1451 Pacific St. Cecil Court GS, PS

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Cecil Court
Address: 1451 Pacific Street
Cross Streets: Brooklyn and Kingston avenues
Neighborhood: Crown Heights North
Year Built: 1923-24
Architectural Style: Colonial Revival
Architect: Edward M. Adelsohn
Other Buildings by Architect: Wing of Brooklyn Hebrew Maternity Hospital, Bushwick, apartment buildings in Jackson Heights, Queens
Landmarked: Yes, part of Crown Heights North HD (2007)

The story: Crown Heights North is a gorgeous neighborhood. It’s filled with blocks upon blocks of elegant late 19th century row houses, as well as a fair number of free-standing and semi-detached mansions, beautiful houses of worship, and some impressive large apartment buildings. Scattered amidst all of this wonderfulness are buildings that tend to get overlooked in the mix. They include storefront mixed use buildings, a ton of eight unit flats buildings, and a fair number of small apartment buildings that bridge the gap between the flats buildings and the larger apartment houses. This is one of those.

By the 1920s, this part of Crown Heights did not have a lot of buildable land left. The time of the mansions and single family row houses was a thing of the past, and two-family houses were scattered all over the neighborhood, in many cases indistinguishable from their one-family neighbors. Flats buildings for middle class renters began going up in the 1880s and 90s, and by the turn of the century, these were also everywhere, especially on the north/south avenues, although some side streets, like Pacific, had a lot of them, as well.

By the late teens and early 20’s the apartment buildings were starting to get bigger. Soon many of the mansions that sat on large lots would be torn down and replaced with large elevator apartment buildings, some holding 100 or more families, but there was a definite need for buildings that were larger than eight units, but smaller than 60 or 70, usually around 30. They were advertised as great apartments, with affordable rents, for smaller families or empty-nesters, and had three and four rooms, and were generally walk-ups in four story buildings.

This building was built by the Lapidus Brothers in 1923, and was designed by Edward M. Adelsohn. Interestingly, this building today is listed as an Old Law Tenement. Its targeted market was people moving out of the tenements of the Lower East Side, mostly Jewish renters, the adult children of immigrants, or those immigrants themselves who were doing better and couldn’t wait to get out of Manhattan. A three or four room apartment here was a definite step up.

The builders and architects of these buildings knew their market because they were themselves of that group of first and second generation Jews who were reshaping the neighborhoods of New York. Edward Adelsohn, the Cohn Brothers, Max Cantor, Shampan & Shampan; these were all architects and developers who were building apartment buildings in Brooklyn at this time. Most of them, as well as others, also built similar buildings in Upper Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx. Adelsohn, a Cooper Union educated architect, also designed a wing of the Brooklyn Hebrew Maternity Hospital, as well as apartment buildings in Jackson Heights, Queens.

A three or four room apartment is not all that large. Ironically, most of the older eight unit flats buildings had larger and nicer apartments. They were Old Law Tenements, too. But these were equally convenient to the expanding subway system, buses and therefore to Downtown Brooklyn and Manhattan. Nearby Nostrand Avenue, Kingston and Fulton Streets were also bustling shopping districts. This was an ideal location, and these were new, modern apartments.

Adelsohn designed this building in the Colonial Revival style, with classic red bricks and white trim. The white stone trim was made of the new manufactured cast stone, not limestone. The building has a prominent central entrance, flanked by columns that today have lions guarding the doorway. The lions, which always made me smile when I walked past here, are clearly of later origin.

The developers of these buildings wanted them to have a bit of snob appeal, so they named many of them after places or buildings in England or France, or with posh sounding English names. “Cecil Court” was a real step up from a LES tenement. Today, the building has 26 units. There’s also a similar building just across the street, but by a different architect and developer.

(Photo: Greg Snodgrass for PropertyShark)

GMAP

FIrst ad in Brooklyn Eagle, 1924
First ad in Brooklyn Eagle, 1924
Photo: Google Maps
Photo: Google Maps

What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. I can verify that the lions out front are a relatively recent addition. This buidling was my home from 1959 until 1980, and I continued to visit there until 1994, and the only guradians were the neighborhood junkies and winos.