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Building of the Day: 709 Bushwick Avenue
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Private house, now office/facility and apartments
Address: 709 Bushwick Avenue
Cross Streets: Corner Suydam Street
Neighborhood: Bushwick
Year Built: 1878
Architectural Style: Victorian Gothic
Architect: John Platte
Other Work by Architect: Ice House on Dean, CHN; other houses, stables and buildings in Bushwick and Williamsburg
Landmarked: No
The story: Now this is a great building, with an interesting past, and what seems to be a promising future. The house was built for a furniture manufacturer named Martin Worm, a rather unfortunate name, especially for a man who worked with wood, but perhaps if it was pronounced in the original German manner, “Vorm,” it’s not so bad. Mr. Worm had a large factory called Martin Worm & Sons, located on the corner of Humboldt and Siegel Street, in Williamsburg. He also had some bad luck along with his successes. In 1884, his factory was struck by lightning, and sustained heavy damages in the fire that followed. It was almost a total loss, as can be imagined in a building with wood and solvents. But he rebuilt.
The house was built later, in 1878, designed by John Platte, a local architect who worked mostly in the Williamsburg/Bushwick area, designing all kinds of buildings, from private homes to stables, tenement buildings and ice houses for breweries. One of his last remaining ice houses is the Ice House on Dean Street, a former BOTD, and recipient of many “green” awards when it was renovated. This house is quite fine, with an interesting Victorian Gothic façade, highlighted by the arched window hoods, with their keystones incised with a Neo-Grec style floral design. The side and front of the house both have a generous two story bay, and the front door is welcoming, with a small columned porch. (more…)
04/24/2013 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 442-472 40th Street
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Tenement buildings
Address: 442-472 40th Street
Cross Streets: 4th and 5th avenues
Neighborhood: Sunset Park
Year Built: 1912-1913
Architectural Style: Renaissance Revival
Architect: Eisenla & Carlson
Other Work by Architect: Row houses, tenements and flats buildings in Park Slope, row house blocks such as the 600 block of 76th Street, also Senator Street in Bay Ridge.
Landmarked: No, but on National Register of Historic Places (1988)
The story: Sunset Park was one of the last of Brooklyn’s brownstone neighborhoods to develop, and most of this large neighborhood’s building stock dates to the beginning of the 20th century. Several factors contributed to the neighborhood’s rise, chief among them the building of the 4th Avenue subway line, and the jobs available at the huge Sunset Park industrial park of Bush Terminal, its adjacent industries and, later, the Brooklyn Army Terminal.
In 1906, a reporter for the Brooklyn Eagle noted that the Sunset Park area had gone from farm land to urban city in the space of only a few years. The 4th Avenue subway line was announced in 1905. It was designed to connect South Brooklyn with Downtown Brooklyn, and on to Manhattan, via the new Manhattan Bridge. By 1908, the blocks between the avenues in Sunset Park were a hive of building activity, with foundations being dug and buildings going up on every block. (more…)
04/23/2013 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 691 Willoughby Avenue
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Private house
Address: 691 Willoughby Avenue
Cross Streets: Throop Avenue and Marcus Garvey Blvd.
Neighborhood: Bedford Stuyvesant
Year Built: Unknown
Architectural Style: Italianate with later 20th century alterations
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: No
The story: Sometimes a house calls out to you to find out its history, to discover the lives of the now-forgotten people who lived and died there, and bring their stories to light. Too often, especially in neighborhoods that are not what they once were, these houses have been altered to suit the needs of those who came when times were different from when the houses were built, but that’s not really what’s important in this story, even though that’s often what draws the eye. This grand mansion was the home of many people over the last one hundred and fifty years, but two families in particular made their mark not only on the house, but on Brooklyn, and it’s their stories that make this house shine. (more…)
04/22/2013 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 165 Remsen Street
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Office Building
Address: 165 Remsen Street
Cross Streets: Court and Clinton Streets
Neighborhood: Brooklyn Heights
Year Built: 1924-25
Architectural Style: Neo-classical
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: Yes, part of Brooklyn Skyscraper HD (2012)
The story: On the face of it, this is a nice three story office building on a side street in the new Brooklyn Skyscraper Historic District. But this little building’s history is much more complicated than its surface appearance. Its fortunes are tied to its backyard neighbor, and while quite picturesque with its banks of upper story windows, the stories behind these doors have yet to be revealed.
