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Building of the Day: 1050 Atlantic Avenue
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
(Photo from 2010)
Name: former Packard Automobile Showroom
Address: 1050 Atlantic Avenue
Cross Streets: Corner of Classon Avenue
Neighborhood: Crown Heights North
Year Built: Unknown
Architectural Style: Renaissance style showroom
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: No
The story: I’ve wondered about this building for years, and always thought it was an important facility for which ever company had it built. But information on almost anything on Atlantic Avenue is hard to come by. The architects of factories often aren’t lauded, and the newspapers rarely run features on industrial buildings, unless there is another story along with them. And the newer the buildings are, as in the middle of the 20th century, the harder it is to find anything. But when Brownstoner announced a while back that this building would become another storage facility for Storage Deluxe, one could only hope that the beautiful details on this mystery building would be preserved. Up until a few weeks ago, the façade read “Select Paper and Tablet.” But the sign covered the building’s true identity.
My on-line building source, the Real Estate Record and Builder’s Guide only goes up to 1922, and while this building could have been built before that time, I was not able to find it. I was always intrigued by the fine white glazed terra-cotta tiles on the façade, as well as the almost delicate classical pilasters, and the beguiling cherub sea creatures flanking a shield with a honeycomb and a stylized “P”. I didn’t think this had anything to do with Select Paper, but what was it?
I guess I should have been a car person, because I probably would have immediately recognized that the shield was, in fact, a grille, and the “P” was for “Packard”. Duh. Packard Motor Car Company built cars from an amazing 1899 through 1958. They produced lines of very popular and distinctive luxury cars, with some of the industry’s biggest innovations, including the modern steering wheel. A car company like that would have a showroom like this.
A search yielded me an on-line group of Packard aficionados, one of which had an old postcard of this building when it was a showroom. The quality of the image is pretty bad, but it shows the building as it was originally, with large windows on both the first and second floors on the Atlantic Avenue façade, and a fully equipped service station and garage on the back of the building, which faces Pacific Street. The Packard showroom first shows up on a city directory in 1925.
Packard bought Studebaker after World War II, but the smaller luxury car makers couldn’t compete with the Big Three, and one by one they went out of business. Packard found itself making a car that wasn’t up to its old standards, and soon relinquished its status as America’s luxury brand to Cadillac. By 1958, they were no longer producing assembly line cars. The Packard was gone, and the need for this opulent showroom was gone as well.
I don’t know when it became the Select Paper and Tablet Company, but when Storage Deluxe bought the building recently, they began to excavate the interior, and trim the exterior, probably in advance of covering the building in their hideous plastic sheathing. Only one good thing happened from that – the original Packard signage is once more revealed in its glory, on Atlantic Avenue. Go by there and see it, quickly. It will soon be covered, but hopefully not destroyed. Hopefully. GMAP
Lots of photos on the jump…
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05/24/2012 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 116 Rogers Avenue
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Carmel Christian School, originally the Swedish Hospital
Address: 116 Rogers Avenue
Cross Streets: Sterling and St. Johns Places
Neighborhood: Crown Heights North/Crow Hill
Year Built: 1906
Architectural Style: Renaissance Revival
Architect: Axel Hedman, with help from Magnus Dahlander
Other Buildings by Architect: houses, flats buildings, apartment buildings all over Brooklyn, especially PLG, Crown Heights North and South, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Bedford Stuyvesant and Stuyvesant Heights.
Landmarked: No
The story: Turn of the 20th century Brooklyn was home to a large Swedish community. A study done in 1891 showed over 20,000 in South Brooklyn alone. As the community grew and people became more independent and successful, the Swedes began moving out into the rest of Brooklyn. Many settled in the Prospect Heights/Crown Heights area. Many successful Swedes channeled their energies into the community, including two of the best known Swedish-born architects of this time period, Axel Hedman and Magnus Dahlander.
