"Not Much Can Be Done" As Locals Continue To Rally Around The Gutted Grand Prospect Hall

Last week, locals scrambled to try to save the beloved and over-the-top Park Slope institution the Grand Prospect Hall, which had been sold in July and was immediately slated for construction. While thousands signed an online petition to save what's left of the hall, only about 15 showed up to a rally mid-day on Monday outside of the venue, which is already gutted.

“We are hoping to preserve the physicality of the building, because we believe the destruction of the facade is imminent," said Jim Glaser, a community activist and artist who lives two blocks away and has been active in efforts to save the hall over the past weeks.

"Losing a venue for arts and culture is a grand shame," he said. "How many more of those are going to get away from us? How do we stop that now? If America isn’t about buildings like this, I don’t know what it’s about."

But despite the passion of people in the neighborhood, the fight may be coming too late.

"There could be a pathway to retaining the facade or portions thereof, although then one wonders if it’s really worth it," said Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council, which advocates for designated historic districts, neighborhoods, and buildings.

"The value of the place to the community is as a gathering place and container of memories, and that seems to be gone," he added. "There can be a value in keeping a historic facade but that kind of solution can also look ungainly or even bizarre, such as what’s left of St. Ann’s on East 12th Street in the Village or the interpretation of the Poe House on West 3rd Street. I admire the passion and attachment of the activists but this sort of situation is a very difficult one—especially this late in the story."

That's a view shared by other experts, including historian Andrew Dolkart, a professor of Historic Preservation at the Columbia University School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. "Not much that can be done if they have a demolition permit," he told Gothamist. "This is a site that people knew about but got interested in too late. Very sad."

Gothamist learned last Thursday that Gowanus Cubes, an LLC operated by Angelo Rigas, had already begun demolishing and clearing out the interiors of the 118-year-old building; a spokesperson for Rigas told us that the historic interior fixtures were already gone when they arrived, and it was "nothing but walls."

Back in July, Rigas purchased the property from Alice Halkias, who ran the longtime event space and wedding venue with her husband Michael for the last 40+ years until he died at the age of 82 from complications due to COVID-19. A few days after the purchase, the new owner got a permit from the Department of Buildings (DOB) allowing them to do "interior demolition and non structural element removal." Rigas, who bought the hall as part of a larger $30 million, 12 property deal, plans to turn the building into "a low-scale residential building with an affordable component."

According to the DOB, a partial stop work order was issued on August 16th preventing any work from continuing in the side yard of the building—this is the location of a Polish American WWII Veterans Memorial. The project's spokesperson said they were working with the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York "to establish its future location.”

On Saturday, a sidewalk shed was constructed in front of the hall, and work seemingly began to remove parts of the facade. That included taking down the classic awnings for both The Grand Prospect Hall and its adjoining Oak Room.

Glaser was able to acquire a piece of the awning that was rescued from the dumpster at the site, which he said had been "unceremoniously ripped down."

With so much of the building already deconstructed, locals were reassessing on Monday what could be done to preserve what was left of the space. Glaser offered that he hoped it could be kept as an event space and "an environment for the community in some way.”

Doreen G. Simon, another protester, added that it "should stay in this neighborhood so it can make younger generations’ dreams come true," a reference to the Halkias' famed low-budget local commercials. "This is a beautiful landmark that should be passed on to our youngsters."

Solya Spiegel, a teen who started a petition to save the hall and who has performed at the annual The Zlatne Uste Golden Festival there, pleaded, “We had over 8,000 people sign our petition that we started. This is a place we need to save, it’s part of our community. We need a space where we can learn, educate, have music, dancing, food, families come together. This guy needs to realize that even though he has money, it’s not okay just to tear something down that is so important to history.”

Lou Céspedes, a candidate for city council in the 45th district, places some blame on local pols for not being more active in the fight to begin with: “The fact that no electeds from this district are here to speak on behalf of the Grand Prospect Hall speaks volumes," he said.

Although the building was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1999, it is not registered as a landmark in New York City. City council member Brad Lander along with assemblyman Robert Carroll wrote a letter to the Landmarks Commission asking for the hall to get that designation back in July. The agency confirmed last week that they are reviewing the materials on the hall.

Lander called the hall a "treasured community institution for over a century," and said he and Carroll sent their request to the Landmarks Commission right after learning of the building's sale. "Unfortunately, this did not prevent the new owner from obtaining permits for demolition," he told Gothamist. "I urge the developer to preserve the historical aspects of the building, given the significance Grand Prospect Hall has had to the neighborhood and New York City at large."

READ MORE: Locals Scramble To Save What's Left Of Historic Grand Prospect Hall

Dolkart, the Columbia professor of historic preservation, noted that there were examples of places getting a last-minute reprieve under similarly trying circumstances. "A parallel, if a bit of a stretch, is Radio City Music Hall, which was saved at the last minute by a landmarks designation," he said.

Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council, said the thing that really could have saved the hall would be the establishment of a historic business program.

"There’s a glimmer of one on the state level, and other states have created them, although their efficacy is hard to track–but the NYC Landmarks Law is not built to save places like this," he said.

Another local who was upset by the latest from the hall: Park Slope native and Mayor Bill de Blasio, who said it was "painful" to hear about its dismantling.

"If you're from Brooklyn, particularly from my part of Brooklyn, you have Grand Prospect Hall memories. And, of course, the legendary ad about making all your dreams come true, who could forget that? One of the great ads of all time," he said on Monday during an unrelated press conference.

De Blasio said that he had gone to the hall for community events, and "it was a place people cherished. You know, it was part of history, and you felt a connection to just all the history of Brooklyn, all the families who have been there before, people loved being there."

"I'm just shocked. I didn't know until very recently that so much had been lost there," he added. "I think that's a great question whether the facade could be saved. I certainly would love to see that happen. I'm going to see what the city can do to make that happen."

Even if it's too late to save the majority of the hall, there is still a question as to how this all came to pass so quickly.

“So much of New York history has been made here, and in the dead of night, in the summertime, during COVID, during an election year, this developer knew what he was doing," Glaser, the local activist, said. "He knew how to sneak this thing through, rip out the guts."

That view was echoed by legendary NYC preservationist Kent Barwick, the former chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the man who teamed with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to save Grand Central in the 1970s.

He told Gothamist, "If it's something that is important to the community, something treasured by the community, something historically significant, something architecturally significant, and something important to our relationship with Poland, how come it can get torn down in half an hour?"