An Ode to Vinyl Siding
Park Slope has its brownstones, Williamsburg its vinyl siding. To me, it’s more of a, like, bourgeois town over there, a Williamsburg renter says of brownstone Brooklyn, in this NY Times article about how vinyl siding characterizes Williamsburg homes. While it isn’t always beloved, some think vinyl siding is a testament to Williamsburg’s working class…
Park Slope has its brownstones, Williamsburg its vinyl siding. To me, it’s more of a, like, bourgeois town over there, a Williamsburg renter says of brownstone Brooklyn, in this NY Times article about how vinyl siding characterizes Williamsburg homes. While it isn’t always beloved, some think vinyl siding is a testament to Williamsburg’s working class tradition, an authentic piece of history in the neighborhood. It’s not the most beautiful thing, but it’s real, said real estate broker and investor Lewis Canfield. It’s authentic. It’s tied to the history of the neighborhood. The siding is also practical and because it receives very little upkeep it remains untouched for decades. A commenter in Greenwood Heights weighs in in this City Room discussion: “To all the haters out there, embrace the love that is vinyl! Certainly more historically authentic to many parts of Brooklyn (and beyond) that re-brownstoning or rebricking a home or adding wood lap back in the picture. Metal? Iinteresting, perhaps standing seam…but while my 1880’s frame, wood lap covered by shingles and vinyl, may never be hip, it is real for my Greenwood Heights neighborhood and my household’s budget.”
Vinyl Siding Holds its Appeal to Some in Brooklyn [NY Times]
Photo by The Lizness
maybe on metropolitan? there are a few very cute houses around that part of metropolitan. the location is unfortunate, as that’s a major truck route.
maspeth looks really odd now, with giant “beaches” that I guess were intended to be parking areas (but didn’t) in front of a few of the condos.
we have what must be the only major condo project to incorporate gothic cathedral style “flying buttresses” in that large condo on the east side of cooper park. that is just strange strange-looking, though I could see that building being a really pleasant place to live.
Yeah, but my point is, there’s some beauty in the humble architecture too. There used to be some tiny farmhouses on Maspeth and on Catherine? There’s one I am thinking of that was almost entirely covered in ivy. It was brown and had round windows and looked like a dollhouse. Its vinyl siding did not detract from its charm.
while there are some houses with nicely detailed interiors scattered about the area, it’s not anywhere like the concentration that you have on orient. those were nice houses originally built for a different class of person, which I think accounts for the dumbwaiters and pocket doors and such. most of the houses began with far more humble ambitions.
orient ave still has the nicest houses in the area, and is still the prettiest street in williamsburg. it’s a tragedy what happened to that mansion from “a beatiful mind.” but the director of that movie bought another house on that block, and only one other house has been torn down on that block. that old bookie’s house recently sold, I think. I’ve always wanted to see what that looked like on the inside. I imagine frescoes and fountains.
ps 132 has been steadily getting better such that through my young daughter (one year away from 132) I know a bunch of people who’ve moved here from northside or southside to get a spot in the school (greenpoint is another place lots of young families move to for the schools–it has three excellent ones, and possibly even more vinyl than italian williamsburg).
and la locanda is great (and around the corner from me), as is frost, but it is nice to have fanny and il passatore and even that burger joint mothers for variety.
I think houses like mine and the vinyl-clad ones described in this article got a stay of execution when they neighborhood rezoned. when the FAR was 2.46, and condos selling at 550-600 sq/ft, it was hard to avoid the dismal arithmetic on what to do with those 25′ lots. now that the FAR’s been reduced to 2, and prices are closer to 500 sq/ft, I wouldn’t anticipate that too many of those houses will be torn down.
as for my house, it really was a “mean worker’s shack” back in the day. aside from the high ceilings and pine floors, there really wasn’t much to it (literally, at 20′ wide by 25′ deep). but the previous owners doubled its size with an addition back in the 80s, and we’ve been renovating for the last 6 years. now it’s a very nice and very modern (on the inside) house.