Before this building and its neighbors were constructed in the early to mid-20th century, Remsen Street was completely residential, filled with four and five story brownstone row houses, equal to those up the street, further into the Heights. 165 Remsen was home for many years to Dr. Frederich W. Wunderlich, a prominent physician, and his family. (more…)
04/19/2013 3:00 PM
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Building of the Day: 5205 Fourth Avenue
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Originally the Coliseum Theater, now Templo De La Alabanza
Address: 5205 Fourth Avenue
Cross Streets: 52nd and 53rd Streets
Neighborhood: Sunset Park
Year Built: 1920
Architectural Style: 20th century movie house, with vaguely Moorish detail
Architect: Matthew W. Del Gaudio
Other Work by Architect: Four other theaters in Brooklyn – two in Dyker Heights, two in Bay Ridge. Also on the architectural advisory board of the Williamsburg Houses; houses in Van Cortlandt Village, Bronx, among others.
Landmarked: No
The story: When the movies were king, Brooklyn had some spectacular movie houses. Most of them are now gone or are only shades of their former selves, having been converted into churches, supermarkets, or retail stores. The borough also had some lesser movie houses; neighborhood spots that perhaps were not huge fantasy palaces run by the major studios, but instead were both large and small, perfectly great neighborhood venues to run movies, a place where a family could walk, and escape into Hollywood’s worlds of fantasy and drama.
Movie theater aficionados had developed websites devoted to their favorite topic, and there are lots of people of a certain age who remember their first time in a theater, or certain movies or personal appearances by stars and entertainers who dropped in to promote their newest film or project. Sometimes these people were neighborhood celebrities themselves, men and woman from the old neighborhood who made it big, but came back to remember where they came from. This building was that kind of place. (more…)
04/18/2013 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 135 Stratford Road
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Private house
Address: 135 Stratford Road
Cross Streets: Albemarle and Beverley Road
Neighborhood: Prospect Park South
Year Built: 1906
Architectural Style: Colonial Revival with Flemish detail
Architect: George E. Showers
Other Work by Architect: Other houses on this side of Stratford, as well as elsewhere in Prospect Park South
Landmarked: Yes, part of Prospect Park South HD (1979)
The story: Developer Dean Alvord began planning his elite Prospect Park South neighborhood in 1899. Like many people with great vision, it seems the planning stages and beginning developments were a source of great attention to him, but in a few years, when the project started to slow down, and was more than three quarters finished, he began to lose interest, and he began turning that attention to the next project, the next hurdles to overcome. By 1905, only six years later, he sold all of his remaining interests in Prospect Park South, and turned his attention to the development of Laurelton, Queens, a community he built in much the same fashion he built Prospect Park South.
The forty-five vacant lots remaining in the area were sold to the Chelsea Improvement Company, who began putting up houses that were generally smaller and less impressive than Dean Alvord’s magnificent mansions. Some of these lots were developed by the team of George T. and Lizzie Moore, who built primarily on this east side of Stratford Road, as well as elsewhere in the neighborhood. They worked mainly with architect George E. Showers. This team was responsible for this attractive, medium-sized Colonial Revival, with a twist. (more…)
04/17/2013 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 334 MacDonough Street
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, now St. Philips Episcopal Church
Address: 334 MacDonough Street
Cross Streets: Lewis and Stuyvesant Avenues
Neighborhood: Stuyvesant Heights
Year Built: 1898-99
Architectural Style: English Gothic
Architect: Arnie Delhi
Other Work by Architect: St. Jerome Roman Catholic Church, Bronx, and other churches and buildings in the metropolitan area
Landmarked: Yes, part of Stuyvesant Heights HD (1971)
The story: This church is a prime example of how the events that take place in a building can be as important as the building itself. Since 1944, this church has been an important part of African-American life and culture here in Bedford Stuyvesant.
The church was built as the Church of the Good Shepherd, an Episcopal church established in the upscale community of Stuyvesant Heights. It was designed by Arnie Delhi, a Norwegian architect who joined many other Scandinavian architects of great talent, here in Brooklyn during this time period. Delhi, who was the senior partner of Delhi and Howard, was an expert in church design. For this new money WASP neighborhood, he took his inspiration from the English Gothic style, creating a rough-hewn and rustic looking church, complete with crenellations, crocketed finials, and some very impressive Medieval gargoyles.
