Building of the Day: 333 Adelphi Street

Photo: Christopher Bride for PropertyShark

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Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Wood-frame row house
Address: 333 Adelphi Street
Cross Streets: Lafayette and Greene avenues
Neighborhood: Fort Greene
Year Built: 1855
Architectural Style: Transitional Greek Revival/Italianate
Architect: Edward W. Genung, builder
Landmarked: Yes, part of Fort Greene HD (1978)

The story: Adelphi Street was named for the Adelphi, a neighborhood of terraced (row) houses in London, first begun in 1768. Nearby streets in Fort Greene, such as South Oxford and South Portland streets, are also named after neighborhoods or cities in England. Fort Greene’s early developers were trying to evoke the ambiance of those upscale places to their new projects, making living on those blocks even better than the houses themselves would suggest. Marketing really hasn’t changed all that much over the years. But even without the hype, most of the housing on these blocks was quite good, anyway. Look at this delightful example of mid-19th century charm.

333 Adelphi was built in 1855. The oldest masonry houses in Fort Greene were two Greek Revival houses on Carlton Avenue, which date to the 1840s. By the 1850s, the Italianate style of house was gaining popularity, giving rise to the familiar brownstones that fill much of the neighborhood. But wood framed houses were also popular. Many people think most of these houses were farmhouses of some sort, but the vast majority of them were not. They were speculative row houses, just like the brick and brownstone houses. Wood was just another building material.

Local builder-developer Edward W. Genung built this house. He probably designed it, using plans published in books and augmented by what he saw around him, his experience, or perhaps inspired by another building he encountered somewhere in his travels. The design of the house reflects the current transition in Brooklyn’s residential architecture from the simple Greek Revival style to the more ornate Italianate style. The body of the house is Greek Revival, the ornamentation is Italianate. Mr. Genung really showed his creativity on the porch, with its hand- jig sawed brackets and the square chamfered posts. The house would have been clad in clapboard.

The house appears in ads in 1868 and 1869, advertising for boarders. Many families, even those of better means, often rented out rooms or floors for room, sometimes board. They were not as obsessed with space and privacy concerns then, and the extra money helped a great deal. The ads were seeking a single working gentleman, or a man and wife. Since Fort Greene was strategically located near prime public transportation of the day, especially on nearby Fulton Street, this would have been an ideal commute for a gentleman working near Fulton Ferry or in Manhattan.

One of the building’s earlier owners was George Lockwood Thatcher. He lived here with his wife and children. Mr. Thatcher was a leading citizen in his community, and became the Secretary of the Board of Assessors around the time of the Civil War. He’s listed as living down the street at 275 Adelphi then. He’s at this address by the early 1870s. Interestingly enough, while he is listed as a hat manufacture and fur dealer in a genealogy written around 1915, the city directories list him as a dentist at this location for the entire time he’s here, which was until at least 1883. That’s quite a change of occupation. UPDATE: There were two George Lockwood Thatchers, a father and son. Dad was fur trader and Assessor, son was a dentist. Thank you, Jeremy from the Heights, who commented below.

The occupant of the house after the Thatchers was a Miss Heartt, or Huertt, or Heaths. I found here name spelled all three ways, referring to the same person. She ran a co-ed kindergarten school here in the mid 1880s. According to the Eagle, she was an early Brooklyn advocate of kindergarten, a German educational system introduced to America by German immigrants in the 1850s.

As the ad below states, Miss H. followed the Fröbel method of teaching. Friedrich Fröbel had coined the term “kindergarten,” in Germany. He believed that young minds needed to be tended like flowers in a garden, their minds stimulated by play and creative activities. The school specialized in teaching shy and “backwards” children, and offered classes in dance, art and music.

In 1928, the house became home to another kind of educational facility. It was home to the “Unity Home of Truth,” a spiritual organization that sponsored lectures and classes on meditation, spirituality, prayer and healing. It may have been run by Miss Villa Faulkner Page, who in 1930 changed the name to “Fellowship of the Life More Abundant.” The organization seems to have grown, as they were featuring lectures at the nearby Masonic Temple, on Lafayette, and at another location on Washington Avenue. The Sunday school was at this address. Ads for the Fellowship run from 1930 to 1932.

These wood-frame houses on Adelphi and other Fort Greene streets can often be deceiving. This is a large house, on a generous 25-foot lot, with an extra half story in the back. You can get a hint of the roofline in the photograph. Today it is a two-family. When the house was included in the Fort Greene Historic District, in 1978, the decorative shingles were painted brown. Today, they are a much more interesting blue/gray. The shingles were probably placed in the 1880s or 90s, a Victorian gussying-up. GMAP

(Photo: Sarah Westcott for PropertyShark)

Photo: Christopher Bride for Property Shark

Photo: Christopher Bride for PropertyShark

Brooklyn Eagle Ad, 1868

Brooklyn Eagle Ad, 1868

Brooklyn Eagle Ad, 1884

Brooklyn Eagle Ad, 1884

Brooklyn Eagle Ad, 1928

Brooklyn Eagle Ad, 1928

Brooklyn Eagle Ad, 1930

Brooklyn Eagle Ad, 1930

Photo: Google Maps

Photo: Google Maps

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