Founding members of the preservation group were James Hurley, Dewey Harley, Dolores McCullough, Joan Maynard, and Patricia Johnson.

The Heritage Center focuses on tours, arts and crafts, literacy and historical preservation programs for public-school students.

They were built along a road dating to American Indian tenure of the area; it led to shellfish beds at the Jamaica Bay end of Fresh Kill/Creek.

[This paragraph needs citation(s)] A 1906 article in the New York Age, recalling the earlier period, said that James Weeks, a stevedore and a respected member of the community, "owned a handsome dwelling at Schenectady and Atlantic Avenues."

During the violent New York Draft Riots of 1863, during the Civil War, the community served as a refuge for many African Americans who fled from Manhattan; many resettled in Brooklyn.

The old lane, located off Bergen Street between Buffalo and Rochester avenues, was a remnant of the colonial Hunterfly Road.

Summer interns of the Neighborhood Youth Corps were employed by what was initially called the Weeksville Project to explore the block as demolition of the houses occurred.

[12] The Heritage Center was completed in 2013[8] and features a $14 million 19,000-square-foot (1,800 m2) performance and educational program space, including a café and library.

The designation allows the center to receive significant capital to fund operating costs from the Department of Cultural Affairs.