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Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Originally the Harry Moul House
Address: 160 Marlborough Road, between Albemarle and Beverley Roads
Neighborhood: Prospect Park South
Year Built: 1905
Architectural Style: Mediterranean/Four-Square hybrid
Architect: Robert Bryson and Carroll Pratt
Other buildings by architect: Bryson (with John Slee) Albemarle-Kenmore Terrace, Flatbush. Also homes in PPS, PLG, CHN (North & South), and Park Slope. Pratt other homes in PPS, Post Office buildings, NYC, suburban homes in tri-state area.
Landmarked: Yes, part of Prospect Park South HD.

The story: When Prospect Park South was being developed, so too was one of the most enduring residential styles, the Colonial Revival house, based on the designs of the clapboard and stone homes of our New England and Colonial past. Prospect Park South is full of Colonial Revivals in some way, shape, or form. But not all of the early settlers in this country came to New England, some explored and colonized in warmer climates, and the designs they used for homes in the South and West, designs derived from warm Mediterranean countries, found their way into the American home vernacular, as well. Part of what makes Prospect Park so interesting as an architectural collection, is the variety of inspiration, sometimes mixing in the same house.

The first building to stand on this lot was actually the original sales office for Dean Alvord’s project. That small building was moved in 1902, and this lot was sold to Harry Moul, who commissioned Robert Bryson and Carroll Pratt to design a new home. Robert Bryson had been working with John Petit, the chief designer of PPS from the beginning. It was during this time that he met John Slee, with whom he would partner in 1905, the team going on to design houses in Prospect Park South, as well as in other neighborhoods. Interestingly enough, they are known for their Colonial Revival work, so this house, at the beginning of Bryson’s career, is an interesting detour from that later work.

Carroll Pratt, the co-designer of this house, replaced John Petit as chief architect in 1902. He had been a former president of the American Institute of Architects, and had worked with several well-known firms. He was also consulting architect to the US Treasury Dept. Banks, hospitals and post offices were his specialty, not houses, leading one to believe that Bryson probably contributed more to the design of this house than Pratt did. Pratt would design other Colonial Revivals for PPS, but they were nowhere as good as those of his predecessor, John Petit.

When you compare this house to its neighbors, you realize that it is really a large four-square house like most of those around it. Where other houses were designed with Colonial Revival details, this one was embellished with Mediterranean details. Most significantly, the elegant tiled roofs, and the warm golden stucco. The deep overhanging eaves and substantial brackets supporting them are very striking, and greatly enhance the beauty of the house. The little details also delight: notice the delicate lacy band of trim above the porch, and the Southwestern style central chimney. The house’s porches were enclosed years ago to accommodate a doctor’s office. This house is a successful combination of late Victorian elegance and size, popular Colonial Revival massing and shape, and Mediterranean and Southwest styling and exterior detail.

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What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. neat house. i wonder what the porch looked like before it was enclosed. there seems to have been a craze of porch-enclosing. It makes sense on smaller houses where I can imagine some family wanting every inch of space, but in these big houses, it seems like a shame, though I guess here it was for a rental space. Would be nice in the summer to sit in Prospect Park South on a covered porch. Maybe it was the advent of air conditioning that did so many of them in.

  2. What a great house! What is that step looking thing on the roof? The chimney? And those brackets! I love the styles that don’t quite fit into one box or another- they’re much more interesting to me. It’s as if the architect is exposing more of himself in the design than when simply adhering to one particular style.