Building of the Day: 68 Macon Street

Photo: S.Spellen

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Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Semi-detached private house
Address: 68 Macon Street
Cross Streets: Nostrand and Verona Place
Neighborhood: Bedford Stuyvesant
Year Built: 1886
Architectural Style: Romanesque Revival/Queen Anne
Architect: Montrose W. Morris
Other Buildings by Architect: Alhambra, Renaissance, Clinton Apartments, Kelley mansion, plus row houses on Hancock Street and Jefferson Avenue, all Bed Stuy. Also Imperial, Bedfordshire Apts and rowhouses in Crown Heights, plus buildings in Clinton Hill, Park Slope and Brooklyn Heights
Landmarked: No, but calendared to be landmarked as the Bedford Historic District. (2012) Waiting for vote by LPC and City Council. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

The story: Everyone who loves houses has “their” house. The ones you walk or drive by every day, the ones you wonder what they look like inside, and the ones you can picture yourself in. Everyone has those houses, and for many years, this was mine. I used to walk past this house just about every day for 17 years. Over those years, I saw the house go from a rooming house with shady tenants, to an empty building, to the home of the current owner. All during that time, I would walk past, look at it longingly, touch the brick wall, and send a prayer skyward: “Mine.” Well, the universe didn’t think so, but no matter, it’s still a special piece of property, and one of my favorite houses in Bedford Stuyvesant.

Had I gotten my hands on it, it would have been some kind of fulfillment of fate or something, because this house has several connections to my life experiences. It was designed by Montrose W. Morris in 1886 as one of two houses he built on land he owned and was developing for income. Montrose Morris – who knew? I certainly didn’t all those years I passed by this place. I didn’t even know who Montrose Morris was, and I certainly didn’t know his name would be my pen name, and my “identity” on this blog which would lead to a new profession for me.

Monty was just at the beginning of his career when he designed this house. It was built before the Alhambra Apartments, which can be seen from the doorway, and just after building his own home on Hancock Street. He would have been twenty-four at the time. He already had a couple of important commissions under his belt, and enough money to buy properties for development. He designed this house for a well-to-do buyer who would appreciate the details in the house, many of which would come to be standard Montrose Morris details.

He loved loggias and set back balconies, and this house has one of his best on the second floor. He built it in brick, his favorite building material, and ornamented it in terra cotta, lots of terra cotta, which is also a Morris trademark. Of special note is the decorative bust of a woman, tucked up under the pediment of the dormer on the front of the house, on the mansard roof. Even better, and most impressively, a fabulous relief of a dragon fighting a serpent, on the side of the house, flanking the central chimney. There may be two of those, one on either side of the chimney, but the trees have always obscured the view.

Inside, (you know I wheedled my way in a long time ago) the house has Monty’s signature fine woodwork, fireplaces, and other details, including a center stair. There is also a conservatory on the side of the house, which faces a large double lot, with a garage. This was quite the speculative property. On top of that, another great Brooklyn architect and favorite of mine, George P. Chappell, built the house next door. Fine architectural territory, indeed.

The house sold a couple of times in the years just after it was finished. There are ads for its sale in the Brooklyn Eagle in 1899 and again in 1904. The first owner may have been Sylvester T. Whitehead, a builder. He may have even built the house for Morris. He did live in the neighborhood, also on Macon Street, but farther up. In 1900, he lost the property; it was sold at the Kings County Sheriff’s foreclosure auction, the details of which were listed in the newspaper.

By 1906, the house belonged to the Adler family. Samuel Adler was a successful oilman. His wife, Christine Adler, was a well-known singer and voice teacher. She ran a successful music studio out of the house. She taught from this address, and also had socials and recitals here. She would have had the room; like most Morris houses, the pocket doors between the public rooms could have been opened up, combining the front and center parlors into one large room.

The vocal studio was advertised in the Brooklyn Eagle with a very attractive ad, which ran from 1907 through at least 1911. Christine Adler was a singer herself; a contralto. A look at her career shows recitals in Brooklyn, as a soloist, and also with her students. She sang recitals at the Pouch Mansion, the Hotel St. George, and at several Brooklyn churches. She was also the singer with Shannon’s 23rd Regiment Band, and ventured successfully into vaudeville, appearing in several venues where she sang popular operetta tunes of the day. She even appeared in a concert in Troy. Madame Adler had quite an interesting life, which I will definitely come back to.

Mr. Adler died after a long illness in September of 1909. His funeral was here at the house, and he’s buried at Cypress Hills Cemetery. He was 55 years old. He and Christine did not have children of their own, but he did have two children from a former marriage. Christine continued to live here until at least 1911. In 1914, her address is listed as Newkirk Avenue, in Flatbush.

Since I was once a classical singer, and a lower voice, like hers, I sang some of the same arias and pieces listed in articles about her. How cool it would have been for me to live in a Montrose Morris house that had been home to a singer with whom I shared repertoire? All I can say is “Mine.” At least in my dreams. (I do know the owner, and he was born in the house, and came back 30 years later to find it for sale. He’s not going anywhere, and neither am I.)

(Photo:Christopher Bride for Property Shark)

GMAP

Photo: S.Spellen

Photo: S.Spellen

Photo: S. Spellen

Photo: S. Spellen

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