Building of the Day: 184 Joralemon Street

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Originally Galen Hall Office Building, now apartments and offices
Address: 184 Joralemon Street
Cross Streets: Court and Clinton Streets
Neighborhood: Brooklyn Heights
Year Built: 1909-1911
Architectural Style: Beaux-Arts with Colonial Revival details
Architect: George Keister
Other Buildings by Architect: Apollo Theater, Harlem. Also Belasco and Selwyn Theaters, Theater District. Row houses in the Bronx, tenement buildings, apartment buildings, hotels, churches.
Landmarked: Yes, part of Brooklyn Skyscraper District (2012)

The story: Claudius Galenus, or Galen of Pergamon, was a prominent Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the second century Roman Empire. He and the better-known Hippocrates are considered to be the most important contributors to modern Western medicine. (Yes, I had to look that one up.) The use of the name “Galen” was quite popular during Victorian times, especially to name sanatoria and other medical retreat centers. One of the most popular in the New York City area was the Galen Hall in Atlantic City. Their facilities would be considered a health spa today, and they advertised constantly in the Brooklyn Eagle for decades.

So when a twelve floor office tower exclusively for doctors and medical professionals was proposed for Downtown Brooklyn, it was fitting that it should be called Galen Hall, or the Galen Hall Office Building. The tall and narrow building was placed on a 25 foot wide Joralemon Street lot, right next door to the Packer Institute. The building ran tall and deep, with plenty of room for doctors, surgeons, and other medical professionals.

It was designed in the Beaux-Arts style, with a hint of Colonial Revival, by architect George Keister, in 1909. He is not a familiar name in Brooklyn, but he was a busy man in Manhattan and the Bronx. He designed a wide range of buildings, including row houses, tenement buildings, churches, office buildings, hotels and theaters.

His best known building is probably the Apollo Theater in Harlem, and he also designed Belasco’s Stuyvesant Theater and the Selwyn Theater. His other buildings include the Hotel Gerard, First Baptist Church, both in Manhattan, and the Bertine Block of landmarked houses in the Bronx. His landmarked buildings are in the Ladies Mile, NoHo, Upper West Side/Central Park West, and West 71st Street Historic Districts.

As a testament to George Keister’s talent, most of his buildings are either individual landmarks, or are contributing structures in landmarked districts. That means the man was good. He also is the rare architect to have not one, but two buildings declared Individual and Interior Landmarks: the Apollo Theater and Belasco’s Stuyvesant Theater.

When the building was completed, in 1911, the Brooklyn Eagle announced that it was already taking doctors out of surrounding buildings, as they were flocking to this special place. The Eagle printed a photograph of the side of the new building. At the time, it was the tallest building on the block, with four story row houses still next door, and Packer peeking through on the other side. Galen Hall was the “finger building” of its day.

Today, the row houses have been replaced by equally tall buildings, built in 1921. The brownstones only lasted another ten years. The doctors are gone, too, most of them replaced by other business tenants as soon as the late 1920s, which is when the Medical Arts Building opened, just up the street. You’re only the newest thing for so long. The building went through a lot of owners, including the City of New York in the 1960s, and Brooklyn Law School. Up until recently, it was a residence hall for the school. Today, according to Property Shark, there are 10 commercial units and 24 residential units.

(Photograph:Scott Bintner for Property Shark)

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