Building of the Day: 469 Marcus Garvey Boulevard

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Flats building with store fronts
Address: 469 Marcus Garvey Boulevard
Cross Streets: Corner Decatur Street
Neighborhood: Stuyvesant Heights
Year Built: 1888
Architectural Style: Queen Anne
Architect: George B. Stoutenburg
Other Buildings by Architect: House next door at 151 Decatur Street
Landmarked: Yes, part of Expanded Stuyvesant Heights HD (2013)

The story: By the 1880s, 1890s, most of Brooklyn’s residential side streets had been developed. In neighborhoods like Stuyvesant Heights, fine rows of houses lined these streets, the new homes for hundreds of families. The main avenues running north and south were also developed. These wide streets were perfect for churches, institutions such as schools. Armories and hospitals, as well as clubs and businesses. There was also plenty of room for living space, as well.

Although some streets have row houses here and there, most of the commercial avenues are lined with tenement buildings; some with storefronts on their ground floors, others not. These storefront buildings were essential for neighborhood growth. Any community needs neighborhood shops, and the ability to walk to these shops is part of being in a desirable community. The storefronts on our streets were filled with the same things as they are today: grocery stores, dry goods, butcher, baker, hardware, bookshops, clothing and accessories, and on and on.

The corner buildings were usually something special. They gave the architect and developer the opportunity to make his stamp on that corner, with a nice anchor building. The store front or fronts had a prime location, and the upstairs flats got more than the usual amount of windows and natural light. Stuyvesant Heights has a lot of great corner buildings, and this is one of them.

It was designed and built by a local real estate man named George B. Stoutenburg. Not much is known about him, other than his reputation around Brooklyn in his day for being an astute and successful real estate broker. This building, and the one next to it, at 151 Decatur, is his only known venture into being an architect as well as the builder.

The building does show a fair bit of thought to it and some nice design elements. Soutenburg gave the Marcus Garvey (originally Sumner Avenue) side of the building a nice brick cladding, with a beautiful pressed metal bay, but faced the Decatur side with rough cut stone and brick, a totally different look. He also made the façade of 151 Decatur the same, so the buildings flow one into the other, and look like one large apartment building. His corner tower is also quite good, with nice big windows in the apartments, and an angled store entrance below. The square bay is quite nice, and the view from the upper windows is probably superlative.

Lastly, he tops it off with a peaked roof with a large triangular pediment. It looks a bit awkward and ungainly, but it’s really the only flaw in a great building. It wouldn’t surprise me to find out that he either had some help from, or cribbed from, more established architects like Amzi Hill. This has many elements of Hills’ designs, especially in the use of decorative brick on the chimneys and the use of two different stone faces on different facades of the same building. All good stuff.

Mrs. Hannah E. Stoutenburg is listed as the owner of the building, and in the early 20th century, the building was home to Dr. J.E. Rohrer, who had a successful pharmacy in the storefront, and may have also lived in one of the apartments upstairs. He was active in Brooklyn politics and business. Today, this is still a good looking building, the signage and painted stone notwithstanding. It has six apartments over two commercial tenants. Good job, Mr. Stoutenburg. GMAP

(Photo: S.Spellen)