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House of the Day: 268 78th Street
This Bay Ridge limestone seems relatively affordable at $829,000 and has some hidden original details such as parquet floors and crown moldings that could be restored, according to the listing. It’s currently set up as two units – a two-bedroom over a one-bedroom — but it’s somewhat narrow and the second bedroom on the top floor can only be accessed via the other bedroom. We think it might work better as a one-family. What do you think of the property and the price?
268 78th Street [Betancourt] GMAP P*Shark
06/17/2013 1:30 PM
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House of the Day: 22 Bay Ridge Place
We’re charmed by the well-preserved details in this teens Bay Ridge row house. There are French doors, a paneled dining room, and the house sits on a cobblestone street, according to the listing. It’s a one-family with four bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms. They’re asking $795,000. How do you like it?
22 Bay Ridge Place [Temple Morrow] GMAP P*Shark
05/30/2013 1:30 PM
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House of the Day: 362 79th Street
Although we’re not wild about the kitchen or the bath pictured, this early 20th century Bay Ridge one-family looks like a sweet pad to us. It’s semi detached, so it has a wall of windows in the combined living room-dining room and a garage in the back. It’s also much less expensive than many of the houses featured on here, although at $829,000 with no rental, it’s well out of starter home territory.
362 79th Street [Betancourt] GMAP P*Shark
05/23/2013 1:30 PM
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Rental of the Day: 7825 4th Avenue
Here’s a two-bedroom with a convertible third bedroom in the Bay Ridge co-op building 7825 4th Avenue. It’s nice enough but that is a whole lot of carpet. The rent is what tempted us: only $1,795 a month.
7825 4th Avenue [Nest Seekers] GMAP P*Shark
05/21/2013 12:30 PM
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Past and Present: The Crescent Athletic Club, Bay Ridge
A look at Brooklyn, then and now.
The Crescent Athletic Club was Brooklyn’s most prestigious sports club. From the confines of its swanky clubhouse in Brooklyn Heights, the elite men of Brooklyn gathered to wine and dine, as well as take part in individual and team sports. The club was founded in 1884 by a group of Brooklyn based Yale alumni who wanted to start a football team. From this team grew a large and wealthy club of not only youngish rich athletes, but their fathers, and other older men who had the money to build a club where they could all socialize, take part in sports, play cards, billiards and sit around drinking, smoking and engaging in the most exciting sport of all – deal making. The Crescent Club had an impressive clubhouse on Clinton Street with a large dome, on top of which their club symbol, a large crescent moon, rose quite prominently from the top of the building.
In 1902, the club built a much larger and more impressive building at the corner of Pierrepont and Clinton, a limestone clubhouse designed by Frank Freeman, one of Brooklyn’s finest architects. This was the culmination of the club’s size, wealth, and success, and gave them room for a swimming pool, club, dining and gaming rooms, as well as much more, but it wasn’t the only facility they had. Team sports need fields and facilities to play in, and in the Crescent’s early days, they played football, hockey, baseball, and other team sports in rented arenas and fields, but they wanted their own athletic complex. In 1889, they merged with the Nereid Rowing Club and acquired their large boathouse on the shores of Bay Ridge’s Gold Coast, the Shore Road. (more…)
05/10/2013 10:30 AM
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Abandoned Bay Ridge Wreck to Be Torn Down
This 1920 home in Bay Ridge that has been abandoned for decades is slated for demolition. We wrote about this house in 2010 when neighbors contacted us after starting a Facebook page to pressure the city to do something. Even then, they said the house had, “standing water, holes in the roof, a second floor that has collapsed into the ground, raccoons that inhabit this house, and bulging walls that show this house is ready fall at any moment.” According to The Daily News, the house was deserted in the 1980s after the owner, Frank Landy, and his wife divorced. The home is scheduled to meet the wrecking ball any day and residents are glad that the breeding ground for rats and racoons will finally be gone. The tax photo of the once-attractive home is after the jump.
Bay Ridge Eyesore to Be Torn Down [NY Daily News]
Using Facebook to Clean up Bay Ridge ‘Dump’ [Brownstoner] (more…)
05/09/2013 9:30 AM
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House of the Day: 8200 Narrows Avenue
One of the best known houses in Brooklyn, Bay Ridge’s Gingerbread House, is on the market, and the inside is just as spectacular as the exterior. We were expecting a run-of-the-mill Craftsman interior, but the inside is an elaborate, custom, fairy-tale-like early 20th century interpretation of a medieval cottage. There are Burmese mahogany floors, coffered and painted ceilings, heavily leaded stained glass depicting medieval lute players, Tudor-inspired oak panelling, fanciful brass door hardware, and plaster wall ornaments. The house was designed by architect J. Sarsfield Kennedy in 1916, and you can read all about it in this Walkabout. There is also a 17 foot-long butler’s pantry, a pond, a fountain, five walk-in closets, a wine cellar, and two garages. The current owners bought the house in 1985 and put it on the market in 2010 for $12,000,000 but it did not sell, according to PropertyShark. What do you think of the house — and the $11,000,000 ask?
