Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Row House
Address: 313 Garfield Place
Cross Streets: 8th Avenue and Prospect Park West
Neighborhood: Park Slope
Year Built: 1889
Architectural Style: Romanesque Revival
Architect: C.P.H. Gilbert, reconstruction of façade by Edward I. Mills & Assoc. (1998)
Other Works by Architect: on this block, # 319 Garfield. Also 836, 842, 846 Carroll St. Adams House, 115-119 8th Ave at Carroll. 14-18, 36-50, 54-60, 11,17-21, 25 Montgomery Place, as well as more in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Landmarked: Yes, part of Park Slope HD (1973)

The story:
When we talk about the great architect CPH Gilbert’s work in Park Slope, this particular house rarely comes up. Yet to walk down Garfield, one can’t help but notice this huge house, it’s one of the largest houses on a block of large houses, and it’s also one of the most visually striking houses on the block, with a light colored terra-cotta colored face, and terra-cotta ornament everywhere. So how come, not much love? It may be because the house was so altered at one point, no one realized it was his.

Gilbert designed the house, a generous 26 feet wide, as speculative housing. Unlike many of his houses on Montgomery Place and Carroll Street, this house was not specifically for a particular buyer. However, a mansion like this is bound to attract a well-connected and wealthy owner, and in 1913, the five story house became home to the Farrell family.

James Farrell’s life reads like a classic American success story. He was the son of a New Haven ship owner who was lost at sea when young Farrell was 15. Forced to go to work to support his family, he was first employed by a wire mill, where he was hired as a mechanic, and eventually became a skilled drawer of wire. He moved to Pittsburgh, where he drew wire for the Oliver Wire Company. From there he rose through the ranks of the company, and became plant manager. As a steel expert, he was involved in starting several plants and organizing the Pittsburgh Steel Company. He was head of international trade for the Pittsburgh Wire and Steel Company, and that position brought him to New York, and 313 Garfield.

In 1927, James Farrell, J. P. Morgan, and Myron C. Taylor were selected to run the United States Steel Corporation. Morgan was only a titular figurehead, Farrell actually ran the company as President and C.E.O. Taylor was C.F.O. The family didn’t stay here long, after that, but the house was called “the Farrell House”, for many years afterward. The house was sold to Tracy Higgins, heir to the Higgins Ink Company, in 1928, and a year later, he sold it to Charles Bruning, the Danish-born owner of a self-named blue print paper company. Mr. Bruning, according to the New York Times, was going to substantially alter the interior, and add an elevator.

Sometime in the 1940’s, it is believed, the owner of 313 coated the entire house in terra-cotta colored stucco, obliterating any period details on the house. They probably thought they were “modernizing” it. When the block was landmarked in 1973, the description by the LPC was “smooth stuccoed and lined to simulate stone.” The tax photo from the 1980’s reinforces that description, as well. It would remain this way until the 1990’s.

In 1997, the Apfel family bought the house, and immediately planned a façade restoration for what they called “the ugliest house on the block.” They retained the architectural firm of Edward I. Mills & Assoc. to design the reconstruction of the facade. It seems as if Mills & Assoc. (and the owners) are responsible for all of the terra-cotta ornament on the façade today. That includes a wealth of sculpted heads, foliate trim, columns and capitals, and bandcourses. The house is now a riot of interesting faces and foliage. It may not be old, but it is quite well done. Are the faces those of the Apfel family? The Apfel’s have become great fans and admirers of old CPH, and certainly have gone to great lengths to make this home more than just another large Park Slope house. It’s once again a house with great character. GMAP

Photo: Kate Leonova for Property Shark, 2006
1980's tax photo: Municipal Archives


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