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Owners of Underground Railroad Building Fighting to Keep 'Illegal' Addition

By DNAinfo Staff on January 25, 2011 1:35pm

By Tara Kyle

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

CHELSEA — The owners of a Chelsea row house that was once a stop on the Underground Railroad are making a final effort to save an illegal fifth floor constructed on the building's roof, despite the city's orders to tear it down.

The developers of 339 W. 29th Street, identified in news reports as Nick and Tony Mamounas, plan to ask the city's Board of Standards and Appeals to grant them a waiver from the Department of Building's November order to demolish a partially constructed fifth floor, DOB spokeswoman Carly Sullivan confirmed Monday.

The developers will have to prove that demands that they tear down the partially-constructed penthouse would cause them undue financial hardship.

But opponents of the new construction say they can't see any reason to allow the fifth floor to stand.

"I am troubled by the decision the owner has taken to deface this rich piece of American history," City Council Speaker Christine Quinn wrote in an e-mail. "The most important thing we must do at this moment is to ensure that no further work on this landmark happens until a ruling is rendered."

Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, who is also fighting against the construction, said he couldn't see any reason that the owners would clear the city's requirement that they prove financial hardship in order to be exempt from the order to tear down the addition.

"To me, it would be hard to argue that the owner of a townhouse in Chelsea can't make a reasonable return on the property," Assemblyman Richard Gottfried said Friday. "I consider this claim really bogus."

Calls to Tower Construction, the company operated by Nick and Tony Mamounas, were not returned. In November, Nick Mamounas called the DOB's treatment of his work "very, very unfair."

The West 29th Street building was constructed in 1846-1847 and was the former home to Quaker abolitionist Abigail Hopper Gibbons, who used the building to shield former slaves traveling on the Underground Railroad to freedom.

Its fate has sparked the passions of neighborhood preservationists over the past four years. The row house's height is of particular importance to preservationists, because it was the site of a clash between the Gibbons and a mob of Civil War draft rioters, neighborhood activist Julie Finch said. Gibbons' daughters escaped the mob by running across the rooftops, all of which were 4 stories tall at the time. About 20 people were lynched during the riots, Finch said.

Every other building in the immediate vicinity except the Mamounas' property, is still four stories tall, preservationists complain. They are protected by landmarks status, but Mamounas' work on his building took place before the property was declared a landmark, experts said.

Gottried joined DOB staff and representatives of Quinn's Office and State Sen. Tom Duane last Thursday to discuss the fate of the Hopper Gibbons House.

DOB staffers said they have no evidence of ongoing illegal work on the building since the permits were revoked and the building achieved landmark status last year. There have been some additions to the property to keep it within safety codes, a DOB spokeswoman said.

The DOB gave the building owners two weeks to tear down the addition in November, but the deadline has come and gone.

The Mamounas brothers will get an extension while they appeal the decision. It was unclear how long the extension would last.

Chelsea preservationists were livid at the idea that the brothers could still get a chance to finish what they consider an illegal addition.

Activist Fern Luskin, who has long fought against the building, said if co-owner Tony Mamounas wins his appeal, it will be a slap in the face for all those who tried to preserve history.

"If he is allowed to get away with this, he will have disfigured and erased a pivotal moment in New York City and American history," Luskin said, "I'm at a loss for words."

Finch said Tuesday that she is working toward getting the home added to the National Register of Historic Places. She has also filed an application to the Landmarks Preservation Commission to put a historic district sign on one of the block's lampposts.

"We're going to continue," Finch said. "We're going to fight just as hard as he is."