Crown Heights South Brooklyn -- 188 Sullivan Place History  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: 188-190 Sullivan Place, between Bedford and Rogers
Name: Private Houses
Neighborhood: Crown Heights South
Year Built: between 1925-1940
Architectural Style: Four-Square(ish)
Architects: Unknown
Landmarked: No

Crown Heights South is very different than Crown Heights North, architecturally, for one big reason the passage of time. Much of CHS was built well into the 20th century, when life was very different than it was in the late 1800’s, when CHN was built.

This relatively unknown street is a good example. The homes were built during the first half of the century in a very suburban configuration of semi-detached one family homes, all with garages behind them, as seen in the Property Shark map.

Crown Heights South Brooklyn -- 188 Sullivan Place HistoryMap via Property Shark

While this style of home is well known in other parts of Brooklyn, they are still rare enough in Brownstone Brooklyn to be a curiosity.

Crown Heights South Brooklyn -- 188 Sullivan Place History

All of the homes on this block are well cared for, most are still generous one family homes, and the neighborhood has an interesting retro vibe to it, only a block behind busy Empire Blvd, near PLG, and Prospect Park. Back in the good old days, this block was within hailing distance of Ebbetts Field, and the sounds of the ballpark could probably be heard from these yards.

Crown Heights South Brooklyn -- 188 Sullivan Place History Crown Heights South Brooklyn -- 188 Sullivan Place History

[Photos by Suzanne Spellen]


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. Architerrorist, I make it a point to highlight a different neighborhood every day. I do not do a post in the same neighborhood twice in one week. I do make a conscious effort to have a Crown Heights building every week, as well as a Bed Stuy building. That is because both neighborhoods have been overlooked for years, and a little light on them to introduce the fine architecture in both neighborhoods is a personal mission of mine.

    I would love to get around more and highlight different neighborhoods, but that is not easy, as I don’t have a car, and I don’t have unlimited time to spend wandering around, unfortunately. I do have to make a living. That is why my choices have been limited to the brownstone neighborhoods that surround me. This summer, I am making a concerted effort to getting around more, and you’ll see more diversity in neighborhoods.

    I have put great effort in including a lot of different kinds of buildings in this column, both famous and unknown, humble and haughty. I could have just as easily only included listed buildings of the rich in landmarked neighborhoods. That would have been easy for me, timewise, but I truly think that there is so much more out there than that.

  2. No, I agree – most are interesting. Just think the mix could be a little more diverse. I know this is Montrose Morris’s turf, but maybe he should journey a little off his beaten path, or let a guest writer from another nabe post now on then (I don’t mean me, btw).

  3. Huh? Maybe a lot of Crown Heights/Clinton Hill, but I’ve found most of these features very interesting. Granted, this one less so. But this is actually the only exception I can think of.