Magnus only spent eight years here, between 1888 and 1896, before returning to Sweden, but in that short time, he changed the face of Brooklyn, designing some of the finest row houses and other types of buildings here. He also designed churches, and did fund raising for Swedish causes. His compatriot, and one time partner in the firm of Dahlander & Hedman, was Axel Hedman. He came here in 1880, and stayed for the rest of his life, becoming an American citizen. He too, was active in Swedish causes here in Brooklyn, and the Swedish Hospital became one of their largest projects. (more…)
05/23/2012 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 360 Schermerhorn Street
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: The Baptist Temple, originally First Baptist Church of Brooklyn
Address: 360 Schermerhorn Street
Cross Streets: Corner of Third Avenue
Neighborhood: Boerum Hill/Downtown Bklyn
Year Built: 1893-1894, reconstructed after fire: 1917-1918
Architectural Style: Romanesque Revival
Architect: Weary & Kramer, reconstruction: Dodge & Morrison (1917-18)
Other Buildings by Architect: Weary & Kramer- Crawford Memorial United Methodist Church, Bronx, Buildings on Oberlin College Campus, Ohio. Dodge & Morrison – Large addition to the Bedford Presbyterian Church, Nostrand Ave, Crown Heights North.
Landmarked: No, but on National Register
The story: This congregation has the distinction of being the oldest Baptist church in Brooklyn, founded as the First Baptist Church of Brooklyn in 1823. It’s the second oldest Baptist congregation in all of Long Island. Their first church building was on Pearl Street, between Nassau and Concord Streets, in what is now DUMBO, and more specifically, an on-ramp to one of the bridges. They didn’t stay there long, moving to another site on Nassau Street, which was destroyed by fire in 1848. They rebuilt, only to lose this church to another fire in 1873. By this time, their DUMBO location was becoming an industrial area, so they joined with a splinter group that had broken off to become the Pierrepont Street Baptist Church, in the Heights. There, both congregations worshipped in a building designed by the great Minard Lefever. They soon outgrew this building too, and in 1892, the church sold their site on the corner of Pierrepont and Clinton Streets to the Brooklyn Savings Bank, and went looking for a new site. They found it here at the corner of Third Avenue and Schermerhorn Street. (more…)
05/22/2012 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 244-254 Gates Avenue
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Row houses
Address: 244-254 Gates Avenue
Cross Streets: Franklin and Classon Avenues
Neighborhood: Bedford Stuyvesant
Year Built: 1885
Architectural Style: Queen Anne
Architect: Parfitt Brothers
Other Buildings by Architect: Montague, Berkeley, Grosvenor Apts-Bklyn Hts; St. Augustine Catholic and Grace Methodist Churches-Park Slope; Truslow House-Crown Hts North; many other row houses and buildings throughout Bklyn.
Landmarked: No, but this block should be.
The story: John Gibb was a very rich and successful merchant, engaged in the lace importing business. By 1887, his company; Mills & Gibb owned a huge warehouse on Broadway, in what is now SoHo, and was one of the city’s largest lace and fine goods importers and distributors. He had a huge mansion built for himself and his large family on Gates Avenue, near Classon Avenue, on the border of Bedford and Clinton Hill. Early on in his rise to wealth, he had the foresight to put his money in real estate, and bought up most of the undeveloped land surrounding his home, owning land on Gates, Classon, and Franklin, among other places. As Bedford and Clinton Hill both began to grow as upscale communities, he began developing his property, filling it with high end speculative housing. (more…)
05/21/2012 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 645-647 St. Marks Avenue
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Row houses
Address: 645-647 St Marks Avenue
Cross Streets: Rogers and Nostrand Avenues
Neighborhood: Crown Heights North
Year Built: early 1890s
Architectural Style: Renaissance Revival
Architect: George P. Chappell
Other Buildings by Architect: In CHN – St. Bartholomew’s Episc. Church, Pacific St; Houses on Pacific, Dean, St. Marks, New York, Bergen, Prospect, and throughout CHN. Also in Park Slope, Bed Stuy, Stuyvesant Hts,
Landmarked: No, but would be in Phase 4 of CHN HD
The story: In 1888, Hester Louise Chappell was listed as the new owner of record on this piece of St. Marks Avenue. She was the wife of prominent Brooklyn architect George P. Chappell, a prolific designer of buildings who would make his mark most significantly in this same neighborhood. St. Marks Avenue was the center of the St. Marks District, an upscale neighborhood on par with the best of Clinton Hill, Stuyvesant Heights, and Park Slope, during the last decades of the 19th century, and what better place for Mrs. Chappell to own, than the center of a posh neighborhood that her husband had a large hand in developing? But the lots on this block were not for business. George Chappell was building his wife a new home. (more…)
05/18/2012 3:00 PM
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Building of the Day: 521-529 Third Street
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Row houses
Address: 521-539 Third Street
Cross Streets: Seventh and Eighth Avenues
Neighborhood: Park Slope
Year Built: late 1880s-early 1890s
Architectural Style: Queen Anne, with Neo-Grec elements
Architect: Unknown, but perhaps E. H. Mobrey
Landmarked: Yes, part of Park Slope HD (1973)
The story: There are many fantastic houses in Park Slope, and this group remains one of my favorites. For an architecture geek like me, the most frustrating part is that we’re not sure whose work this is. Neither the LPC, nor the diligent folks from the Save the Slope research committee were able to shed definitive light on the architects of these homes. They are unlike any others in the neighborhood, or the rest of Brooklyn. It’s the griffins. I just love the griffins.
