Building of the Day: 340-344 9th Street, a Study in Change in Park Slope

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Row houses
Address: 340-344 9th Street
Cross Streets: 5th and 6th Avenue
Neighborhood: Park Slope
Year Built: 1887
Architectural Style: Queen Anne
Architect: C.P.H. Gilbert
Other works by architect: In Brooklyn – David Chauncey House in Bklyn Hts, Adams mansion and fine townhouses on Carroll Street, Montgomery Place, Garfield Place and more in Park Slope.
Landmarked: No

The story: When city planners laid out Brooklyn’s streets, they had a fair idea which ones would become commercial and which ones would remain residential. But there have always been those streets that start out one way, and as development, transportation and other factors intervene, become something else.

This is one of those streets.

In 1883, a young architect named Charles Pierrepont Henry Gilbert came back to New York from the Wild West. He had been in Arizona and Colorado designing buildings in mining towns. By 1887, he was designing row houses in Brooklyn, at the start of what would be a monumental architectural career in New York City.

This group of four houses was his first Brooklyn commission.

C.P.H. Gilbert via Wikipedia

This group, built for J.J. and Theresa Collins, was a good indication of what C.P.H. could do with the newly popular Queen Anne style of architecture.

Unlike the older Italianate and Neo-Grec styles — where the whole was more important than the individual — the Queen Anne style celebrated the creative individuality of residential row house architecture.

Kate Leonova for PropertyShark

He designed four houses, all 17.83 feet wide and 45 feet long. They were all different. Unfortunately, over the years, 340 and 340A have been altered beyond recognition. Of the four, only 344 has most of its original details. It is the only one that is still a one family house.

C.P.H. Gilbert would take off like a rocket from here, going on to design some of Park Slope’s most eclectic and beautiful townhouses, especially on Carroll Street and Montgomery Place. He also had quite a few large mansions to his credit in Brooklyn, most of which are now gone.

From Brooklyn, he went back to Manhattan, where he designed some of the city’s best known and most extravagant palaces for Manhattan’s elite, including F.W. Woolworth, who also got his start in Brooklyn.

Photo: NYC Architecture

Back at 340-344 9th Street, the houses all started out as homes to upscale merchants and professionals. In the early 1900s, 342 was home to the family of Albert and Margaret Haithwaite. He was a successful linen merchant.

In the summer of 1905, Margaret and her four children, aged 12 to 21, were enjoying an outing in Prospect Park, along with many others, when a sudden and unexpected thunderstorm ruined their day. As people ran for cover, The Haithwaites and others took shelter under a large elm tree.

The tree was struck by lightning, which traveled through the tree into the ground, affecting everyone under it. A witness said all of the people were paralyzed, jerking up and down like a group of marionettes on strings. Then they all collapsed, as if their strings were cut.

Everyone was taken to nearby Seney Hospital (now Methodist Hospital) and fortunately, the Haithwaites were not seriously hurt, although all were bruised and burned. The paper said that “the ground was impregnated with electric fluid,” which caused their injuries.

Michael Fitzsimmons was probably the first owner of 344. He was a gravel and sand merchant with his depot in Gowanus. One of his boats, the American Banner, loaded with gravel floundered in the icy waters of the Erie Basin in Red Hook. A sailor died of exposure in the icy waters, as the ship was punctured by ice. This happened in 1888.

Kate Leonova for PropertyShark

In 1906, 340A was home Charles Stacey. He was a photographer with a studio off site. The divorce proceedings between him and his wife made the papers several times in 1908. But before that, in 1906, he helped rescue a drowning young woman at a resort upstate.

He and a companion (not his wife, btw) rowed their boat out in a lake and carried the girl back in to shore. Another man really rescued her, swimming out and supporting her until the boat arrived.

340A was also the home of John Sutherland. He was a well-known Shakespearean actor who had performed with Edwin Booth and many others. His obituary in 1921 noted that he had moved to motion pictures, and had made his later career there.

1908 Brooklyn Eagle ad

By the beginning of the 20th century, less than 20 years after the houses were built, 9th Street began to be more mixed use. Most of the houses began renting to boarders, and some of the buildings lost their ground and even parlor floors to commerce.

340A was on sale in 1912, sold to a buyer as a “business building.”

Photo: NYC Architecture

The European Conservatory of Music, later called the Manhattan Conservatory, was ensconced at 344 between 1902 and 1913, perhaps longer. They taught children and adults, and had classes and individual study in most instruments, voice, orchestra and other musical skills. Later, they added dance and drama.

1902 Brooklyn Eagle ad.

340 was the dentist’s office of Dr. Clarence L. Bisbee in 1898, and the headquarters of the 22nd Ward Democratic Club, in 1900.

340 and 340A had their original facades obliterated at different points in the 20th century. By 1955, 340 was the Park Slope branch of the South Brooklyn Savings & Loan, which changed its name to the Equitable Savings & Loan that year.

Today, 342 –which lost its stoop — is a four family house. 340A is a three family with one commercial tenant. This building has a rear addition that doubles the length of the building to 80 feet. 340 is a three family with two commercial tenants.

I would love to see what this entire group looked like originally.

Top photo by Kate Leonova for PropertyShark.

Google Maps