St. Philips Episcopal Church was founded in 1899, about the same time Church of the Good Shepherd, only a mile or so from here, yet worlds away. It was a black congregation whose first home was an empty storefront on Pacific Street, near the African American community of Weeksville. They soon established a church site at 1610 Dean Street, the first church in the area to be planned and erected by black engineers and builders. (more…)
04/16/2013 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 404 55th Street
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Dr. Maurice T. Lewis House, now office of Felix W. Ortiz, New York State Assemblyman
Address: 404 55th Street
Cross Streets: Corner Fourth Avenue
Neighborhood: Sunset Park
Year Built: 1907
Architectural Style: Renaissance Revival
Architect: Harde & Short
Other Work by Architect: In Brooklyn – Kismet Temple, Bed Stuy. In Manhattan – Alwyn Court, 58th Street, and other apartment buildings on Upper East and West Side
Landmarked: No, but on National Register of Historic Places
The story: Sunset Park was designed and built for ordinary middle and working class folk. This is unique amongst our brownstone neighborhoods, most of which were built for the upper classes, no matter where they may lie on the economic scale now. It’s a huge neighborhood full of rows of fine row houses, apartment buildings, churches and other civic buildings, and this last weekend, I had the pleasure of touring many of its blocks in a walking tour organized by the Sunset Park Landmark Committee. The leader of the tour, Joe Svehlak, grew up there, and we’ve known each other for years, in one of those convoluted Six Degrees of Separation connections that occur so often in life. I was eager to learn more about a neighborhood that I knew very little about, and I have a wealth of information now that I am more than willing to share in upcoming BOTDs.
Ironically, in this working class ‘hood, I’m starting with the only freestanding mansion in the district. This is the Dr. Maurice Thomas Lewis house, built for him in 1907, when he was president of the Bay Ridge Savings Bank. Doctor Lewis was a busy man. He graduated in the Class of 1892 from the Long Island Hospital School of Medicine, and practiced medicine for over 38 years, and for many years was a consulting pathologist at Harbor Hospital, which stood on Cropsey Avenue at 23rd Street, here in Brooklyn. Perhaps because his patients couldn’t complain about his scheduling, being dead and all, that enabled him to pursue an entirely different line of work, and have a successful second career as a banker. (more…)
04/15/2013 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 950-952 Bergen Street
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Flats buildings
Address: 950-952 Bergen Street
Cross Streets: Bedford and Franklin Avenues
Neighborhood: Crow Hill/Crown Heights North
Year Built: 1892
Architectural Style: Renaissance Revival
Architect: William J. Conway
Other Work by Architect: 709-711 Union St, Park Slope; various flats buildings, houses, garages, etc, here and there throughout Brooklyn.
Landmarked: No
The story: By the late 1880s, through the first decade of the 20th century, tenement and flats buildings were going up in Brooklyn as fast as houses, in some cases, faster. The most popular kind of flats building was a four story walk-up with 8 flats, two per floor, floor-throughs, one on either side of a central stair. You can find them everywhere in brownstone Brooklyn. Some are very plain, others covered in all kinds of ornament, designed to appeal to people who couldn’t afford, or didn’t want, a single family home. As developers and their architects figured out how to maximize the space in these buildings, some creative solutions were devised. The most obvious one was to use bays, front and/or back, to get extra square footage, and allow more air and light into the apartments.
William Conway, who was responsible for 950-92 Bergen Street, was a one man show. He was the developer, architect and builder of his projects, which meant he didn’t have to answer to anyone, and could be as imaginative as he wanted. On these two flats buildings, he opted to get some extra footage by building these unusual bays, which hang out over the street by about three feet. They are a clever skirting of a technicality, since they don’t touch the ground; they are technically not over stepping the bounds of the sidewalk line set by the city’s code. (more…)
04/12/2013 3:00 PM
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Building of the Day: 440 Clinton Street
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: John Rankin House, now F.G. Guido Funeral Home
Address: 440 Clinton Street
Cross Streets: Corner of Carroll Street
Neighborhood: Carroll Gardens
Year Built: 1839-1840
Architectural Style: Greek Revival
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: Yes, individual landmark (1970), National Register of Historic Places (1978)
The story: In our densely packed city today, it’s hard to imagine that from the windows of this house, its owner, John Rankin, could look out and see the picturesque vista of the bay, with sailing ships entering the harbor. The house, at that time, sat alone amidst the fields and gentlemen farms of the area, a suburban retreat from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan commerce and trade.