The surrounding Queen Anne houses were built between 1889-1891, so it’s not unreasonable to think these date from the same time. The group next door, numbers 511-519, was built by architect/developer E. H. Mobrey, and is a mixture of Neo-Grec and Queen Anne elements. There are similarities between those houses and these, and Mobrey is on record as selling number 523 in this group, in 1895, so they may be his design, or he could have just developed them all. (more…)
05/17/2012 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 2307 Beverley Road
(All photos by Christopher D. Brazee, for Landmarks Preservation Commission, 2012)
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Sears, Roebuck & Company Department Store
Address: 2307 Beverley Road
Cross Streets: Corner Bedford Avenue
Neighborhood: Flatbush
Year Built: 1932
Architectural Style: Late Art Deco
Architect: Nimmons, Carr & Wright, with Alton Craft
Other Buildings by Architect: NC & W – across country, various Sears stores and private homes for Sears execs.
Landmarked: Yes, Individual landmark, designated last week! (2012)
The story: It’s hard to believe, but this store has been here for over 80 years. Sears started out in the 1890’s as a mail order catalog, selling a huge variety of goods to customers in rural areas who had little or no access to stores and shops. Their first retail store was built in 1925. Based in Chicago, Sears & Roebuck expanded all across the country, and because of Manhattan’s garment center, was a presence in NYC long before their bricks and mortar stores were in place. When they sought to expand their retail presence in the New York City area, Flatbush was seen as an ideal location. (more…)
05/16/2012 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 24 Fourth Avenue
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Church of the Redeemer (Episcopal)
Address: 24 Fourth Avenue
Cross Streets: Corner Pacific Street
Neighborhood: Boerum Hill
Year Built: 1866
Architectural Style: Gothic Revival
Architect: Patrick C. Keely
Other Buildings by Architect: in Brooklyn – St. John the Baptist School and Church, Bed Stuy. St. Boniface, Downtown Bklyn. St. Charles Borromeo, Brooklyn Heights, and more.
Landmarked: No, but should be somehow, either individually or part of a HD.
