Weeksville is a neighborhood founded by African American freedmen in what is now Brooklyn, New York, United States, part of the present-day neighborhood of Crown Heights.

History

Weeksville was named after James Weeks, an African-American stevedore from Virginia, who in 1838 bought a plot of land from Henry C. Thompson (another free African-American) in the Ninth Ward of central Brooklyn (just 11 years after the abolition of slavery in New York State).[1] The village itself was established by a group of African American land investors and political activists, and covered an area bounded by present-day Fulton Street, East New York Avenue, Ralph Avenue and Troy Avenue[2]. A 1906 article in the New York Age recalling the earlier period noted that James Weeks “owned a handsome dwelling at Schenectady and Atlantic Avenues.”

By the 1850s, Weeksville had more than 500 residents from all over the East Coast (as well as two people born in Africa). Almost 40 percent of residents were southern-born, and nearly one-third of the men over 21 owned land. The village had its own churches (including Bethel Tabernacle African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Berean Missionary Baptist Church), a school (“Colored School no. 2”, now P.S. 243), a cemetery, and an old age home[3]. Weeksville had one of the first African-American newspapers, the Freedman’s Torchlight, and in the 1860s became the national headquarters of the African Civilization Society and the Howard Orphan Asylum. During the violent New York Draft Riots of 1863, the community served as a refuge for many African-Americans who fled from Manhattan.

After the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge and as New York City grew and expanded, Weeksville gradually became part of Crown Heights, and memory of the village was largely forgotten.

Rediscovery of Weeksville and the Hunterfly Road Houses

The search for Historic Weeksville began in 1968 in a Pratt College workshop on Brooklyn and New York City neighborhoods led by historian James Hurley. After reading of Weeksville in Brooklyn’s Eastern District, a 1942 book by Brooklyn historian Eugene Ambruster, Hurley and Joseph Haynes, a local resident and pilot, consulted old maps and flew over the area in an airplane in search of surviving evidence of the village.

Four historic houses (now known as the Hunterfly Road Houses) were discovered off Bergen Street between Buffalo and Rochester Avenues, facing an old lane—a remnant of Hunterfly Road, which was at the eastern edge of the 19th century village.

Weeksville Heritage Center

The 1968 discovery of the Hunterfly Road Houses led to the formation of The Society for the Preservation of Weeksville and Bedford-Stuyvesant History (now the Weeksville Heritage Center).
Hunterfly Road Historic District is a national historic district. It consists of four contributing residential buildings built about 1830 parallel to the line of a Colonial road and on the edge of the 19th century free Black community of Weeksville. Hunterfly Road was subsequently closed in 1835. They are one and one half to 2 1⁄2-story wood-frame dwellings.[5]

In 1970 the houses were declared New York City Landmarks, and in 1972 were placed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Hunterfly Road Historic District.[4] The houses were purchased by the Society in 1973.[6]

The houses were rehabilitated in the 1980s[7], and again after vandalism in the 1990s[8]. In 2005, following a $3 million restoration, the houses reopened to the public as the Weeksville Heritage Center, with each house showcasing a different era of Weeksville history.[1]

Planning is now underway for a 19,000-square-foot (1,800 m2) education and cultural center adjacent to the houses.[9]

Crown Heights Ditmas Park East Flatbush Flatbush Kensington Ocean Hill Ocean Parkway Prospect Lefferts Gardens Prospect Park South Stuyvesant Heights Weeksville