The Harlem home of iconic Poet Langston Hughes is up for sale, and a crowdfunding campaign is seeking to save the historic landmark.
The current owner listed the home for $1 million, but for now, it sits empty with Hughes’ typewriter still on a shelf.
According to CNN Money, real estate agents estimate the home’s worth to be over $3 million.
Amid growing pressure to sell “Hughes House,” Renee Watson started an Indiegogo campaign to raise $150,000 to rent the home and convert it into a cultural center honoring Hughes.
“The more Harlem changes, the more I’m motivated to do something,” Watson said.
The writer lives nearby and says she has watched gentrification flood in. A Whole Foods is set to open in the area early next year — a move that realtors say will make prices skyrocket even further.
“Change is happening in Harlem and I believe it is important that in a place like Harlem, the historical and cultural spaces where African-American pioneers lived and created be preserved,” Watson wrote on the Indiegogo page. “This is not just for nostalgic reasons. I see a need for young people to know about and understand the legacy they are a part of…”
So far, the campaign to save Hughes’ home has raised more than $50,000.
Click here to view and donate to the campaign.
Photo: Associated Press Images
