Building of the Day: 142-144 Decatur Street

Photo: Christopher Bride for PropertyShark

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Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: The Decatur
Address: 142-144 Decatur Street
Cross Streets: Corner Marcus Garvey Boulevard
Neighborhood: Stuyvesant Heights
Year Built: 1888
Architectural Style: Romanesque Revival
Architect: George L. Morse
Other work by architect: Temple Bar Building – Court Street, Franklin Trust – Montague Street, Abraham & Straus annex – Livingston Street, as well as many more row houses, flats buildings, churches, and office buildings.
Landmarked: Yes, part of Stuyvesant Heights Expansion, Stuyvesant Heights HD (2013)

The story:
While the developers of our brownstone blocks were busy filling them with rows of houses, the avenues in our neighborhoods were receiving attention, as well. It was on these streets that the city allowed commercial and civic buildings, and where churches and temples often stood, as well as rows of flats buildings, many with storefronts on the ground floors.

The formal concept of zoning didn’t come into existence until the early 20th century, but Victorian city planners already had a pretty good idea how to create mixed income and purposed neighborhoods. Sensible planning could provide everyone in those neighborhoods with the amenities and services they would need to be able to live, shop, worship, and perhaps even work, within easy walking distance. That is one of the strongest reasons why today these neighborhoods are still so desirable.

The mixed use flats buildings on the corners of blocks provided excellent opportunities for special buildings. These buildings anchored the block, and were visual gateways to the homes that lay beyond them, so it isn’t surprising that very often the fine architects who designed the houses also were called on to design many of these corner buildings. Very often, if a developer could get the desired lots, he would have an architect design the corner flats building, and then tie the design into the houses as they turned the corner. Many of Stuyvesant Heights’ blocks were designed in this manner.

In this case, the corner building was not designed by the architect of the houses next door, but the developer went with a big name who could provide design punch to his large flats building. He called upon the talents of George L. Morse, one of Brooklyn’s finest and most respected architects. Morse often gets forgotten in the panoply of Brooklyn starchitects, but he was in fact, about as establishment as you could get. There were a lot of good architects working in Brooklyn at the time, and Morse probably, in one way or another had an influence on them all.

That is because Morse was not just a good practitioner; he was also the head of one of Brooklyn’s most influential architectural bodies. He was the long-time president of the Department of Architecture at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Science, which is today’s Brooklyn Museum. Since most of the arts other than fine arts and all of the sciences are now gone from that institution, it’s hard for us today to imagine how important and powerful it once was. It was really more like a university, and its different departments not only had exhibition space, they also were teaching and mentoring schools. One could study and emerge with the equivalent of a university degree in architecture, biology, chemistry, zoology and more.

Morse was the head of the department, and was therefore on the judging panel of many different competitions for architectural commissions throughout the city of Brooklyn. When the panel was chosen to pick the architects to design the new Institute building on Eastern Parkway, Morse was the leader of the judges. This was true for many important buildings that went up at that time. In this way, Morse’s influence really did impact the careers of most of Brooklyn’s more ambitious architects.

Being master of this department was nice, but working paid the rent, so Morse was first and foremost a working architect. He was adept in all forms of architecture, and designed row houses, churches, office buildings, warehouses and flats buildings. His best known buildings are the Franklin Trust on Montague and Clinton Streets, now apartments, and the grand Temple Bar Building on the corner of Court and Joralemon Streets, at one time Brooklyn’s tallest building, as still one of the most beautiful buildings in the Downtown Brooklyn Skyscraper Historic District.

This flats building is not flashy, but is elegantly beautiful. It hugs the corner, going around onto Decatur like a glove, with the large building’s main entrance on the Decatur side. Like most flats buildings, it’s a four story walkup, with storefronts on the ground floor. Over the years, a lot of alterations have taken place on the ground floor, but the rest of the buildings facade is largely intact. Morse uses his chimneys, most prominently on the M. Garvey (formerly Sumner Avenue) side, like other architects use bays, creating visual interest and breaking up the lines. This is good stuff.

Morse also uses his trademark Byzantine leaf terra cotta ornament sparingly on this building. It also retains a lot of the original iron fire escape fencing, which is quite nice. Unlike his façade for the Franklin Trust, or Abraham & Straus, which explodes with Byzantine leaf ornament, this building is like one’s dowager aunt, dignified, but with just enough jewels to let you know she still knew what fun was. GMAP

(Photo: S.Spellen)

Photo: Christopher Bride for Property Shark

Photo: Christopher Bride for PropertyShark

Photo: Greg Snodgrass for Property Shark

Photo: Greg Snodgrass for PropertyShark

Photo: S. Spellen

Photo: S. Spellen

Photo: S. Spellen

Photo: S. Spellen

Photo: S. Spellen

Photo: S. Spellen

Photo: S. Spellen

Photo: S. Spellen

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