New future seen for former East New York...

New future seen for former East New York...

Debbie Egan-Chin/New York Daily News

The Rev. R. Simone Lord and leaders of People’s First Baptist Church hope to turn the derelict former NYPD 75th Pct. on Liberty Ave. into a shelter for battered women, housing for war vets and a halfway house for teens aging out of foster care.

The commanding dignity of the massive East New York, Brooklyn building shines through even in the structures current sorry state.

The overgrown trees and weeds, broken windows and rotted doors cling to the former New York Police Departments 75th Precinct complex at 484 Liberty Ave. like bad makeup on a beautiful woman.

Three stories tall with turrets, balconies, a courtyard and and a horse stable, the complex was built in 1862 from a design by architect Emile Gruwe.

Gruwe, with architect George Ingram, also also designed the 18th Precinct Station House in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, also known for its castle-like turrets.

The Rev. W.D. Cleveland bought the East New York building in 1976 and moved his Peoples First Baptist Church into the space.

But Cleveland fell ill in the 1980s, long before his death in 2006 at age 6 7, leaving many of his dreams for the premises unrealized.

Now his widow, the Rev. R. Simone Lord, is mounting a $ 20 million dollar fund-raising drive to restore 484 Liberty to its former glory while also bringing much needed facilities including housing for war veterans and domestic violence victims to the neighborhood.

My husband was ill, so he was never able to do much with the property, Lord said. But he always had great dreams, especially for using the building to benefit the youths and veterans in the community. He was a Navy veteran, and he wanted to make a better life for people in the area.

The building occupies almost every square foot of that block, Lord said. There are three floors, plus a basement, which used to be a jail. The horse stable to the side has three floors.

Though Cleveland was never able to restore the building to what he wanted it to be, it was never in this shape, said church board member Burchell Marcus. It was l ivable, but after pastor started to deteriorate, the funds were just not there.

We held services in the building until his death, Lord said. We did what we needed to do to keep the church up.

Clevelands death brought another surprise - someone had illegally assumed title to the complex.

The largest hurdle the church faced as far as legal issues was it became aware in 2006 that the deed to that property had been illegally transferred to another party, said Paul Acinapura, general counsel in Brooklyn Legal Services East Brooklyn office. The church discovered one day that the official legal records of the city of New York showed that title of the property was no longer in the churchs name but in a persons name. That person had illegally transferred title to the property.