339 W 29th Street

Behind the mask of scaffolding in the picture above is the row-house at the address of 339 W 29th Street in Manhattan, just west of 8th Ave. Built in the 1840s, it has been in the news because of the work being done on it--renovations and the like--and the fact that a married couple, Abigail Hopper Gibbons and James Sloan Gibbons used the house as a stop on the way to Montreal for escaped slaves. It was one of New York's stops on the Underground Railroad. That fact has caused an outpouring of support to designate it a historical landmark. Apparently a work stoppage order was issued last Tuesday, but only because the zoning paperwork wasn't in order. Wild, sometimes, what some of the City's older buildings have been involved in.

Here is an article about the issues.