8200 Narrows Avenue [Douglas Elliman] GMAP P*Shark
05/07/2013 1:30 PM
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Focus on Bay Ridge’s Fort Hamilton
The Fort Hamilton section of Bay Ridge is a “naturally occurring retirement community,” according to a profile of the area in The New York Times. We’re not sure that’s a compliment, but the neighborhood is also leafy, stable and relatively affordable, according to the paper. “The area’s low-slung character and leafy environs have had extra protection since a 2005 rezoning,” the story said. Prices for row houses start at $600,000, and three-bedroom rentals start at $1,600. That may be partly because it’s some distance from Manhattan and the R train is packed during commute hours. Many residents use the express buses to commute into Manhattan, which take 50 minutes to an hour. What do you think of the area as a place to live?
Living in Fort Hamilton: a NORC, up Close and Personal [NY Times]
Photo by Google Maps
05/01/2013 10:30 AM
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Inside a Bay Ridge House Makeover
A Brownstoner reader wrote in to tell us about her and her husband’s renovation project, the makeover of a standalone Bay Ridge home that department of building records say was built in 1899. We had thought it might be older, based on the shape of the house and other clues, but some digging around by our own Montrose Morris revealed that the first map to show a building there is dated 1924. This house also happened to be the boyhood home of our correspondent’s husband. As she said, “This project was a great challenge to all involved as we kept the entire footprint the same while adding large windows to create the illusion of grandeur.” The house’s footprint was “untouched” from the original home that sat on this “little hill in Bay Ridge for 114 years.” The house was purchased by her husband’s parents in the 1960s and had deteriorated over the years. The clean-out took around six months, and the couple found old World War II memorabilia, an 1854 Ansonia Clock, old museum prints, and old watercolor paintings. Over the past eight months, the couple took on a major re-do. They put in a new foundation, new sub-floors, all new mechanicals, and reinforced the steel throughout. Closets were added throughout the home. For the facade, they used limestone stucco and energy-efficient, impact-resistant hurricane windows and doors. The staircase was moved, but they reproduced the pattern of the old balusters in the new one. They restored all the light fixtures in the house and incorporated them into the interior design; the original mantel was refinished as well. The front mahogany doors were built by a team of craftsman in Dunkirk, N.Y., and all other products in the home were made in the United States. The contractors used were Cavalier Construction Services, based in Red Hook, and the architect was Pasquale Castellano. Click through to see lots of pictures and read more details!
04/19/2013 11:30 AM
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House of the Day: 530 76th Street
Whoa, get a look at that dining room with all the wood and the built-ins! This Edwardian house also has plenty of other lovely details, including stained glass, inlaid floors, a breakfast nook, a nicely updated bathroom with a glass-enclosed shower, a working gas lamp (if we read the photo correctly) and a beautiful facade. The house also appears to be in excellent condition, with recently updated electric, plumbing and heating, a new roof and new Marvin wood windows, according to the listing. We’re not loving the exposed brick in the living room, but that can always be plastered over. Does $995,000 strike you as a good price?
530 76th Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
04/11/2013 1:30 PM
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City Plans Radical Redesign of 4th Avenue in Bay Ridge
The Department of Transportation plans to narrow 4th Avenue in Bay Ridge to one lane on each side in an effort to slow traffic and improve safety. The changes are part of an ongoing effort to make the avenue throughout Brooklyn less congested and dangerous. The avenue is tied with Eastern Parkway and Avenue U as the third most dangerous for pedestrians in Brooklyn. Between 2008 and 2010, four pedestrians were killed on 4th Avenue. The new design came out of public workshops on how to improve 4th Avenue, reported The Brooklyn Paper. Some Bay Ridge residents oppose the new plan, and say recent changes to improve 4th Avenue in Sunset Park have made congestion worse rather than relieving it. The DOT said it will “tweak” the plans and submit them to Community Board 10 for approval. Above, 4th Avenue and 86th Street.
City Plans Narrower Thoroughfare to Stop Speeders [Brooklyn Paper]
Closing Bell: Upcoming Meetings for 4th Avenue [Brownstoner]
Photo by DOT via Brooklyn Paper
03/25/2013 9:30 AM
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House of the Day: 469 74th Street
Some may object to the second bathroom in the basement and the fridge off the back entrance, but to us, this seems like a good deal for a three-bedroom, two-bath house in what appears to be move-in condition. They’re asking $665,000. How do you like it?
469 74th Street [Kleier Residential] GMAP P*Shark
03/13/2013 1:30 PM
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Rental of the Day: 7207 Shore Road
Here’s a full-house rental in Bay Ridge, all the way west at 7207 Shore Road. It’s a duplex with a garage, three bedrooms, and two baths. There are also front and back porches and a private back yard. Not a bad set up for $3,000 a month! We especially like that view of the water from the front porch.