John Rankin was a very successful and wealthy merchant, but we don’t know anything more about him, other than he had money and good taste. His house was constructed at a time when the Greek Revival style of architecture was favored as the choice for substantial houses like this. Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill were considered Southern Brooklyn during this time, and were not very developed. The street grid had been established, but still ran around the estates of the other wealthy landowners who lived here. This was practically “the country” then, and this house was a country estate. (more…)
04/11/2013 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 683-691 Bushwick Avenue
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Row houses
Address: 683-691 Bushwick Avenue
Cross Streets: Myrtle Avenue and Suydam Street
Neighborhood: Bushwick
Year Built: 1890
Architectural Style: Queen Anne
Architect: Theobald M. Engelhardt
Other Work by Architect: Much of Bushwick and the Eastern District, including row houses, tenements, mansions, churches, schools, breweries and factories.
Landmarked: No, but part of a proposed William Ulmer Historic District
The story: William Ulmer was perhaps Bushwick’s most well-known brewer, which is saying something, as by the 1890s, Brooklyn, the fourth largest city in America, had 45 active breweries. By the turn of the 20th century, his large brewery complex on Belvidere and Locust Streets in Bushwick produced over three million gallons of the frothy brew a year. Brooklyn’s German and, more and more, non-German population had made beer the king of beverages, and William Ulmer was certainly one of the princes of beer.
The success of his business made Ulmer a millionaire, and like many rich men, he began investing money in real estate ventures. He never seemed to be too interested in it, however, and aside from his own homes, he seems to have bankrolled only one project, this group of five large Queen Anne row houses. But, like many property owners in Bushwick, for all of his projects, he relied on the talents of only one architect – the most talented and prolific architect in the region: Theobald M. Engelhardt. (more…)
04/10/2013 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 47 Montgomery Place
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Originally the Victor Koechl House
Address: 47 Montgomery Place
Cross Streets: Eighth Avenue and Prospect Park West
Neighborhood: Park Slope
Year Built: 1890
Architectural Style: French Renaissance
Architect: Rudolph L. Daus
Other Work by Architect: NY & NJ Telephone Building, Downtown Brooklyn; 13th Regiment Armory, Bed Stuy; Lincoln Club, Clinton Hill; and houses in Park Slope, Bedford Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, among many other buildings.
Landmarked: Yes, part of Park Slope HD (1973)
The story: On a block of “look at me” houses, this one excels like no other. Amidst C.P.H. Gilbert’s brick fortresses, George Chappell’s elegant row houses, and other luminaries on this short block, Rudolph Daus’ frothy French creation, the only house in red sandstone, loudly proclaims “C’est moi!” Or rather, more to the point, “Hier bin ich.”
Developer Harvey Murdock began commissioning houses for this block in 1887, hiring talented young CPH Gilbert to design one of kind houses, many specifically for their first owners. This would be THE block in Park Slope, already an upscale community in the blocks nearest Prospect Park. Other talented and star Brooklyn architects would follow, all designing fine homes for their clients. Rudolph Daus was one of the up and coming stars of Brooklyn’s architecture world, and was probably the most Continental of the bunch. (more…)
04/09/2013 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 921 Putnam Avenue
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Former Convent of Our Lady of Good Counsel
Address: 921 Putnam Avenue
Cross Streets: Patchen and Ralph Avenues
Neighborhood: Bedford Stuyvesant
Year Built: 1914, with alterations to this and the building next door in 1915
Architectural Style: Renaissance Revival
Architect: Frank J. Helmle
Other Work by Architect: St. Barbara’s RC Church, Bushwick; St. Gregory the Great RC Church, Crown Heights North.; Boathouse, Prospect Park; Bossert Hotel, Brooklyn Heights, among many others
Landmarked: No
The story: If I had the opportunity and the money, I’d buy this place in a hot minute. Who wouldn’t want to have one of the coolest row house balconies around? We don’t often think of nuns living in this sort of splendor, but the Sisters who called this convent home had quite an elegant place to lay their heads. The fact that the building was designed by a really great architect only adds icing to quite a nice cake.
