The Queen of Hancock Street

We took a drive around Bed Stuy on Sunday just for kicks and had to pull over and take a shot of this grand old home at 247 Hancock Street. When we got home, we consulted our copy of Francis Morrone's "An Architectural Guide to Brooklyn" hoping to get the scoop. We were in luck, as this is one of the buildings highlighted in the book. Morrone calls Number 247 the "Queen of Hancock Street". The eighty-foot wide, three-story brownstone was designed in the 1880's by Montrose Morris for John C. Kelley, who made his fortune in water-meters (we guess someone had to, right?) The design is particularly notable, Morrone notes, because it employed a High Renaissance design in a period when Romanesque and Queen Anne were the styles of choice in Brooklyn. Can anyone confirm if it is still used as a single-family home?

Comments

I do believe so. We went around Bed-Stuy with a realator from Urban View Realty (Walston is awesome!). I think he said that an older woman still lives there and it is gorgeous inside. She occasionally rents it out for special occasions.

Posted by: mf at April 27, 2005 3:41 PM

test

Posted by: Anonymous at April 27, 2005 4:09 PM

you say .

""We took a drive around Bed Stuy on Sunday just for kicks ""
what kinda kicks?

Posted by: electricgreek1 at April 27, 2005 4:26 PM

Beauty of a brownstone, but 80 feet wide? That can't be right. Must be the lot size.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 27, 2005 5:03 PM

Yes - its used as a single family.

Posted by: Terrence at April 27, 2005 6:32 PM

It could be 80 feet.. the building looks about 55, and I don't see a building to its right, so there could be a yard there that's 25 feet.
Also, what's so bad about driving around looking at houses?

Posted by: OE at April 27, 2005 7:59 PM

This is a wonderful home, I had the chance to meet the owner. She bought the house back in the 80's she said it was a "Reck" over the years she restored it and brought back the "Mansion"

Enjoy riding through Bed Sty don't mind the naysayers:)!!!

Posted by: nikki at April 28, 2005 2:40 AM

The house is 40ft by 47ft. The Lot is 81ft by 100ft. It was built in 1900. The current owner bought the house in 1986 for a about 130,000 it looks like. Over the years 500,000 was put into the house. In the early eighties the Dept. of Finance had it and issued a vacate order to whomever was there.

Posted by: Tom at April 28, 2005 8:35 AM

I have been by this house many times and always loved it. Glad to hear it's been restored.

Posted by: Pietro at April 28, 2005 8:48 AM

This is why i ride around taking pictures of Brooklyn

So awesome

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Posted by: best online casinos at May 17, 2005 12:32 AM

i live next dor to this building and there is a yard to the right all calculations are correct and the building inside is wonderful

Posted by: guest at March 23, 2008 4:38 PM

i live next dor to this building and there is a yard to the right all calculations are correct and the building inside is wonderful

Posted by: guest at March 23, 2008 4:39 PM

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April 27, 2005

The Queen of Hancock Street

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