On Wednesday, June 4, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz joined Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate D. Levin, Weeksville Heritage Center Executive Director Pam Green and others to break ground on the new Education and Cultural Arts Building at the Weeksville Heritage Society’s historic Hunterfly Road Houses. 

The 19,000 square-foot facility will offer new visitor, teaching and programming space, expanded educational offerings and public performances, and venues for local artists. 

BP Markowitz has provided support for the Education and Cultural Arts Building, which will become part of historic Weeksville, an African American community that dates back to 1838.

“Today, Brooklyn is blessed to have the largest African-American community of any county in America that is not its own city, and it’s fitting that our borough was also home to one of the first free African-American communities in this nation,” says BP Markowitz. “I am proud to be able to join the Mayor in ensuring that Joan Maynard’s dream comes true, with this exciting new education and cultural arts building that will ensure children of every ethnicity and culture, as well as tourists and visitors alike, learn the inspiring story of these bold early Brooklynites who achieved against great odds every human being’s goal and right—to live in freedom.”