BUSHWICK — Two North Brooklyn buildings — an ornate, yellow Roman Catholic church and old cast iron factory building — earned landmark status Tuesday, after more than three decades of being up for consideration by the city.
St. Barbara's Roman Catholic Church at 138 Bleecker St., built between 1907 and 1910, which was designated a landmark, is one of the earliest churches to be built in the northeast in Spanish Colonial Revival style. Its yellow brick and white terra cotta turrets make it one of Bushwick's most striking structures.
A pastor at the church couldn't be reached immediately for comment.
In Williamsburg, a cast iron factory building at 183-195 Broadway, built in 1882 likely as a warehouse or factory for a shoe dealer, according to the city, also received landmark status.
183-195 Broadway, an old cast iron building earned landmark status Tuesday. (Landmarks Preservation Commission)
The building is owned by the Forman family who own Peter Luger's Steakhouse across the street. They use the building partly as a manufacturing location for their steak sauce and as offices and have been supportive of their landmark status, though they couldn't be reached immediately for comment.
Once a building gets the status, its facade is protected by the city, and any alterations to the building need specific approval.
The two buildings follow the Williamsburg Trust Co. building on South Fifth Street, which got landmark status in August. The three North Brooklyn designations come from a push by the Landmarks Preservation Commission to clear out a backlog of buildings it was asked to consider.
In 2014, the city quietly tried to erase the backlog, to the uproar of preservationists all over the city. It later dropped that plan and instead sped up the approval process for 95 buildings which had been waiting on the commissions list for decades.
