Coming Home to Bed-Stuy

On clear autumn days, crispy auburn-edged leaves are trembling along the lacy skyline of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. The Victorian and Neo-Baroque architectural markers of the neighborhood’s brownstones and cultural mainstays are easy to spot — stained-glass windows, an iconic magnolia tree, a park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, murals and conical spires.

The Brownstoners of Bedford-Stuyvesant, a volunteer organization with an enduring legacy of showcasing Brooklyn living, was founded in the late 1970s to encourage Black Americans from the South and the Caribbean, who had left the community, “to come home.”

Beginning in 1978, the organization’s mission has evolved from reclamation to emphasizing the fortitude of Black homeownership in central Brooklyn. Every third Saturday in October for 46 years, the Brownstoners of Bedford-Stuyvesant hold their signature event, the Annual House Tour. The entrance fee is $40.

“Some of the homes have a modern renovation and other homes have restored woodwork, the moldings, staircases, spindles,” said Chris Fox, a Brooklyn native who lives on Long Island. It’s his third time attending the home tour. “The backyard in this house is beautiful; it looks like it could be on HGTV,” Mr. Fox said after leaving Frederica Tokponwey’s ground-level renovation, which opens up into a tented backyard.

From the eastern edge of Bed-Stuy to the tree-lined blocks of Hancock Street, the style and care for the Black family home is on display. Almost every house has a colossal stack of coffee table books with works like “Afro Surf,” “Sacred Woman,” “Black Power Kitchen” and the chef Kwame Onwuachi’s “My America,” with some titles repeated in more than one home.