7207 Shore Road [FRBO] GMAP P*Shark
03/04/2013 12:30 PM
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Open House Picks
Fort Greene
11A South Elliott Place
Corcoran
Sunday, 12:00-1:30
$2,750,000
GMAP P*Shark
Prospect Lefferts Gardens
36 Rutland Road
Fillmore
Saturday, 1:00-3:00
$2,100,000
GMAP P*Shark
Prospect Heights
474 Dean Street
Corcoran
Sunday, 12:00-2:00
$1,495,000
GMAP P*Shark
Bay Ridge
217 81st Street
Brown Harris Stevens
Sunday, 1:00-3:00
$939,000
GMAP P*Shark
03/01/2013 1:11 PM
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Bay Ridge Bests Park Slope for Raising Children
A new report ranks Bay Ridge as the best Brooklyn neighborhood in which to raise children, said The New York Daily News. Bay Ridge scored high, coming in fourth citywide, because of its high rate of home ownership, good schools, and parents with stable jobs. Park Slope, meanwhile, was ranked 15th citywide because of its mixed community of poor residents living side by side with wealthy ones, according to the paper. The group that authored the report, the Citizens’ Committee for Children, evaluated neighborhoods based on four factors: Economic, Health, Youth and Housing. Bay Ridge scored high on key youth factors such as the percentage of high school dropouts, employment, birth rate, and arrest rate among teens. Click here for more info about the report findings (the full report costs $50). Unfortunately, recent improvements in education may be mostly a factor of more wealthy people moving into Brooklyn, and applicable mostly to them, if we read the Committee’s comments correctly. “For example, while the city has seen improvements in education trends in recent years, such as increased reading and math scores, higher graduation rates, and fewer dropouts, the results are not as positive among racial/ethnic groups and across neighborhood school districts,” the group said. Do you agree with the report’s findings? Where would you rather live?
Report: Bay Ridge Best Nabe to Bring up Children [NY Daily News]
02/26/2013 9:00 AM
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Open House Picks
Fort Greene
81 Willoughby Avenue
Corcoran
Saturday, 12:00-2:00
$2,350,000
GMAP P*Shark
Windsor Terrace
1511 8th Avenue
Corcoran
Sunday, 1:00-3:00
$1,800,000
GMAP P*Shark
Ditmas Park
777 Rugby Road
Douglas Elliman
Sunday, 1:00-3:00
$999,000
GMAP P*Shark
Bay Ridge
7519 Colonial Road
Brown Harris Stevens
Sunday, 12:00-2:00
$825,000
GMAP P*Shark
02/22/2013 1:00 PM
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Open House Picks
Boerum Hill
109 Douglass Street
Brown Harris Stevens
Sunday, 12:30-2:30
$1,995,000
GMAP P*Shark
Boerum Hill
486 Warren Street
Level Group
Sunday, 1:00-2:30
$1,900,000
GMAP P*Shark
Williamsburg
137 Bedford Avenue
Halstead
Sunday, 12:00-1:00
$1,495,000
GMAP P*Shark
Bay Ridge
217 81st Street
Brown Harris Stevens
Sunday, 12:00-2:00
$939,000
GMAP P*Shark
02/08/2013 1:05 PM
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Bay Ridge Classic Hinsch’s to Close March 1
Old-school Bay Ridge luncheonette and ice cream parlor Hinsch’s will close in March, according to Brooklyn Daily. It already closed once in 2011, but then was bought by new owners and reopened. Co-owner Roger Desmond, who grew up in the area, said high costs of doing business and changing tastes doomed the diner. “The area no longer supports this kind of establishment,” said Desmond. “Bay Ridge is more of a fast food kind of place now. Hinsch’s is passé, I guess.” The landlord reportedly already has another tenant lined up, although the paper didn’t specify who. Hinsch’s opened in 1948. It is located at 8518 5th Avenue between 85th and 86th streets.
Not Again! Hinsch’s to Close and This Time It’s Forever! [Brooklyn Daily]
Photo by roboppy
01/11/2013 2:00 PM
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Past and Present: The Hotel Gregory
A look at Brooklyn, then and now.
When Brooklyn entered the 20th century, she had everything any good city needs to thrive: a great natural location, a vibrant population, industry, commerce, transportation and infrastructure. Brooklyn also had all of the amenities of a premiere city, including culture, restaurants, parks and entertainment. People came to Brooklyn from all over the world. Tourist dollars are dependent on places to stay, and Brooklyn had plenty of hotels in those bygone days, from the swanky Bossert and St. George to the resorts of Coney Island and Brighton Beach. There were residential and transient hotels, “family” hotels, high price, mid-price and, though no reputable guide would tell you, by the hour. Most of her neighborhoods had at least one or two hotels, and there was never a complaint about not being able to find a decent place to stay in Brooklyn. That all changed after World War II. (more…)
12/14/2012 10:30 AM
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House of the Day: 7702 Ridge Boulevard
This one-family center-hall neo-Colonial in Bay Ridge looks like it could use a little updating and restoration, particularly in the kitchen and baths, but there’s potential here. However, we’re not sure about the price. Is $1,588,000 a little high for a house in this location that needs work?
7702 Ridge Boulevard [House-N-Key Realty] GMAP P*Shark
12/12/2012 1:30 PM
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williamsburg_guys
Jun 18, 2013 | 09:35 AM