MANHATTAN — Kinah Rosas couldn’t believe an adult was allowed to graffiti the inside of an old convent.
Rosas, 44, was one of a few dozen teens in 1980s Morningside Heights who witnessed famed artist Keith Haring paint his iconic figures dancing up the stairwell of the then-Catholic youth program, Grace House.
Former participants and current building tenants are now worried the mural will be destroyed after the Church of the Ascension stated their plan to sell the building to developers.
“Graffiti was so taboo. You had this huge conflict between grownups and here you had an adult very happily tagging,” Rosas told DNAinfo. “It was like, ‘Huh, how come he gets to do that?’”
DNAinfo/Ben Fractenberg
The woman, who volunteered at the youth center at the time and went on to become the program’s director, is one of a network of tenants and former Grace House participants worried the murals might be lost if the sale goes through.
“Just to think the building [could] be gone and that beautiful mural is heartbreaking,” Rosas said. “It’s New York’s history.”
The former director added that she immediately connected with Haring and his work.
“I felt he had a great love of young people. Just that energy and love,” she said. "Those figures were signs of hope for us. We really recognized how important the pieces were.”
The church recently sent a letter to residents of the five-story building located on 108th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue stating they had to move out by Aug. 1 because the congregation had financial problems and were forced to sell the former convent.
But several residents filed a lawsuit claiming they lived in SRO units, which are protected under the state's rent stabilization laws.
The tenants, Robert Savina and Yana Sabeva, said they were still living in the building on Aug. 5, but were denied an immediate injunction request to block their eviction.
A representative for the church did not return a call for comment.
The Grace House was open for roughly 30 years and provided youth services like public speaking and conflict resolution, Rosas said.
"It kept a lot of kids off the streets,' she added.
Debra Ithier, 54, started volunteering at Grace House in the late '70s and said she remembered Haring attending meetings with young people.
"He knew you better than you knew yourself," said Ithier, who added that the artist took her aside one day when she was feeling down.
"He said 'everything is going to be ok, don’t worry about it,'" said Ithier, who also had three children attend Grace House. "He would always have that [positive] energy."
The former volunteer, who has lived next to the building for more than 35 years, said some of the figures Haring painted with their head down to her meant "you’re down but can always get up."
The artist met the director of the program back in the 80s through two former Grace House members, The New York Times reported in 2007.
He visited the building a few times and DJ'd a party there.
The former director, Gary Mallon, eventually allowed Haring to paint the mural.
Rosas said it quickly became a positive symbol for struggling young people in a much tougher city.
"All that space was blank so he really did add just with that one piece a dynamic layer to the building."
Ithier added that she felt the potential building sale is the latest blow to a changing area.
"Everything from the neighborhood is gone. You look around you see a lot of condos, a lot of banks," she said. "It’s sad because this is our generation."
