vanderbilt-avenue-0410.jpg
vanderbilt-houses-041010.jpgChristopher Gray’s Streetscapes column in The Times this week turns its attention to Vanderbilt Avenue between Myrtle and Park Avenues, which he calls “one of the most unusual blocks in Fort Greene.” Gray describes it as “a wide downhill boulevard flanked by Greek, Gothic and Italianate houses, an amazing salmagundi of the constructive arts.” You should check out the piece for the play-by-play action, but the most controversial tidbit concerns Number 69 Vanderbilt Avenue, the two-story wood house that dates back to the 1830s. Its neighbor at Number 71 was restored back in the 1980s, but Number 69 has had no such luck. “The house…looks near collapse, with dingy asbestos-type siding, broken windows and a sagging porch. The house is well known to the Department of Buildings, which ordered it vacated in 2009. The owner’s listed telephone numbers are either disconnected or don’t answer. The New York Landmarks Conservancy has had No. 69 on its endangered list for years. There are only two ways it could get off the list, and right now it’s more likely to go feet first.”
Of Captains, Caulkers and Hoop Skirt Makers [NY Times]


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. It’s true that this whole stretch is full of interesting houses, several Civil War frames. I always thought that this house was sad, so cute but so run down and so NEAR THE BQE. Sadder for the nicely restored house next door.