The parish of Our Lady of Good Counsel was established back in 1886 by Father Eugene Mahoney. This was before there was even much of a neighborhood here, as this part of the Eastern District was home to suburban villas, not row house development. But the good Father knew it was coming; his brothers were successful and wealthy builders in Manhattan, so he enlisted their help, and weeks after buying a huge chunk of land on Putnam and adjoining Madison, they began building a wooden church that would seat 800, with a more impressive stone church to follow.
By 1891, the stone church that stands a couple of doors down was finished, as was a school and a rectory. This parish served the needs of this part of Brooklyn’s ever growing Irish and German Catholic families, and a complex of buildings is typical of Catholic parish growth. The church is, of course, the heart of the complex, with a school, rectory for priests and religious staff, and a convent for the nuns who traditionally taught in the school. By the end of the first decade of the 20th century, Our Lady of Good Counsel had both an elementary and secondary school, so a new convent was a must. (more…)
04/08/2013 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 615 St. Johns Place
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Garage or service building, then home
Address: 615 St. Johns Place
Cross Streets: Franklin and Classon Avenues
Neighborhood: Crow Hill/Crown Heights North
Year Built: Sometime between 1900 and 1920
Architectural Style: Typical early 20th century garage
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: No
The story: Sandwiched in between two flats buildings, across from Franklin Park, sits this little neglected building. According to Property Shark, the building measures 20 x 25 feet, on a lot that is 20 by a very long 131 feet. The profile of the building, minus the little portico, gives us an idea of its date: similar facades in the area date to the beginning of the 20th century, and it’s a typical garage building, easily found in this neighborhood, a style used for both private and public garages, and also service stations and body shops.
At some point in its history, someone converted the garage into an office or home, by adding an extension. Adaptive use at its finest. They put a little portico entryway on it, giving it a bit more gravitas. It could easily have had windows on one side, in the back, and would have had a large backyard. The building is classified as a “One story-permanent living quarters,” according to the city, which also says that the building has 990 square feet of space. The Municipal Archives tax photo from the early 1980s shows a chain link fence with a gate, a newspaper in the gate, and a little lawn with boxwood shrubbery and a decorative tree. There is ivy growing on the face of the building. It would be like an urban ranch style house. It’s all rather cute and charming. Alas, no longer. The building has long been boarded up, and due to a fire, the roof is now out. The yard is garbage strewn and overgrown. (more…)
04/05/2013 3:00 PM
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Building of the Day: 291-299 State Street
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Row houses
Address: 291-299 State Street
Cross Streets: Smith and Hoyt Streets
Neighborhood: Downtown Brooklyn
Year Built: 1871
Architectural Style: Italianate
Architect: Michael Murray (builder/architect)
Landmarked: Yes, individual landmarks (1973), National Register of Historic Places (1980)
The story: These houses are interesting and important for a number of reasons. In 1973, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the twenty-three 19th century houses that stand on both sides of State Street, between Smith and Hoyt Streets. Although they are informally called the “State Street Houses,” in a rare move, this block was not declared an historic district, but each of the houses was issued a separate designation report, and each, technically, is an individual landmark. Today’s BOTD’s are the only five houses that appear on the north side of the street.
Originally, there were nine more houses here on the right, and probably another fourteen or so, going towards Smith Street. This stretch of State Street, progressing down towards Flatbush, was considered part of the development of Boerum Hill, which started in the 1840s, as Brooklyn expanded out from the riverfront and the Heights. Like much of Brooklyn, this started out as farmland, land that belonged to Dutch families whose names now sound like an atlas of Brooklyn street names. The south side of State Street was part of the Jacob Van Brunt farm, willed to his daughter Jane, who was married to Samuel T. Gerritsen. State Street was originally called Gerritsen Street. In 1833, Charles Hoyt and Russell Nevins bought the Gerritsen farm, and began developing it. (more…)
04/04/2013 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 1160 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Originally Bedford Reformed Church, then Aurora Grata Scottish Rite Cathedral, Lodge #756, Miller Memorial Nazarene Church, now Community Worship Center of the Church of the Nazarene
Address: 1160 Bedford Avenue
Cross Streets: Corner Madison Street
Neighborhood: Bedford Stuyvesant
Year Built: 1872, alterations and additions, 1887, 1892
Architectural Style: Victorian Gothic
Architect: John Welsh, with massive alterations by I.D. Reynolds
Other Work by Architect: St. Luke and St. Matthew Episcopal Church on Clinton Ave. in Clinton Hill, All Saints Episcopal Church on 7th Ave. and 7th St. in Park Slope. I.D. Reynolds, row houses in several parts of Brooklyn, most especially in Bedford and Stuyvesant Heights
Landmarked: No
The story: This church building has been many things in its 141-year history. Like many of Brooklyn’s church congregations, this one started out as a small gathering of worshipers who met in a small wood framed building. They were led by a charismatic pastor named J. Halsted Carroll. As their numbers grew, they wanted to build a larger church, land was acquired, here on the corner of Bedford and Madison, and John Welsh, an established church architect, was hired to design a fine hall of worship. The congregants of the Bedford Reformed Church were on the whole, an upwardly mobile group, and they wanted their now bustling and growing community of Bedford to have a Reformed Church worthy of the community, and of the reputation of their minister. Long story short, they overspent.
