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NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: ROOSEVELT ISLAND
NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: ROOSEVELT ISLAND; An 18th-Century Landmark Faces 21st-Century Problems
Behind some bushes on Roosevelt Island's Main Street sits a gray clapboard farmhouse. It was built in 1796 by the Blackwell family, whose name the island bore until 1828, when the city bought the land. In 1976, the city designated the house a landmark.
Last weekend, vandals threw rocks at the building, known as Blackwell House, and broke some windows. It was just another blow, preservationists say, to what should be considered a city treasure.
Robert Ryan, president of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation, the state agency that runs the island, said repairing the house was not a priority. He pointed to other problems the island faces, such as securing the $1.7 million needed annually to maintain the tram that runs to and from Manhattan.
''If we cut back on services for the tram or the buses to put money into Blackwell House, you'd hear people screaming about that,'' he said, adding that the historic house's problems were only ''cosmetic.''
But preservationists have a different view.
''I walk by it every day and say, 'Oh, my God,' '' said Judith Berdy, who is president of the Roosevelt Island Historical Society. ''The inside is not as unstable, but it will be soon.''
Terri Rosen Deutsch, spokeswoman for the Landmarks Preservation Commission, did not return repeated calls seeking comment.
The bushes along the front of the house hide it from the street. At the back, the porch is cordoned off with yellow tape. All over the house, shingles are missing and damp-looking support beams have rotted and split.
The house was restored in the 1970's when the state first leased the island from the city. Since then no major renovations have been done.
Last summer the Roosevelt Island agency applied for $500,000 in state aid to repair the house. But its application was denied.
Ms. Berdy said the agency should apply for state aid to help pay the cost of the tram. Then, she said, the island could come up with a version of the city's Historic House Trust, in which the Parks Department maintains the exterior of a building designated a landmark while another group handles the interior.
The Roosevelt Island Historical Society would be a great tenant for Blackwell House, Ms. Berdy said.
''That's the kind of thing you do with a structure like this,'' she said. ''It needs a purpose. You don't just let it rot.'' E. E. LIPPINCOTT
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