The Most Important Archaeological Project in North America in Our Lifetime Needs You
And it is gonna happen right here in Brooklyn USA!
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The Lott Project is going to launch it's major fund raising Thrust
this coming May, and we invovled with this Project invites EVERYONE
to help us celebrate Brooklyn History in this most exciting event of
the year!!
The Hendrick I. Lott House 1940 East 36th Street (between Fillmore Avenue and Avenue S.) Brooklyn, New York 11234 The Hendrick I. Lott Preservation Association will kick off the "Save The Lott House Restoration Project". This fund raising kick-off is being held during Historic Preservation Week here in New York City.
A Message from Chris Ricciardi - One of the Leading Archaeologist involved with this project - on the importance of this Project for the community! Dear Ruben, Well, this person's question is poignant, if a bit vague since it basically covers, "everything we're planning to do with the project". Here goes... First and foremost, what this project needs is funding. Yes, I might as well state that right out of the starting gate. To save this house is going to cost a lot of money and we need to begin the process of fund raising. The best thing an individual can do is to make a tax deductible donation to the project. All donations should be made out to: The Historic House Trust with "Lott House Project" in the memo field. Checks should be sent to: Scott Heyl Director - The Historic House Trust New York City Dept. of Parks & Recreation The Arsenal at Central Park - Room 203 830 5th Avenue and 60th Street New York, New York 10021 Secondly, what a person or a family can do is offer their services to the various projects that will be going on at the house. There is a community clean-up day scheduled for Saturday, May 9th. On this day we'll be cleaning up the property around the house. For more information on that please contact me at Ricciardi@worldnet.att.net An archaeological excavation is planned for June and July. You may participate in this project as well. For more information on the excavation please go to the Lott House Excavation page located at: http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/anthro/dept/field.htm There are also links on that specific page to several Lott House history and information pages. Many things have to be done to "restore" the house back to the way it looked in the early 19th Century. However, there is a lot of work to make the house functional for the late 20th Century as well. The siding needs to be fixed and painted...The porches need reconstruction...the interior needs to have heat, electricity and running water placed in it...then there are the repairs to existing damage, general repairs to the plaster walls, the fire places, the ceilings...new coats of plaster, paint and wall-tex...fix and finish the floors... completely replaced all masonry stacks before they collapses....you can begin to get the picture. We need support...we need workers to help with some of the projects outlined above...and we need money. If you'd liked detailed information please contact the: Brooklyn College Archaeological Research Center Department of Anthropology/Archaeology Brooklyn College CUNY 2900 Bedford Avenue and Avenue H Brooklyn, New York 11210-2889 (718) 951-4714 I hope this helps to introduce the project to you. In addition, it has become clear to me that we need help keeping the Lott House Project on the the Front Burner of the local press and politicians. While everyone agrees in principle that this is a worthwhile project, worthy of both public and private funding, keeping it on the top of the agenda of our local politicians is harder. Write, Fax and Call your local city and state official to support the project. There are a number of pending public issues which can be greatly speeded up if we keep the pressure on the City Council. For one thing, the area needs to be legaly zoned as a Park. The faster these things happen, the less expensive the project becomes. At the moment, an informal time table for things is 3-4 years. Let's turn that over to 6 months! A good rundown of local politicians is list here. We need to make the following Points
The Kick-off in May went off as planned and a wonderful Spring Day. The Parks Department was represented by Herny Stern, who anchored the affair from the front porch of the Lott House. Represented in the crowd was my friend, State Senator Karl Kruger, Assemblyman Tony Genovese, Archeaologist Arthur Bankoff and his staff, Madison HS, Borough Historian John Manbeck, Gary Silver, President of the Private Organization "Hendrick I Lott Preservation Association", my good friend Chris Ricciardi, and Peggyann Accardo from the Marine Park Community Association. In addition, members of the Lott Family was on hand and we met our matching fund donation of $17,500!! It was a great start and archeaological work at the site is just beginning!! |
