The Father of the Ft. Greene Historic District

Ever since they moved in 1967 to a very gracious home on Washington Park, Mr. Herbert Scott-Gibson and his wife Evelyn, a modern dancer, relished Fort Greene as a vibrant neighborhood worthy of preservation.

"He and my sister were always going to meetings. They were show-biz people,” said Estelle Porter, sister-in-law of the late Scott-Gibson. “You know, they circulate. You name a committee, Herbert was on it." 

Holder of an MFA from Boston University, Illinois-born Herbert (1928-1980) was influential in African-American arts, a director of the Billie Holiday Theatre, and was a singer and musician, professionally trained no less than by Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland. He coached opera, lieder and oratorios, and appeared in Showboat, Fiorello and Porgy & Bess. What's more, his wife taught him how to knit, and he couldn't stop — hats, scarves, sweaters, lap robes, whatever.

In Herbert's time, many houses and shops here were cadavers, but some of them had never ordered a coffin. 

"He had no architectural training," Porter added, "He had an unbridled curiosity as well as an eye for beauty."

Recognizing what an historic gift Fort Greene's magnificence could truly be, in 1970 he gathered his neighbors together to seek landmark designation of the locale. Herbert also invited the Urban Studies program of Long Island University, and the noted Columbia University professor of architecture, James Marston Fitch, to investigate and detail Fort Greene's background. 

In a 1972 meeting at the Scott-Gibson home, the academics presented their basic background report. Within the year Herbert's neighbors set out to accomplish their final goal. A new Fort Greene Landmarks Preservation Committee (precursor of the Fort Greene Association) was formed, and some 75 residents began the painstaking documentation of each and every home, relying on archives at various city repositories. Their findings were then presented to the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1973.

Five years later, Fort Greene received its worthy designation as an Historic District, along with that of the Brooklyn Academy of Music district. Most rewarding about all this was that it was fully conceived by an African-American man who was innately prescient in knowing that architectural quality stimulates pride of place, and can nurture resurgence. Long live Herbert Scott-Gibson, his legacy of the Fort Greene Association, and this most wonderful community he helped inspire!