John Welsh gave them what they wanted: a large Philadelphia brick church trimmed in brownstone, in the Victorian Gothic style. Welsh had recently designed the famously expansive new church for the Rev. Talmage, known as “Talmage’s Tabernacle,” and the Reformists wanted something equally fine. The church was designed in the shape of a cross, and the bell tower originally had illuminated clock faces, which can still be seen in the 1914 photograph below. Inside, the sanctuary had seats for 800 people, and a grand organ, and the space was lined with fine woods, gilt trim and fine upholstery and fabrics. The attached parsonage was also quite posh, with the same expensive furnishings and accoutrements. The entire project cost about $160,000, an awful lot of money at a time when neighboring brownstones were selling for around $10,000. (more…)
04/03/2013 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 2273 Church Avenue
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Flatbush Station, U.S. Post Office
Address: 2273 Church Avenue
Cross Streets: Flatbush and Bedford Avenues
Neighborhood: Flatbush
Year Built: 1935-1936
Architectural Style: Colonial Revival
Architect: Lorimer Rich, for the Office of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury.
Other work by architect: seven Post Office buildings in New York City, including Kensington. Also Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington Cemetery
Landmarked: No, but on National Register of Historic Places (1988)
The story: This post office branch is not a marble-columned monument to the rather lofty and unattainable unofficial Postal Code: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” But in the 1930s, this was what the new post offices built in many parts of the city looked like – well built, simple classic Georgian-style buildings that were constructed to move the mail, not the senses. Even as the Great Depression raged on, New York City was still growing, and needed more post offices to service still expanding neighborhoods. The federal government also needed to put people to work, and so began a program of building public government structures, accomplishing two goals at once: providing work for unemployed men, and new post office facilities. This occurred all over the state, not just in New York City.
Lorimer Rich, the architect of at least seven of the post office branches built in New York City at this time, was a consulting architect with the Office of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury, in Washington, D.C. The supervising architect was able to sub out work to consulting architects, some of whom he gave great leeway in design, and others who had far less freedom. Rich was one of the few to have almost total autonomy. (more…)
04/02/2013 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 159 Carlton Avenue
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Former Feuchtwanger Stable, now condos
Address: 159 Carlton Avenue
Cross Streets: Willoughby and Myrtle Avenues
Neighborhood: Fort Greene
Year Built: 1888
Architectural Style: Romanesque Revival
Architect: Marshall J. Morrill, conversion to residential by Anderson Associates
Other Work by Architect: Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Fort Greene, also Newsboy’s Home on Poplar Street in Brooklyn Heights, as well as row houses in Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bed Stuy, Park Slope and Brooklyn Heights
Landmarked: No, but on the National Register of Historic Places (1986)
The story: Even in the 19th century, a Brooklynite with means needed a place to stash the family vehicle. Like today, most people did without their own transportation, and used public transportation, but some, whether for convenience or status, had to have their own wheels. But you can’t leave a 19th century hay burner and rig out on the street, so commercial stables were the obvious solution. The wealthy had their own private stables, but less wealthy people with horses boarded them in places like the Feuchtwanger Stable.
