Clinton Hill/ Fort Greene

Say goodbye to Angel House tonight [UPDATE]

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[UPDATE: Brownstoner brings us the news (via the Daily News) that the eviction has been pushed back to March 31. Let’s hear it for tiny victories! The party is still on though, so you should still go!]

It’s a story as old as New York itself: cool-looking building goes up, cool-looking building succumbs to the ravages of time/government and has to come down. People mourn, action is vowed, nothing actually happens, cycle repeats. Like it is now for Clinton Hill’s Angel House, the latest architectural curio in Brooklyn to land on the chopping block. If you visited it yet, or you just want to help the guy who owned it with his legal bills, there’s a party to support him tomorrow.

If the building looks familiar even though you haven’t been there personally, it makes sense. Here it is in better times, when it was featured in Dave Chapelle’s Block Party:

Arthur Wood, who’s lived in the building for 30 years, is finally being evicted after a six year fight with the management company he partnered up with in an attempt to save the building, and at 84 years old, is facing the prospect of not having a home. His friends and neighbors have rallied around Wood, and the building, with not one, but two parties tomorrow. The first, from 4pm to 8pm at the Angel House’s stoop, on 4-8 Downing Street, will be a free kid-friendly (read: alcohol free) gathering with brass bands, an art auction, food and more. When the sun goes down, the party will move to the Irondale Center, 85 S. Oxford Street, for a dance party and fundraiser, for $10 at the door. There’ll be booze there, too, to help fuel your rage and self-loathing on the subject of gentrification and rising real estate prices.

2 Comments

  1. Gentrification and rising real estate prices has nothing to do with Mr. Woods eviction from foreclosure. Mr. Wood partnered with a real estate developer, took out a 4 million dollar loan and were unable to repay the debt.

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