A Queen Anne Beauty Holds the Corner in Bed Stuy (Photos)

At the intersection of Halsey Street and Stuyvesant Avenue in Bed Stuy, a Queen Anne confection holds the corner and is ornamented with a delightful cornucopia of architectural details worth a closer look. The four-story brick and brownstone structure at 307 Stuyvesant Avenue (aka 519 Halsey Street) has survived for more than 100 years with a large amount of detail intact.

It was built circa 1889 with street level shops and flats above — not uncommon for corner buildings constructed in the 19th century. The designer and builder was developer Walter F. Clayton.

It is located within the Bedford Stuyvesant/Expanded Stuyvesant Heights Historic District, which includes more than 40 other buildings by Clayton. In addition to his work as an architect and builder, Clayton was a politician, serving as a New York State Assemblyman during the early 1920s.

The standout feature of the building is the tower effect created by the oriel windows placed at the corner and stretching from the second to fourth floors. The tower is capped with a dormered, pyramid-shaped roof — perhaps originally covered with slate shingles rather than the current asphalt. A large bracketed cornice tops both the Halsey and Stuyvesant street facades.

Below the oriel, at street level, the 19th century storefront has largely vanished, but some details remain, a close look reveals.

On either side of the corner entrance the original cast iron pilasters are still in place.

The Halsey Street facade has another impressively ornamented oriel, this one topped with a hipped roof. To the right is 523 Halsey Street, also a Queen Anne style building by Clayton — although much smaller in scale.

Between the windows of the third and fourth stories are panels of patterned brick, including this dogtooth design. To create the design, some bricks are laid diagonally so a corner projects outward.

The walkup building is still a rental and has six apartments. A Brooklyn Daily Eagle ad from 1916 advertised a “corner bay window” six-room apartment with steam heat and awnings on the windows for $28 per month — about $624 a month in 2017 dollars.

[Photos by Susan De Vries]

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