As the residential streets of Fort Greene grew, the service buildings, especially stables, were established on the fringes of the neighborhood, mostly in wooden framed buildings on Fulton Street and Myrtle Avenue, close enough to walk to easily, but far enough away for most, so that the by-products of horse ownership were not smelled all day. But wood framed buildings were fire traps, so that by the end of the 19th century, city regulations and stable owners began to prefer masonry stable buildings. Since the Victorian aesthetic of beauty carried over to even these humble service buildings, the result could often be a building of great beauty, as well as functionality. This one is certainly a beauty. (more…)
04/01/2013 3:30 PM
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Building of the Day: 494 Jamaica Avenue
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Originally the Wilhelmus Stoothoff House, now two-family private house
Address: 494 Jamaica Avenue
Cross Streets: Elton and Linwood Streets
Neighborhood: Cypress Hills
Year Built: Original house, before 1800, heavy alterations in 1889, remuddling later in 20th century
Architectural Style: New Netherlands Dutch, with Victorian alterations
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: No
The story: When you walk by this house, you can tell it’s much older than it looks today. First of all, there’s its position. It’s off the street grid, skewed at bit sideways, usually an indication that it predates the laying out of present day Jamaica Avenue. Secondly, if you look beyond the enclosed porch and the vinyl siding, there is an old Dutch overshot roof, and all of those dormers, front and back. What’s up with this house? Many times, these houses are so mucked up the records are totally gone, but I was surprised to find some real information.
This was originally the Wilhelmus Stoothoff house, built sometime before 1800, when this was still Dutch farm country in New Lots. Up until the middle of the 1900s, several other Dutch colonial houses still stood in the area, the most important being the Isaac Cornell Schenck house, which stood across the street in what would become Highland Park. Early records show that Jan Berents Bloom owned the land and the house, and sold it to Wilhelmus Stoothoff somewhere around the turn of the 19th century. A barn was erected for Stoothoff in 1800, and the house is mentioned in 1814, in the diary of John Baxter, in which he refers to Stoothoff as “Bill.”
Bill Stoothoff died in 1837. Before he died, he sold the property to John R. Pitkin, of Connecticut, who was planning East New York’s development. But the Panic of 1837 caused Pitkin to lose the property, and it went back to the Stoothoff family. After the Civil War, William Stoothoff, Bill’s son, sold the house and forty acres to Edward F. Linton. Edward F. Linton would have a great impact on both the house and the neighborhood. (more…)
03/29/2013 3:00 PM
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Building of the Day: 301-311 Garfield Place
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Row houses
Address: 301-311 Garfield Place
Cross Streets: Eighth Avenue and Prospect Park West
Neighborhood: Park Slope
Year Built: 1892
Architectural Style: Romanesque Revival/Queen Anne
Architect: Magnus Dahlander
Other Work by Architect: Similar row houses in Stuyvesant Heights, Bedford Stuyvesant, Prospect Heights, and Crown Heights North
Landmarked: Yes, part of Park Slope HD (1973)
The story: Architect Magnus Dahlander only lived in Brooklyn for eight years. He came here in 1888, set up his practice, and left in 1896, going back to his native Sweden. We don’t have any personal records of his time here, so we don’t know exactly why he went back home. Perhaps he didn’t like America all that much, we don’t know how well he spoke English, or if he had a wife and children back home, perhaps he missed just missed Sweden. What we do know is that in the short time he was here, he made his mark on Brooklyn’s architectural landscape, and on the streetscape, as well. A surprisingly many of his buildings still survive, and there really isn’t one that’s not an attractive, and interesting building.
This group is sort of in the middle of Dahlander’s architectural journey through Brooklyn. He built mostly in the up and coming new neighborhoods that were being developed by some of the most successful developers of the day, such as Walter F. Clayton, John Bliss, and William Reynolds. Their houses were all speculative, built in the upper middle class neighborhoods of Bedford, Stuyvesant Heights, the St. Marks District, Prospect Heights, and Park Slope.
This group was designed and built in 1892, the same year Dahlander designed the 33 house row on Bainbridge Street in Stuyvesant Heights, for Walter Clayton. These six houses were built for developer Wesley C. Bush, who lived over in Prospect Heights. There is the inevitable similarity to some of the Bainbridge houses, but like all of Dahlander’s work, he strove to make each as individual as possible within the restraints of the lot size, and materials and budget. (more…)
03/28/2013 3:35 PM
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dittoburg
May 21, 2013 | 09:56 AM