there are actually many houses that would have turn of the century interiors, and there could obviously be changes to the exterior. those renovations do exist in the WB, and various blocks look dramatically different than the picture especially around Berry st from like N.7th to N.10 and the surrounding streets which features a lot of brick townhouses kinda like cobble hill. there are a few brownstones, but more brick overall.
i do know people that have bought row houses like the ones in the picture and have done work, and are pretty happy. the blocks between union and graham to the north are very serene in terms of vibe, and there’s nice restaurants and amenities more like what you’d think of in brownstone brooklyn whereas the otherside of the BQE in West WB on the northside has the more upscale galleries, boutiques, restaurants, venues, etc…
i actually think that these North blocks between union and graham may see more MM type renovations because the school, 132 is quite good.
sorry, late to the show –
“It is equally condescending to scorn vinyl siding as too fugly because it is found mostly in working class areas and to embrace it as hip or authentic.”
Is hating something because I think it’s ugly condescending? I mean, I find the vinyl siding gross, I find the flat unmodulated facades that it covers gross, I find the vinyl windows that it is punctuated by gross. If you’re into that stuff, fine, but to me, it’s simply ugly. And I don’t find it ugly in a “you people who live there are ignorant compared to my fancy self” way- I assume people who live there either don’t care, or would live somewhere else if they had a bunch of money.
(and I’m also not saying that vinyl is any worse than the other options, or that the interiors are bad, or that people who live there are bad. I just hate vinyl, much like I just hate stucco and just hate colonial brick. seriously. boston. totally grosses me out more than williamsburg.)
I believe we know the same bookmaking individual, Mr. Mount, for what it is worth. Do you know how his brother is doing? He was a nice guy. I didn’t realize the entire block was safe as houses due to his influence when I lived there either… although, now that you mention it, it does make sense. All I know is I’ve been shocked going there since, to see basically tumbleweeds blowing across it. Tumbleweeds and squatters in the most fabulous (and possibly only) mansion in the entire neighborhood.
I don’t think gentrification always brings increased crime at all. But I know that it can. That doesn’t mean gentrification is always bad, or that neighborhoods should stay encased in amber. But Williamsburg has lost a lot of its quiet charm. (I suppose, to counter this, it has gained many restaurants that are even better than La Locanda.)
I have the perceived view that there’s more crime there now because I read the police blotter and it seems full of people being mugged in a neighborhood I used to perceive as safe. However, that could be attributed to:
a.) people being idiots.
b.) people always mugged, but since there was no internet, I never heard about it
But I also bet your house had a lot more going for it than a coal chute, and I bet it still does.
that’s not entirely true. the original part of the house, from the late teens or 20s, has very high ceilings (9.5′). whoever built the large extension in the 80s inexplicably only built it to 8′, leading to a weird stepped hallway on the second floor.
heather, orient ave. is legendarily crime-ridden (moreso than it is in reality) among the older italians who live around here. it was once “doctor’s row” and the nicest block in the area–about 50 years ago. it wasn’t gentrification that contributed to the increase in crime there. it was the end of the hospital, the later uses of the hospital and the massive housing project built adjacent to orient ave. the block may have had a brief resurgence in “safety” during the mid 80s through the early 90s owing to a particular resident who made a name for himself in the bookmaking world. but that was an exception to the overall trend of that street and the whole cooper park area over the last several decades. that said, the micro-neighborhood around eastern part of cooper park was on the upswing well before gentrification of the “hipster” variety, as the working class south americans who predominate around there fixed up a lot of those houses and made it a very pleasant and safe-seeming area. and I don’t know about you heather, but I’m in my mid 30s, my grandmother’s from williamsburg and I’ve been visiting cousins who until recently lived on catherine street since I was a small child.
if heather’s notion that gentrification brings increased seems counter-intuitive to some of you, that would be because in this case, at least, it is not based on any observable reality I’ve witnessed.
and DH, I guess I do have a bit of the masochist streak in me, but I’ve always enjoyed reading about the lovely houses of brooklyn. don’t read the site as much as I used to, but I was here from the beginning. and the only architectural detail my house had was an old coal chute in the basement. I did preserve that!