Building of the Day: 665 St. Marks Avenue

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Apartment building
Address: 665 St. Marks Avenue
Cross Streets: Rogers and Nostrand avenues
Neighborhood: Crown Heights North
Year Built: Mid 1890s
Architectural Style: Renaissance Revival
Architect: Unknown, perhaps George P. Chappell
Landmarked: No, but part of proposed Phase 4 of the Crown Heights North HD

The story: By the mid-1890s, the idea of living in an upscale apartment building was catching on in Brooklyn. St. Marks Avenue was the center of the St. Marks District, a very upscale neighborhood rivalling the best of Clinton Hill, Park Slope and Brooklyn Heights for beauty, fine architecture and wealthy people. The block of St. Marks between Nostrand and Rogers was filling up fast with fine townhouses, joining the two free-standing brick houses on the block built in the mid-1880s. An upscale apartment building was built next door to one of the freestanding houses, providing smaller, but equally luxurious accommodations to its tenants.

I was not able to find the architect, but it could very well have been George Poole Chappell. He lived on this block at the same time the building was built, designed many of the buildings on this side of the block, and even lived here in this building towards the end of his life. He designed all kinds of buildings in what is now Crown Heights North, and it is very possible that this is also one of his.

This is a large apartment building, which now has 21 apartments. The shape of the building is unusual, behind the façade, with a small airshaft or courtyard in the center to allow light and air into the wide middle part of the building and an angling in of the building to provide the same. It is designed in a very classical and conservative Renaissance Revival style, without very much ornament. The architect used the contrast of the light colored brick and the limestone quoins and lintels to create a beautiful and stately building. The original cast iron ball and chain fencing, which must weigh a ton, is also a highlight of the building.

A look in the newspapers at the people who lived here in the first years of the building’s existence shows a multitude of well-to-do people. Several doctors, lawyers, business owners and other professionals are listed. Many were on the Social Register, proving too all that this was really an upscale building. People were very snooty about where they lived, and a prominent address carried great weight. Having “apartments” on St. Marks Avenue was a status symbol. Their names appeared in the papers, especially for weddings and announcements that they were going to their country homes for the summer.

Those announcements may have been the excuse thieves needed to rob apartments. In the early 20th century, there were several spates of robberies, where thieves broke in while people were out and took jewelry, watches, and small pieces of silver. In 1902, Mrs. William T. Burt was robbed of a gold dagger set with pearls and sapphires, as well as a shirt waist pin, cufflinks, a revolver and other items. She lived on the first floor.

The most interesting story out the building came from an unlikely source. In 1920, Mrs. Lillian Sealy gave birth at home. That’s nothing new. But Mrs. Sealy, it was noted, was “colored.” I did some quick searching to find out if she and Mr. Sealy had an apartment here, or if she was domestic help. I did not find anything definitive, although I did find a Lillian Sealy who came to Brooklyn in 1916 from Barbados. She was a domestic, but I found no record of her at this address in any capacity.

At any rate, she was being attended by a doctor Francis Moore, who lived just up the street on St. Marks. The baby was delivered, but was not breathing. Dr. Moore called the police station and had them call around to find a new machine called a “pulmotor.” The police found one at Brooklyn Union Gas on Fulton Street. It was delivered with great haste to 665, where Dr. Moore was able to resuscitate the baby. The baby was expected to live.

The pulmotor was a trademark name for what we recognize today as a resuscitator, a devise that pushes air into the lungs. We’ve all seen them, with the mask that covers the face and a large rubber bulb on the end of a tube. The bulb is squeezed, and air is pushed into the lungs. The pulmotor was invented in 1911, and was gaining popularity among doctors by the time Dr. Moore used it to breathe life back into the baby. He must have been doing mouth to mouth or compressions before the pulmotor arrived, or the baby would have been dead. Given the time, the patient, and the technology, this was a miracle and a miracle worker, indeed.

(Photograph: Greg Snodgrass for PropertyShark)

GMAP