Designate Visitation Academy as an Individual Landmark!

Join advocates in Bay Ridge working to secure Individual Landmark status for Visitation Academy. 

All photos in this petition courtesy of Kelly Carroll

What is Visitation Academy?

Visitation Academy is a Catholic school and convent at 8902 Ridge Boulevard in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, which was forced to close its doors at the end of the 2024 school year.

Visitation sits on 7.5 acres and features a complex of Renaissance Revival buildings, including a classically ornamented church, constructed in cream colored brick with limestone details. The chapel features circular windows on its upper stories, triangular gables, a square tower with an arcaded belfry and decorative cruciform brickwork on its south façade. Visitation’s campus include a pond and boathouse, sports fields, playgrounds and a small forest.

Neighbors and advocates in Bay Ridge are working on a campaign to secure landmark status for the Visitation campus, which has been a presence at the heart of the Bay Ridge community since 1903, and an institution in Brooklyn since 1856.

Sign the Petition Here!

What’s an Individual Landmark?

An Individual Landmark is a structure which has its exterior appearance regulated by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, and permits are required to make changes to that exterior appearance.

Individual Landmarks can be privately or publicly owned. They can be any type of structure, ranging from a house, such as the Gingerbread House in Bay Ridge, to houses of worship, to  apartment buildings to office towers, and other structures such as the Parachute Jump and Wonder Wheel in Coney Island.

To be designated an Individual Landmark, the structure must be at least 30 years old and have "a special character or special historical or aesthetic interest or value as part of the development, heritage, or cultural characteristics of the City, state, or nation."

How are Individual Landmarks Regulated?

The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) regulates changes to the exterior features of individual landmarks, giving the community board and the public the opportunity to to weigh in on such changes.

The LPC DOES NOT regulate use. It has no say over who owns or uses Individual Landmarks, or how they use them. For example, the industrial factory buildings in DUMBO are now office and residential spaces.

Individual Landmark status will help ensure that Visitation Academy receives the recognition and protection it deserves, and that the public gets a say in how it is maintained. Without landmark protection, there is no guarantee that the site will remain. Landmarking is the only land use tool NYC has to preserve buildings.

Did you know: 

Visitation Academy was founded in 1855 by John Loughlin, the first Catholic bishop of Brooklyn

Loughlin established the school in 1856 in a mansion in Downtown Brooklyn at the corner of Johnson and Pearl Streets, (now the City Tech campus).

That mansion had been home to Reverend Evan Malbone Johnson, a prominent figure in the early development of Downtown Brooklyn, who founded St. John’s Episcopal Church (now in Park Slope), and was instrumental in the opening of Myrtle Avenue through what was then farmland. (Reverend Johnson’s son, who shared his name, fought at Gettysburg, and served as Comptroller of Brooklyn from 1868-1871.)

From its inception in Downtown Brooklyn, Visitation Academy was run under the auspices of the Sisters of Charity. The Sisters retrofitted the Johnson mansion to convert it into a school. THIS IS AN EARLY EXAMPLE OF WHAT ARCHITECTS NOW CALL ADAPTIVE REUSE

In 1885, citing the commercial growth of Downtown Brooklyn, Visitation Academy moved to Clinton and Willoughby Avenues in Clinton Hill, where the Sisters once again employed adaptive reuse to “remodel” an “old fashioned double house…with winding verandas” into a convent and academy.

As had previously been the case in Downtown Brooklyn, The architectural development of Clinton Hill led to increased traffic around the convent. Accordingly, in 1903, the Sisters sold their property in Clinton Hill and moved to their current campus in Bay Ridge. 

Just like they had done in their two previous locations, the Sisters employed adaptive reuse at their Bay Ridge campus. This time, the site they rehab-ed was in fact a rehab facility, known as the Inebriate Home of Kings County. Founded in 1867, the Inebriate Home of Kings County offered accommodation to up to 300 people, and included a chapel on-site. 

When the sisters converted the property to suit Visitation’s needs, they were able to offer enrollment to both day and boarding students, and the grounds featured a still-extant pond, along with rowboats. 

In September 1903, when the academy began its first school year in Bay Ridge, 400 people attended the opening reception. Ten years later, in 1913, Visitation completed its current facilities. 

Visitation’s movement progressively south throughout Brooklyn, from Downtown to Bay Ridge, reflects the growth of the borough, and the need of the Order to find contemplative space in the ever-expanding city. 

Visitation’s consistent effort to employ adaptive reuse at each of these sites reflects the Order’s spirit of “gentleness and humility.” 

This unique site, and the history and spirit it reflects, is worth preserving.

Sign the Petition! Urge the Landmarks Preservation Commission to Designate Visitation Academy as an Individual New York City Landmark.