A Five-Story, Eight-Unit Building Will Replace This Frame House on Decatur in Bushwick
Plans were filed last week for a five story building to rise in place of this wood frame house in Bushwick. As with many wood frame houses that are being torn down around the borough, this one at 1255 Decatur Street is small and sits on a relatively large lot. The original house is quite small,…
Plans were filed last week for a five story building to rise in place of this wood frame house in Bushwick. As with many wood frame houses that are being torn down around the borough, this one at 1255 Decatur Street is small and sits on a relatively large lot.
The original house is quite small, only 25 by 32 feet and set all the way back at the end of the 100 foot long lot — an unusual configuration for Brooklyn. The new building will be much larger — 5,311 square feet.
It was bought by an LLC with a Staten Island address in December of 2013 for $540,000. Demolition permits were filed in April of 2014, and the building was still standing in January, a PropertyShark photo shows.
The plans for the new building call for a five story structure with eight apartments. Floors one, two and three will have two units on each floor. The fourth floor will have one unit and half of a duplex. The other half of the duplex will be on the fifth floor.
The photo, taken in 2012, shows the original cornice is intact and the building even retained its arched second story windows. The house it is attached to was presumably similar in design when it was first built, but it is now faced in brick and the central entrance has been replaced by two entrances on the side.
This house was one of many that we mentioned in a post on the loss of these century-old wood frame homes around the borough last April. Developers have been tearing them down at a fast pace.
We spoke with preservationist Elizabeth Finkelstein of The Wooden House Project who attributed the demolitions to rising real estate values in neighborhoods with lots of frame houses. “I think the wooden houses right now are especially vulnerable because of the trend in people moving to places like Bushwick and Greenwood Heights. People can’t afford to buy in Brownstone Brooklyn anymore, so they’re moving to frame-heavy neighborhoods. Developers follow,” she said.
At the time many of the neighborhoods that have a large number of these wood frame homes had not been landmarked and that has not changed.
Slew of Wood Frame Houses Slated for Teardown Across Brooklyn [Brownstoner]
Photos by Christopher Bride for PropertyShark
A construction fence had gone up but the house was still standing in January, above.
It looks like the windows of the adjacent property go right up to the lot line. What happens in a case like this? Could they build on the front of the lot and cover those windows?