short and long-term value of neighborhood preservation and development, upgrading of local housing stock, economic development, creation of business and employment as a spinoff of tourism attraction of the historic site, etc.