Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Single-family homes
Address: 124 and 130 Arlington Avenue
Cross Streets: Schenck Avenue and Barbey Street
Neighborhood: Highland Park/Cypress Hills
Year Built: 1908-1912
Architectural Style: Classical Revival
Architect: Rosemary Songer Unknown
Landmarked: No

The story: I recently got the opportunity to wander around parts of Highland Park and Cypress Hills, which, according to Forgotten NY, is one of the most forgotten and little-known neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Often lumped in with, and then dismissed by many, as part of East New York, these two neighborhoods have a long and proud history. There is a lot of great architecture there, much of which has little or no information available about it, but I hope to be able to find out what I can, and add some of their architecture to the growing map of Brooklyn’s significant buildings.

The Highland Park part of the neighborhood is below the terminal moraine and south of Highland Park, another of Brooklyn’s significant parks. The entire area was settled by the Dutch in the mid-1600s, and was once a part of Flatbush, before being the town of New Lots. When more land was needed for farming, the settlers were deeded new lots of land, hence the name. In 1852, New Lots seceded from Flatbush, and was established as its own town. All became part of the city of Brooklyn in 1896, which became part of Greater New York only two years later in 1898. The other sub-neighborhood names came with greater residential development. At that time, this was largely a German-American neighborhood.

Nearby Broadway Junction is one of Brooklyn’s great transit hubs, giving residents easy access to much of Brooklyn and out to Long Island. By the end of the 19th century, Highland Park and Cypress Hills were fine middle- and upper-middle class enclaves, with thriving businesses, banks, stores and some significant homes and churches. Most are still here today although, as in parts of Flatbush, many of the homes suffer from historically inappropriate re-siding and alterations. These two houses, being brick, were spared, and are quite interesting in their own right.

First of all, they were NOT originally designed by a female architect named Rosemary Songer, as I stated earlier. She is listed in the AIA Guide as the architect in a 1977 renovation, instead. We don’t know who designed these houses, which are a great blending of traditional Dutch forms, with Colonial Revival and some unusual Renaissance Revival ornament.

The corner house, No. 124, was home to a builder named Henry Meyer in 1913. He was quite prominent in Highland Park and East New York, and may have commissioned both of these houses, taking the larger and more architecturally significant as his own. His name appears often in the Eagle at the turn of the century as a successful builder in this part of Brooklyn and nearby Ridgewood, Queens. In 1902, he generously donated a plot of land for the building of a new church for his own home church, St. Petri’s Evangelical Lutheran Church. He is mentioned often as a member of German social clubs and was very active in the community.

His house is quite impressive on the Schenck Street side, with an ornate Colonial Revival façade topped with a traditional Dutch gambrel roof. The Arlington façade matches the house next door at 130, giving that side of the street an equally unique look, and tying the two buildings together. 130 Arlington was home to Mr. and Mrs. August Mayer. Mrs. Mayer died in 1916, and was also quite active in her church and social circles. More research on this interesting pair of buildings is needed. GMAP

The Municipal Art Society sponsors many excellent walking tours of New York City. They’ve been doing it for over fifty years. The Cypress Hills/Highland Park Tour was part of that tour series, and was most excellently led by Joe Svehlak, who knows New York City like few others. I highly recommend their tours as a way to get to know all parts of this great city. Disclaimer: Morgan Munsey and I also lead tours of Crown Heights North and Bedford Stuyvesant for MAS. We are working on getting a few more tours on their schedule soon.

124 Arlington Ave. Photo: Christopher Bride for Property Shark, 2009.


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