About 20 demonstrators marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall last week, protesting against the city’s use of the eminent domain law to bulldoze and build on property in downtown Brooklyn, despite evidence that the buildings were Underground Railroad houses.

The small group gathered in Brooklyn at 227 Duffield Street, one of the proposed demolition sites, and was led by Bill Batson, candidate for 57th District State Assembly, and property owners Joy Chatel and Lewis Greenstein.

“If they can take Duffield Street, it is a precursor for the rest of the stadium project,” Chatel told the Amsterdam News. “Thomas and Harriet Lee-Truesdell were ardent abolitionists who owned the building. The City knows they were abolitionists. Yet they want to take this house – my house – and make it into a car park.”

“The underlying issue is that this is one of the most repugnant examples of eminent domain abuse,” said Batson, who was joined at the City Hall gates by City Councilmembers Charles Barron (D-East New York) and Leticia James (D-Brooklyn).

At City Hall, Batson presented an oral letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg condemning the proposed demolitions.

According to Batson, Chatel and Greenstein, the destruction of their properties is to take place this spring.

The mayor’s office did not return a phone call by press time.