The story: The history of any place is greatly written by the houses of worship that have been built there. This is especially true in Brooklyn, where the story of immigration can be tracked by the churches, synagogues and mosques along the way. By the 1850’s, Brooklyn was growing rapidly outward from the Fulton Ferry and the riverfront, and the city had reached the Times Plaza area, a part of town that would become a nexus of transportation and commerce in the years to come. By 1853, however, it was the edge of the neighborhood of Boerum Hill. (more…)
05/15/2012 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 201 Chauncey Street
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Private house
Address: 201 Chauncey Street
Cross Streets: Malcolm X and Patchen Avenues
Neighborhood: Bedford Stuyvesant
Year Built: Unknown
Architectural Style: Vernacular Victorian
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: No
The story: Huddled here, the last of its kind on this block, this house won’t be with us much longer. It’s going to get swallowed up by modernity, mediocrity and progress. It has value, not because it one of the oldest houses in the neighborhood, and not because it is some great architectural wonder, but because it sits on a nice big lot – 50×108.5 feet of New York City real estate. (more…)
05/14/2012 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 385 Henry Street
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: mixed-use commercial/residential building
Address: 385 Henry Street
Cross Streets: Corner Warren Street
Neighborhood: Cobble Hill
Year Built: 1871
Architectural Style: Italianate
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: Yes, part of Cobble Hill HD (1969)
The story: This building is such a neighborhood anomaly. For far too many people today, a building’s worth is measured in terms of potential FAR, so the mere sight of this fabulously wide and low, two-story building must fill them with aggravation every time they pass it. “If only it wasn’t landmarked! Think of the condo we could build here!” Well, too bad. This little 19th century gem is going to stay just as it is. (more…)
05/11/2012 3:00 PM
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Building of the Day: 392 Clinton Avenue
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Apartment building
Address: 392 Clinton Avenue
Cross Streets: Corner Greene Avenue
Neighborhood: Clinton Hill
Year Built: 1896
Architectural Style: Renaissance Revival
Architect: John L. Young
Other Buildings by Architect: a multitude of houses in Bed Stuy, Crown Heights North, Park Slope, Cobble Hill.
Landmarked: Yes, part of Clinton Hill HD (1981)
The story: This handsome apartment building is one of the first multiple unit dwellings on Clinton Avenue. It was built for James Burke, a local developer, who had John L. Young design a building worthy of Clinton Avenue, home to some of the wealthiest people in Brooklyn, at the time. It seems so hard to imagine now, in an age where a fine apartment is equal in status to a fine home, but back at the turn of the 20th century, it was an uphill battle to convince people of that. So what did developers do? They made sure their apartment buildings were as beautiful and luxurious as the houses around them. In choosing John L. Young to design it, James Burke chose well. (more…)
05/10/2012 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 86-94 Garfield Place
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: row houses
Address: 86-94 Garfield Place
Cross Streets: 5th and 6th Avenue
Neighborhood: Park Slope
Year Built: 1892
Architectural Style: Queen Anne transitioning into Renaissance Revival
Architect: Philemon Tillion
Other Buildings by Architect: Tillion & Son, Tillion & Tillion – Industrial Home for the Blind, Greenpoint Masonic Temple, both Greenpoint, Trinity Baptist Church, Crown Heights North
Landmarked: No, but should be.
The story: Brooklyn’s housing stock was mostly built on spec. This is pretty much common knowledge. Some of the builders and architects were simply adequate, some pretty good, and some had moments of true design greatness. Some firms and individuals worked a lot, and their names appear over and over in historic designation reports and here, in my BOTDs. And some show up once in a while, here and there, over the course of years, making you wonder what they were up to that we don’t know about. The Tillion’s were one of those firms. (more…)
05/09/2012 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 1267 Pacific Street
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Flats building
Address: 1267 Pacific Street
Cross Streets: Nostrand and Bedford Avenues
Neighborhood: Crown Heights North
Year Built: Late 1880’s-early 1890’s
Architectural Style: Romanesque Revival
Architect: Attributed to Montrose Morris
Other Buildings by Architect: on same block – Bedfordshire and Imperial Apartments, on Dean and Bedford- Chatelaine Hotel
Landmarked: No, but hopefully part of Phase 4 of CHN HD. No plans present by LPC at this time.
The story: The great Brooklyn architect Montrose Morris was quite busy over here on Pacific Street. After the success of his Alhambra Apartments, on Nostrand and Macon Street, completed in 1889, developer Louis Seitz commissioned him to design several more luxury apartment houses. The result of that commission was first, the Bedfordshire, (1891) then one of his masterpieces, the Imperial Apartments. (1892) But not all architectural commissions are big, showy extravaganzas. Sometimes one has to do a couple of practical, everyday buildings in order to pay the mortgage. This flats building is one of those projects, but with Morris, he took the everyday, and made it special. (more…)
05/08/2012 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 76-104 Bainbridge Street
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: semi-detached houses
Address: 76-104 Bainbridge Street
Cross Streets: Lewis and Stuyvesant Avenues
Neighborhood: Stuyvesant Heights
Year Built: 1919
Architectural Style: Alternating Neo-Georgian and Spanish Renaissance groups
Architect: W.F. McCarthy, for the Prosser Construction Company
Other Buildings by Architect: an architect/builder by same name is listed in Cleveland, building homes, in the 1920s. Not much other info found.
