Building of the Day: 407-419 Hancock Street

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Row houses
Address: 407-419 Hancock Street
Cross Streets: Throop Avenue and Marcus Garvey Blvd.
Neighborhood: Stuyvesant Heights
Year Built: 1893
Architectural Style: Queen Anne transitioning into Renaissance Revival
Architect: Frederick D. Voorman
Other work by architect: Other row houses for same developer in Bedford Stuyvesant, on Jefferson Avenue, Marcus Garvey Boulevard. Other similar work in other neighborhoods.
Landmarked: No, but part of a proposed Stuyvesant North Historic District

The story: The original developers of 100-plus years ago followed a game plan amazingly similar to the developers of today. They looked to the “hot” neighborhoods, and put their money and efforts into building there, capitalizing on what appears to be a societal need to be “in.” The upscale neighborhoods of Stuyvesant Heights and Bedford saw massive growth as customers demanded more and more homes suited to their incomes and needs. It was a classic case of “if you build it, they will come.”

The difference between back at the turn of the 20th century and now, of course, is that when they built, the land was usually empty. Today it is not. It was much easier to buy plots of undeveloped land and to build, as all around them, other developers were doing the same. The sounds of saws, hammers and construction all over Brooklyn during that time must have been a symphony of success.

Everyone with some investment capital was going into real estate development. The names of prominent men about town are scattered all though the real estate sections of the Eagle, and in the pages of the building trades publications. Bankers, doctors, politicians, merchants, even the architects themselves – everyone was putting up houses and flats buildings. One of those investors was a man named John F. Saddington.

Saddington was a builder, and a decently successful one, at that. Like most of the developers at this time, he lived in the neighborhood. He developed this row of houses, eight in total, as well as similar groups within blocks of here, on Jefferson, Putnam, and other streets. He used the talents of architect Frederick R. Voorman on all of them. Voorman is one of the many architects from this time period whom we don’t really know much about. He’s on record with his Bedford and Stuyvesant Heights work, as well as various similar buildings in upper middle class neighborhoods like this.

He designed an interesting group here. They are highly influenced by similar houses in this neighborhood by Magnus Dahlander and Frederick Langston, which were built at the same time, or a bit earlier. It wouldn’t have been hard for Voorman to take a walk down Hancock towards Nostrand, or over to Bainbridge to see houses by both of these architects. But if he was influenced by them, he at least had the talent to not be a blatant copyist.

Voorman’s houses add a bit of everything in the neighborhood. Some of the houses in the group have the Queen Anne massing of shapes, with the protruding rounded bays, and the use of different materials and textures; smooth brownstone, rough-cut stone, stained glass, wrought and cast iron, pressed metal cornices and lots of terra cotta ornament. He mixes angled bays with pilasters surrounding the top floor windows on one group, and colonettes below. Terra cotta blocks of Byzantine leaf ornament are everywhere, and the result is a classic Queen Anne brownstone confection.

A quick look at the residents for the next twenty, thirty years shows a group of influential and well-off people, including a judge, doctors, successful merchants, lawyers, assemblymen, and the like. They made the social register, their holiday excursions and their daughter’s coming out parties and weddings made the papers. Everyone here was doing really well. Not the least of whom was John Saddington. The papers report that he and his wife set sail for Europe in 1896. They were going to see the Paris Exposition, the Rhine, Baden Baden, Vienna and Holland. Nice! GMAP

You can see this block, as well as many other fine residential blocks in Stuyvesant North tomorrow, at 11am. My tour partner, Morgan Munsey, and I will be leading a walking tour of Stuyvesant North for the Municipal Arts Society. Ticket information is available on their website. It’s supposed to be warm out, and the snow is no longer making the sidewalks a skating rink. Come on and join us.

(Photograph: Christopher Bride for PropertyShark)