"View of buildings on Hunterfly Road - now 1698 - 1708 Bergen Street, 1922."

The Hunterfly Road Houses date from 1840-1880, and were originally part of the African American community of Weeksville. Founded in 1838 by James Weeks, a formerly enslaved person from Virginia and NYC longshoreman, Weeksville was a thriving Black community by the 1850s. It functioned as any community would, with churches, schools, businesses, a newspaper, and a cemetery.

By the 1880s the continued and rapid development of Brooklyn signaled the beginning of the end for Weeksville. The extension of the street grid, the construction of municipal infrastructure, and the demolition and replacement of wood-frame buildings for masonry structures greatly diminished the size and vibrancy of the community. By the middle of the 20th century, the small area of Weeksville that remained was nearly entirely obscured by the streetscape of the surrounding neighborhood.

In the late 1960s a historian working on a project at Pratt came across references to the community. With a pilot friend he took to the sky to see what remained. They found, within the street grid, a surviving section of Hunterfly Road and the wood-frame homes. Threatened with imminent redevelopment, the community rallied to save this historic location. Since then a series of community organizations have tirelessly worked for the preservation, restoration, and interpretation of Weeksville.