Bedford Stuyvesant

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Warehouse
Address: 376 Vernon Avenue
Cross Streets: Lewis and Stuyvesant Avenues
Neighborhood: Bedford Stuyvesant
Year Built: Unknown, late 19th century
Architectural Style: Classical/Romanesque
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: No

The story: Try as I might, I couldn’t find anything out about the history and architectural provenance of this great little warehouse. It sits on the Bedford Stuyvesant/Bushwick border, and appears on city maps in 1898. At the time, it was surrounded by other warehouses, in a mixed industrial/residential neighborhood.

Like the people who toiled in these types of buildings, the structure itself often fails to make a mark on the architectural or social history of a neighborhood. That’s a shame, as the people who built this building and worked in it, as well as the building, are an important part of the history of this city. Their work kept the higher ups in business, while providing a livelihood for themselves and their families. (more…)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Charles W. Betts House
Address: 97 MacDonough Street
Cross Streets: Tompkins and Throop Avenues
Neighborhood: Stuyvesant Heights
Year Built: 1861
Architectural Style: Italianate villa
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: Yes, part of the Stuyvesant Heights HD (1971)

The story: This is the oldest remaining house in Bedford Stuyvesant, most definitely the oldest house in Stuyvesant Heights. It is fitting that it lies on the first block of the longest and most significant of Stuyvesant Heights’ streets, MacDonough Street, because it introduces a passer-by to a long and impressive history of fine building that continues down the length of the street. It’s the beginning of the timeline.

Significant, also, is who built it. Charles W. Betts was the Secretary of the Brooklyn Railroad Company, and he was a large landowner in the area, and one of its largest developers. A railroad man would know the importance of land and homes in an area that, even in the mid 1800’s, had good public roads, public transportations, and the nearby railroad line. He was sitting on gold. He had this spacious square Italianate villa built, a typical house for the suburban area that this part of Brooklyn was at the time. The house has a splendid octagonal cupola on top, a wide porch, and large windows. It also sits on a nice big plot of land. (more…)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: former Prudential Savings Bank, now Urban Sports and Cultural Center
Address: 5 Stuyvesant Avenue
Cross Streets: Corner Vernon Avenue
Neighborhood: Bedford Stuyvesant
Year Built: 1909
Architectural Style: Beaux-Arts Classical
Architect: Daus & Otto
Other buildings by architect: Rudolph Daus – Sumner Armory on Jefferson, Bedford Stuyvesant; NY Telephone and Telegraph Building, Willoughby St. Downtown, Lincoln Club, Putnam Ave, Clinton Hill, as well as many other homes, civic and commercial buildings
Landmarked: No

The story: I’ve been curious about this building for a long time, but it wasn’t until I saw the name of this former bank on an old map, that I was able to find out more about it. Researching buildings can lead you on a twisted path sometimes. That’s what makes it both frustrating and fun. This part of Brooklyn, bordering on Bushwick, was very much in the bailiwick of German-American entrepreneurs, so it comes as no surprise that the Prudential Savings Bank was founded by a group of local German-American businessmen in 1908. (more…)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Row houses
Address: 112-116 Decatur Street
Cross Streets: Throop and Albany Avenue
Neighborhood: Stuyvesant Heights
Year Built: 1884
Architectural Style: Queen Anne
Architect: W. E. Booth
Other buildings by architect: various projects as architect and/or builder in Clinton Hill, Bed Stuy, Park Slope, including Seney (Methodist) Hospital.
Landmarked: Not yet. Calendared, as part of Stuyvesant Heights Extension HD

The story: Sometimes I’m asked what my favorite style of row house is, and I often mumble that I like them all, as there are characteristics of all of them that I really like a lot. On the exterior, I have to admit to being especially partial to Romanesque Revival/Queen Anne’s, because I love the mixtures of textures and materials and variety of facades, and as you know, I’m mad about ornament. But there is just something about brick houses, especially Queen Anne brick houses that often make me forget all about brownstone. (more…)