Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Hoagland Mansion
Address: 410 Clinton Avenue
Cross Streets: Gates and Greene Avenues
Neighborhood: Clinton Hill
Year Built: 1882
Architectural Style: Queen Anne
Architect: Parfitt Brothers
Other Buildings by Architect: Montague, Berkeley and Montauk Apt buildings, Bklyn Heights, St. Augustine RC Church, and Grace Methodist Church, Park Slope, Truslow House, Crown Hts North.
Landmarked: Yes, part of Clinton Hill HD (1981)

The story: This is one of Clinton Hill’s most important mansions, but it doesn’t get the attention some of the others do. Which is too bad, as it is a great house, designed by one of Brooklyn’s most important and talented architectural firms, and was home to some very interesting people. It was commissioned by Dr. Cornelius N. Hoagland, who had originated the formula for Royal Baking Powder, which made him very wealthy. In 1876, the good doctor retired and sold his interests in Royal Baking Powder to his partners, which included his son-in-law and his brother. He took the money and built a laboratory at Long Island Hospital, now demolished, as well as gave money to the Brooklyn Eye and Ear Hospital, and the Brooklyn Kindergarten Society, which named a kindergarten after him, the Hoagland Kindergarten, which was at Gold and York Streets. Then he went about having a nice big mansion built for himself.

He hired the Parfitt Brothers, three Englishmen who were doing quite well in Brooklyn. When this house was commissioned, the youngest Parfitt, Albert, had just arrived from England, and his mastery of the British form of Queen Anne architecture, called the Free Classical Form, is very evident in the design of this house. The use of red brick and terra-cotta, the classical forms used in a very non-classical way, i.e., the columns and pediments, the asymmetry of the oriel and the large second story window, the use of molded bricks, and the Japanese inspired roof cresting, are all pure Queen Anne. There was also once a porch, and the Queen Anne sunflower motif can be found in several places, which represented home and family. The Parfitts would go on to design throughout Brooklyn, with row houses, churches, apartment and flats buildings, stand alone mansions and commercial buildings to their credit. They could do it all, and they did it really well.

Cornelius Hoagland lived here until his death, and in 1906, his heirs sold the house to Alfred Cotton Bedford, who was an oil associate of Charles Pratt, adding to the number of oil men on this prominent block. Bedford later became a director, and then president and chairman of the board at Standard Oil. The last private owner of the house was George Mendes, a wholesale food broker. He sold the house in 1947, and the twenty room mansion was broken up into furnished suites. According to Property Shark, there are now 17 units in the building. I wonder if any interior detail is left. GMAP

Photo: Scott Bintner for Property Shark, 2007

What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. This is an interesting house. The Parfitts were new to America and perhaps were too subtle. Maybe even a little timid. Their later designs were much more dramatic and in keeping with New World tastes. This house is very delicate and understated, no wonder it has never really been noticed.
    I wonder how the porch worked? I can’t picture it. I assume it was asymmetrical. Hopefully there is an old photo somewhere to guide a future owner’s restoration.

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