Building of the Day: 457 and 461 Vanderbilt Avenue, Matching Carriage Houses

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Carriage houses and other service buildings were as important to the development of a neighborhood as the houses themselves. This is a particularly elegant example.

Name: Former carriage houses
Address:457 and 461 Vanderbilt Avenue
Cross Streets: Gates and Greene Avenues
Neighborhood: Clinton Hill
Year Built: between 1880 and 1887
Architectural Style: Romanesque Revival
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: No

Soaring Arches and Room for Horses, Too

These Clinton Hill carriage houses are among my favorite in the neighborhood. It’s too bad we know so little about who built or owned them. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out they were designed by one of the well-known architects working in the area. They are really good, especially for service buildings.

First of all, the overall brickwork here is first rate. Late 19^th century Brooklyn had excellent bricklayers.

There’s some Rundbogenstil styling going on here — soaring round arches which are typical of this German progenitor of American Romanesque Revival styles. It’s almost ecclesiastical, the arches stretching three stories high, with two upper stories of windows.

461 Vanderbilt, Scott Bintner for PropertyShark

The architect fills in the voids under the windows with decorative brickwork to keep it from being too stark and boring, but he highlights the center with that tall blind arch punctuated by the windows.

He then tops the buildings off with very Classical broken pediment cornices. Good stuff here!

1887 map, New York Public Library

An Interesting Gap in the Row

The history of these carriage houses is rather vague. From the 1887 map, it seems that 457 Vanderbilt was part of the land owned by 458 Clinton Avenue, a handsome row house, one of a pair. 461 appears to be part of the large estate at 464 Clinton. That wood-framed villa is long gone, replaced by an early 20^th century apartment building.

By 1887, 457 had been built, and 461 was in the process of being built, according to notations on the map. The “X” across the property indicates a stable or carriage house. A “D,” like the row next door to 461, was for “dwelling.”

For some odd reason, the addition of a third carriage house to match the other two, was never proposed for the center property at 459 Vanderbilt.

1904 map, New York Public Library

The map for 1904 shows that nothing was in that center lot at that time either. The 20^th century two story garage there now does not show up on maps until 1916.

So did these two carriage houses belong to the owners of 458 and 464 Clinton Avenue? It’s unclear, and there are no indications in press reports yay or nay.

However the buildings were definitely in use, but were never in the news until the days of the automobile.

Scott Bintner for PropertyShark

A Home For Coachmen

In the 1910 census, 457 Vanderbilt was home to the family of coachman Walter E. H. Lee. He was English, and lived here with his wife, five children, and one boarder –another Englishman and coachman named William Hocking. Were they actual coachmen, still caring for horses on the ground floor, or chauffeurs? Who was their employer?

The horses were soon replaced by automobiles. In 1917, the chauffeur of Walter Scott, whose home was listed at this address, struck and killed a child at a parade. She had escaped her mother’s grip and darted out into the street. The slow-moving touring car collided with her. Unfortunately, this local doctor’s child died at the hospital.

By 1928, the carriage house was part of the Mildred Warehouse, a used car dealership whose main location was on Greene Avenue.

Two doors down, 461 Vanderbilt had a slightly different history. By 1934, it was the offices and storerooms for the Sage Contracting Company. In March of that year, a fire damaged the building, causing $10,000 in damages to it and the row house next door.

Today, both buildings presumably hold cars on the ground floor for one or both of the two families in each building.

Top photograph by Beyond My Ken via Wikimedia Commons

Scott Bintner for PropertyShark