In 2021, the Prospect Park Alliance launched the ReImagine Lefferts Initiative through a grant from the Mellon Foundation, to shift the Lefferts Historic House museum’s focus to explore the lives, resistance and resilience of the Indigenous people of Lenapehoking, whose ancestral lands the park and house rest upon, and the Africans enslaved by the Lefferts family.
Today, the transformation of Lefferts Historic House continues in Prospect Park with the next stage as a draft plan for the Lefferts Historic House museum emerges to bring more programming and exhibitions outdoors.
The goal is to foster a safe and accessible space for engaging audiences with the house’s collective past, and to confront contemporary issues affecting descendant communities today, officials said.
At a recent meeting with stakeholders, Dylan Yeats, director of museum programs and operations at Lefferts Historic House, said design plans are being finalized for the next phase.
“We’re hoping if we can get approval this summer or fall… we can just go,” Yeats said.
The accessible, outdoor-focused approach is the direct result of extensive, iterative community input. Originally, the grant proposal focused on designing a new permanent indoor exhibit. However, when Prospect Park Alliance began consulting with the community in February 2023, the feedback necessitated a major pivot, he said.
The stakeholders made it clear that a static indoor exhibit was not what the community needed. Instead, they advocated for rotating, community-curated indoor programming, insisting that permanent interpretive features be placed outside in the landscape to ensure greater public accessibility.
Representatives from 38 community groups offered their guidance. Key organizations included the Flatbush African Burial Ground Coalition, Friends of Abolitionist Place, Bridge Street Church History Committee, Lexington Avenue Church History Committee, Brooklyn College Africana Studies, The Center for Brooklyn History, and the Weeksville Heritage Center.
Over the winter, the Alliance plans to finalize all construction drawings. If the approval process goes according to schedule, the project will officially break ground next spring.
Once shovels hit the dirt, the turnaround is expected to be rapid. Yeats estimates that the entirety of the construction could be completed in less than a year. The Alliance is planning a phased opening, meaning that as specific elements of the landscape are completed, they will immediately be opened to the public.
The financial backing to support the next phase is already secured. The Mellon Foundation serves as the primary underwriter, providing approximately $1.5 million in total, with $1 million specifically earmarked for construction. Support has also come from local elected officials and private organizations, including $500,000 from Assemblymember Robert Carroll, $145,000 from Assemblymember Brian Cunningham, and $100,000 from the Prospect Hill Foundation.
As part of the next step, the Alliance will be hiring construction firms to execute the vision. Yeats said it was crucial to place Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBE) “front and center," ensuring the project’s execution aligns with its core values of community empowerment.
Lefferts Historic House will continue with programming during the busy spring and summer seasons, offering activities on the grounds and the porch, and will remain open as the development plan rolls out in phases.
