Building of the Day: 62 Montague Street
The BOTD is a no-frills look at interesting structures of all types and from all neighborhoods. There will be old, new, important, forgotten, public, private, good and bad. Whatever strikes our fancy. We hope you enjoy. Address: 62 Montague Street, between Hicks and Montague Terrace Name: The Arlington Apartments Neighborhood: Brooklyn Heights (Brooklyn Heights Historic…
The BOTD is a no-frills look at interesting structures of all types and from all neighborhoods. There will be old, new, important, forgotten, public, private, good and bad. Whatever strikes our fancy. We hope you enjoy.
Address: 62 Montague Street, between Hicks and Montague Terrace
Name: The Arlington Apartments
Neighborhood: Brooklyn Heights (Brooklyn Heights Historic District)
Year Built: 1887
Architectural Style: Romanesque Revival
Architect: Montrose Morris
Landmarked: Yes
This may be Montrose Morris’ first apartment building, built before his masterpieces, the Alhambra (1889) and the Imperial (1893). It complements the Parfitt Brothers’ fine brick and brownstone apartment buildings; the Montague, Grosvenor and Berkeley, which are just up the street, which predate this by only a couple of years.
When it was built, it was one of the tallest buildings on the Brooklyn Heights skyline, and could easily be seen from the shoreline. Ironically enough, it was not built for the the Heights’ upperclass businessmen, but rather for the middle class supervisors, managers, and clerks who worked for them. It’s a great building, with many of the features that now help identify a MM work.
As he would repeat in the Alhambra, his use of loggias to bridge sections of building together is evidenced here, along with his massing of shapes and features; turrets, dormers, columns and balconies, as well as his prolific use of terra-cotta trim.
The terra-cotta cherubs that cavort all over this building are used in his Hancock St. houses, from about the same time, as are the floral detail and use of decorative brick. As large as this building is, it often gets overlooked, as people head for the Promenade, but it is worthy of attention. Look up the next time you pass.
[Photos by Suzanne Spellen]
What a beautiful building! It’s kind of hard to wrap your head around the fact that this building has been there since 1887!!!
Beautiful building, and I just want to thank the management for pointing it out.
I lived on a high floor of this building for many years. It is a lovely building. My apartment had a working fireplace and the layout was very Victorian. We re-did the bathroom as if it were in an old high-class British hotel, huge fixtures, hefty hardware. It is a gem of a building. I still miss it although we made a small fortune on the apartment.
Oooh, it’s so Victorian-y. Love it!
Dying to know what the insides of the apartments looked like originally.
Great stuff, nystrele, I appreciate you adding the link. I hadn’t seen most of those historic pix. They’re really great. Thanks!
Ironically, just this morning, I posted on my blog about 62 Montague Street, which I live in. Much more history here:
http://chucktaylorblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/ten-years-ago-wheres-brooklyn_02.html
It is an astonishingly tall building for the date, isn’t it?
1887 was a long time ago. I think the tallest building in the world back then was the church tower in Ulm Germany. The Eiffel Tower surpassed it in 1889.
It is impressive how ancient and how tall some of the buildings are on Montague Street. It was super expensive real estate. Just steps away from the Wall Street ferry which discharged passengers at the Montague Street ferry terminal.
Looked at two of the apts in the past, simply lovely. Some may think some of the floor plans were challenging, I thought quirky and the views/sunlight were terrific. Sadly they were out of my price range at time.
I wish the co-op would restore the missing cornice just below the tower’s conical roof. But then, that is the sort of thing that drives up maintenance charges, and that makes us crazy here on b’stoner.