Landmarked: Yes, part of Stuyvesant Heights HD (1971)
The story: The opposite side of the street on this block consists solely of Queen Anne row houses designed by the great Magnus Dahlander, yes, the entire row of thirty-three houses. These are some of the most interesting and varied designs to be found anywhere in the neighborhood, the work of a master, so it is not surprising that people tend to gawp over there, and miss this group of houses just across the street. That’s too bad, because there is some interesting stuff going on over here, especially evidenced in this group of houses built twenty-seven years after the Dahlander group. (more…)
05/07/2012 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 245 Flatbush Avenue
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Commercial/residential building
Address: 245 Flatbush Avenue
Cross Streets: Triangle of Bergen, Flatbush, Sixth Avenue
Neighborhood: Prospect Heights
Year Built: unknown, probably early 1890s
Architectural Style: Renaissance Revival
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: No
The story: The intersections and criss-crossings of streets along Flatbush Avenue have afforded the opportunity for several of these triangular shaped buildings. This one, known by most as the “Yummy Taco Building” or, if you’ve been here longer, “the Tiger Sign Company Building” is probably my favorite. Like New York’s most famous wedge shaped building, the Flatiron Building, this little building takes full use of the triangular shaped lot. The original owner got as much bang for his buck as possible, which goes to show that no parcel of land in New York is worthless. (more…)
05/04/2012 3:00 PM
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Building of the Day: 86-96 St. James Place
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: row houses
Address: 86-96 St. James Place
Cross Streets: Lafayette and Greene Avenues
Neighborhood: Clinton Hill
Year Built: 1884-85
Architectural Style: Queen Anne
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: Yes, part of Clinton Hill HD (1981)
The story: I used to work a block from here, on St. James between DeKalb and Lafayette. My employer had a home office in his brownstone on that block. I was employed there for over a year, and it gave me the opportunity to really get to know Clinton Hill. That is one reason why Clinton Hill will always be one of my favorite Brooklyn neighborhoods. I used to walk home quite often and my route usually took me down this block. There’s such a variety of architectural styles here, not as fancy as over on Clinton or Washington, but certainly as interesting. Much of the housing stock on this side of Clinton Hill is also older than the mansions, and the progression of style, the changes in the use of building materials, trim, even landscaping makes a walk up St. James a delightful adventure. (more…)
05/03/2012 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 81-89 Washington Street
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Thompson Water Meter Building
Address: 81-89 Washington Street
Cross Streets: Corner of York Street
Neighborhood: DUMBO
Year Built: 1889
Architectural Style: American Round Arch Factory
Architect: Mercein Thomas
Other Buildings by Architect: Methodist Home for the Aged, now Hebron School, Crown Heights North, houses on Clinton Avenue and elsewhere in Clinton Hill and Fort Greene.
Landmarked: Yes, part of DUMBO HD (2007)
The story: A sign can mean everything, when it comes to identifying and remembering buildings, even if that sign is not exactly accurate. Case in point: the Thompson Water Meter Building, in DUMBO. As mentioned last week, in a BOTD on Thompson’s landmarked factory several blocks from this location, at 100 Bridge Street, John Thompson, a Scottish-born inventor, had made it big with his invention of an effective water meter, which as any homeowner today knows, measures the amount of water going into a building from the city’s water supply. Thompson’s meters were used in commercial buildings all over the country, and especially here in the greater New York City area, where his was one of the four approved designs for commercial meters which were mandated to be installed in every commercial space in the city, beginning in 1899. (more…)
05/01/2012 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 2900 Bedford Avenue
(Boylan Hall, Brooklyn College)
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Brooklyn College campus, specifically LaGuardia Library, Boylan, Roosevelt, and Ingersoll Halls.
Address: 2900 Brooklyn College
Cross Streets: Campus Road, Bedford and Nostrand Avenues
Neighborhood: Midwood
Year Built: 1935-36
Architectural Style: Neo-Georgian
Architect: Randolph Evans
Other Buildings by Architect: suburban houses across the US. One of the designers of Sears kit houses, sold after WW II.
