Dolores McCullough and Patricia Johnson, two students in the workshop, became active and important contributors to the Weeksville Project. Hurley first read about Weeksville in the book, Brooklyn's Eastern District, by local historian, Eugene Armbruster. Hurley, a local resident, researcher, and former aerial photographer, and Joseph Haynes, a professional engineer, pilot, and long-term resident of Bedford–Stuyvesant, later reconnoitered and photographed the historic houses on Hunterfly Road during an airplane flight over the area.