Flatbush Mixtape, a Brooklyn-based mutual aid organization, had already been building a solidarity economy, and sought to expand it. They wanted to build a permanent home for their Tool Library, which had been run out of a tiny storage shed, so it could become a shared community resource.

The basement of Leffert’s Historic House in Prospect Park offered not just a permanent home for the Tool Library, but an opportunity to repair injustices of the past. Once the home of the wealthy Lefferts family, the architectural landmark is actively being re-imagined to tell the stories of the Africans enslaved by the Lefferts, and the Lenapehoking people, whose ancestral lands the house occupies. By transforming the House into space for mutual aid, the Tool Library turns a place that once embodied exclusion into one that expands access and opportunity.

Architecture + Advocacy’s work was cut out for us. The house was never designed to store tools. It was piled high with boxes and a custom storage solution needed to be built. 

Over  five months, Architecture + Advocacy facilitated biweekly workshops, site visits, design sessions, and hands-on build days with Flatbush Mixtape and other community members. Participants helped identify needs, review design concepts, test storage solutions, and directly construct portions of the project. Their ideas led to flexible storage systems that can grow over time and easy access to frequently used tools.

For both Flatbush Mixtape community members and A+A volunteers, this was many participant’s first time using power tools or designing a space. The space– and the collaborative process of designing it– became an emblem of what the community could build together. “Quote from Q?” 

Starting this summer, residents will be able to borrow tools, participate in repair workshops in the backyard of Lefferts Historic House, and celebrate a Tool Library space designed specifically for community-led tool sharing and learning. 

More than a storage system, the project demonstrates what becomes possible when communities have the tools to solve problems together. The conversations sparked here extend beyond repairing broken furniture or household items. They invite residents to imagine how collective action can help repair the larger inequalities affecting their neighborhoods, as well.