Building of the Day: 1513-1519 Pacific Street, Queen Anne Pioneers in Crown Heights

    by
    4

    Brooklyn, one building at a time.

    It’s human nature to get tired of the same thing – even in architecture. By the mid-1880s, the new Queen Anne style was beginning to change Brooklyn’s streetscape. In Crown Heights North, these were some of the first.

    Name: Row houses
    Address: 1513-1519 Pacific Street
    Cross Streets: Kingston and Albany avenues
    Neighborhood: Crown Heights North
    Year Built: 1886
    Architectural Style: Queen Anne
    Architect: William H. Burhans
    Other works by architect: 354-356 Stuyvesant Heights, as well as other wood-frame and masonry houses in Brownstone Brooklyn.
    Landmarked: Yes, part of Phase III of the Crown Heights North Historic District (2015)

    The growth of a new architectural style

    American Queen Anne style architecture has nothing to do with the reign of England’s Queen Anne (1702-1714). British architect Richard Norman Shaw introduced “Old English” flair to his contemporary buildings in Victorian England, and the style was adapted by American architect Henry H. Richardson.

    Everyone else learned from Richardson and took it from there. Queen Anne design became a very distinctive and wholly American style. It is characterized by a massing of shapes, textures and materials, varied rooflines, and a free borrowing of past styles used in previously unheard-of combinations.

    Here, in the earliest group of Queen Anne style houses in Phase III of the Crown Heights North Historic District, architect William H. Burhans uses elements of the earlier Italianate and Neo-Grec styles, and mixes them with other classical details.

    1513-1519 Pacific St. Zachariah Ali, PS

    Zachariah Ali for PropertyShark

    Italianate: triangular pediments, flat brownstone front, wooden double parlor doors, hooded window lintels.

    Neo-Grec: Parlor door surround with geometric incised stone brackets and pilasters, incised floral ornamentation above garden-level windows.

    Classical and other Queen Anne elements: Carved sunburst tympana over parlor windows, incised sunflower medallions, carved acanthus leaf bands, elaborate cornices and varied rooflines, ashlar cut stone on ground floor level, ornate cast iron railings and fencing.

    The group of four houses was completed in 1886 for local developer Henry Thomas. The architect was William H. Burhans, a carpenter/builder who worked in Brooklyn from 1880 to 1896. He took a little of this and a little of that, tossed it on there, and perhaps without even knowing was contributing to the Queen Anne style.

    1513-1519 Pacific St. GS, PS 2

    Greg Snodgrass for PropertyShark

    A History of Service

    The early occupants of this group of houses were mostly solidly middle-class people. Some were even better off. They were very politically active, and as part of the growing 24th Ward, were eager to see their neighborhood grow and prosper.

    Up until he died in 1906, 1513 Pacific was home to Police Captain John E. Colgan. He was a lifelong Brooklyn resident, and was with the police force for 25 years before he retired for health reasons. He was captain of the Lower Fulton St. Precinct, and then led the East New York and Sheepshead Bay precincts as well.

    1513-1519 Pacific St. Capt.Culgan, 1906, BE

    Brooklyn Eagle, 1906

    Number 1517 was home to the family of Mitchelbourne Knox Hackett. The name alone is worth mentioning. He went by the name M. Knox Hatchett. According to the City Registry, he was a salesman.

    He was a member of the Yacht Club within the Crescent Athletic Club, the elite sports club in the Heights. He sponsored the M. Knox Hatchett Cup, an annual yacht race in New York Harbor during the early 20th century. He died in 1915, and now resides with other family members in Green-Wood.

    Number 1519 may have started out as a home like the others, but by 1905, this was the Madison Club, a Democratic Party Club organized for the 18th Assembly District.

    The club sponsored candidate rallies and speeches for Democrats in local and larger races. It also held fundraisers and social events, and was often rented out to religious and social groups.

    The club raised money for various charities, most of them Catholic, as this was a heavily Irish neighborhood, and almost all of the members were Irish. The house was club headquarters from 1905 until at least 1918.

    1513-1519 Pacific St. GS, PS 1

    Greg Snodgrass for PropertyShark

    The 1980s tax photos show that 1513 still had its stylish pediment then. It has since been removed. Much of the original railings and fencing is gone, but there is enough to see what the group looked like in the beginning. This group was landmarked earlier this year, as part of Phase III of the Crown Heights North Historic District.

    Top photo by Christopher D. Brazee for Landmarks Preservation Commission.

    1513-1519 Pacific St. 80s tax, Muni Archives

    1980s tax photo, Municipal Archives

    1513-1519 Pacific St. GS, PS 3

    Greg Snodgrass for PropertyShark

    What's Happening