Landmarked: No
The story: I don’t know about you, but I love being on a college campus. There’s something about the buildings; the atmosphere, listening to snippets of conversation about academic things, that I suppose take me back to a time when all I had to worry about in life was attending class, writing papers and passing exams. A simpler time than now, that’s for sure.
Brooklyn College has a beautiful campus. Behind the gates at the busy, traffic and urban mess that is the intersection of Nostrand and Flatbush Avenues, lies the pursuit of intellectual investigation amongst the quiet contemplation of natural and architectural beauty. Randolph Evans, the architect of the original college buildings, was a busy architect designing suburban homes in the 1920s and 30s when his business was cut short by the Depression. He was working for Wood, Harmon Corporation, developers of suburban homes on Long Island and in Westchester. (more…)
04/30/2012 3:31 PM
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Building of the Day: 265 Gates Avenue
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Originally Eastern Mission Home for the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons), now belongs to Eastern Star Baptist Church
Address: 265 Gates Avenue
Cross Streets: Franklin and Classon Avenues
Neighborhood: Bedford Stuyvesant
Year Built: 1917
Architectural Style: Colonial Revival
Architect: attributed to Frank Holmgren
Other Buildings by Architect: Eastern Star Baptist Church, next door, buildings in Crown Heights North, Ocean on the Park HD, and Sunset Park
Landmarked: No
The story: In 1916, the Church of Latter Day Saints, the Mormons, bought a large plot of land on the corner of Gates and Franklin Avenues. There, they built their first Brooklyn church, called the Eastern States Chapel and Mission. The Chapel was a Frank Lloyd Wright; Prairie School influenced, and stucco clad building which still has a commanding presence on the corner of this lot. It was designed by Eric Holmgren, a Brooklyn based, Swedish-American architect, who was quite busy designing affordable housing, as well as middle class Colonial Revival houses in various parts of Brooklyn. Holmgren’s design for the Chapel is right out of Frank Lloyd Wright’s design book for the Unity Chapel in Oak Park, IL. This house, built a year before the chapel, resembles some of the work of Holmgren’s contemporaries, Slee & Bryson. (more…)
04/27/2012 3:00 PM
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Building of the Day: 24 Evans Street
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Quarters A: Former Commandant’s House, Brooklyn Navy Yard
Address: 24 Evans Street
Cross Streets: Plymouth and Hudson Streets, behind private gate.
Neighborhood: Vinegar Hill
Year Built: 1805-1806
Architectural Style: Federal
Architect: attributed to Charles Bulfinch
Other Buildings by Architect: United States Capitol Building, Wash. DC, Mass. State House, Old Ct. Statehouse, Maine Statehouse, University Hall at Harvard, among others.
Landmarked: Yes, individual landmark (1965), National Register of Historic Places, and a National Historic Landmark.
The story: This house is one of the worst kept secrets of Brooklyn. Sooner or later, especially if you have a car, people end up at this triple landmarked house, gawp at it through the gates, and run to find out what it is, and why it’s perched here, behind strong iron gates, and across the street from an extremely fugly Con Ed power facility. It’s one of the great Brooklyn conceits to hear people talk about “discovering” the house, and then you can say, “Oh, that’s the old Commandant’s House. You didn’t know it was there?” (Confession: I’ve done that. Mea culpa.) But I have to admit; it was only a month ago that I was able to get out of a car, and actually take some photographs. And up close, the house is cooler than ever, and is still such a tantalizing mystery.
We know quite a lot about it, most from behind the forbidding gates. It’s old, one of Brooklyn’s older buildings, dating back to 1806, when it was built to be Quarters A, the home of the Naval Yard Commandant. The architect is thought to be Charles Bulfinch, the first native born architect in America, the prolific designer of Capital buildings and State Houses, in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine, as well as the architect of part of the Capitol Building in Washington, DC. Unfortunately, there is no real documentation on that, and it may be one of those great apocryphal attributions that will stand forever. (more…)
04/26/2012 3:30 PM
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adam_dahill
May 21, 2012 | 02:16 PM