Building of the Day: 25 Clark Street

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Leverich Hotel
Address: 25 Clark Street
Cross Streets: Corner Willow Street
Neighborhood: Brooklyn Heights
Year Built: 1928
Architectural Style: Romanesque
Architect: Starrett & Van Vleck
Other buildings by architect: In Brooklyn, the modern part of the Abraham & Straus (Macy’s) building. In Manhattan, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, Bloomingdale’s stores.
Landmarked: Yes, part of the Brooklyn Heights HD (1965)

The story: Brooklyn Heights had some impressive hotels. The nearby St. George was the largest hotel in the city, the Bossert and the Margaret were also Brooklyn icons, and then we have this one, the Leverich Towers. It was the last of Brooklyn Heights’ great hotels, built in 1928.

Starrett and Van Vleck were commercial architects, most famous for their department stores, such as Manhattan’s Lord and Taylor, Saks, Bloomingdale’s, and the main store building of our own Macy’s, formerly Abraham & Straus. The hotel’s towers, along with the Emery Roth-designed tower of the St. George Hotel, rise above this part of the Heights, and are quite visually arresting, in all the best ways. Starrett and Van Velck were sticklers for detail.

The style is actually an amalgam of Romanesque themes, the towers quite Venetian, with their terra-cotta colonnades, with pergolas, balconies and other features seen on the upper stories. The building is now a Jehovah’s Witnesses residence. Back when it was a hotel, the four towers were lit by spotlights at night, and must have been quite magical. GMAP

(Originally posted 05/26/10)