The New York Supreme court unanimously decided over a year ago not to allow Mr. Mamounas, the owner of the Hopper-Gibbons house, the documented Underground Railroad Station at 339 West 29th St., to bypass the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s purview over the building and thereby retain his illegally built 5th story addition.  Yet, despite the court victory, the illegally built 5th story and the hideous scaffolding and sidewalk shed still stand and the owner is currently applying to the Landmarks Preservation Commission to modify the roof and rear additions to this building.  A public hearing is scheduled at the LPC on June 21st.  The Friends of Hopper-Gibbons Underground Railroad Site & Lamartine Place Historic District, neighbors of the house, historians, and fellow preservationists urge you to mandate that the scofflaw owner remove this addition, scaffolding, and sidewalk shed and restore the building to its original four story height of 52 feet.  The historical significance of the Hopper-Gibbons house as a monument to abolitionism, to the Underground Railroad in New York City, to the Emancipation Proclamation, and to the Draft Riots, should be reason enough for the City to do everything in its power to preserve this historic building’s original height so that New Yorkers, now and in the future, can see the escape route taken by the Gibbons family over the rooftops of the neighboring four story row houses on 29th Street during the dark days of the Draft Riots which nearly tore the City apart.  By doing so, the Gibbons’ heroic actions in harboring slaves at this site would forever remain as a positive example of New Yorkers at their best.   If the City, on the other hand, were to let the developer get away with the desecration of such an important building by not forcing him to remove the illegally built 5th story, it would set a terrible and demoralizing precedent.