Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Commercial building with flats above
Address: 711 Nostrand Avenue
Cross Streets: Between Park and Sterling Places
Neighborhood: Crown Heights North
Year Built: 1899
Architectural Style: Colonial Revival
Architect: George P. Chappell
Other Work by Architect: Over 50 buildings in Crown Hts North alone, including many on Dean St. Pacific Street, including St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, New York Avenue, Bergen Street and Park and Prospect Places. Also buildings in Stuyvesant Heights, Bedford Stuyvesant and Park Slope
Landmarked: Yes, part of Phase II of Crown Heights North HD (2011)

The story: One of the reasons Brooklyn’s historic districts are so great, architecturally speaking, is because of the continuity between the residential and commercial streets. Many of the same architects who designed the fine homes on the residential side streets also designed the buildings on the busy commercial streets. These buildings were no less detailed, no less well-though out, and in fact, may have even been more so, due to the fact that people would be able to see them in their daily travels, as well as patronize the businesses that were on the first floors of these buildings.

Nostrand Avenue is one of the great commercial thoroughfares of our borough, and at the dawn of the 20th century, was still being developed. It wouldn’t be really finished, at least not in the Crown Heights section, until the 1930s. The storefront buildings, apartment buildings and commercial buildings, including the banks that line the street between Atlantic Avenue and Eastern Parkway are a delightful mixture of architectural styles and flavors. Although almost all of the storefronts have been altered, some beyond recognition, the street retains a great deal of its original architecture. (more…)