Architecture 101: Dean Sage House

dean sage
Photo from archive of the Bridge and Tunnel Club

Designed in 1869 by architect Russell Sturgis (who also designed Farnham Hall at Yale University), the Dean Sage House at 839 St. Mark's Avenue is an excellent example of the kind of "solid, comfortable villas" built in the Northern section of Crown Heights in the post-Civil War years, writes Francis Morrone in "An Architectural Guidebook to Brooklyn". The house is constructed with rough brownstone and sports a polygonal tower with pointed-arch windows on the rear of the house. The highlight of the house for Morrone is the "art Nouveau-seeming" ironwork of the transom. We just wonder whether some lucky folks still have the place to themselves. Anyone know?
Morrone's Books [Francis Morrone]

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I think was once a convent but currently a group home for mentally disabled.

Posted by: Anonymous at May 11, 2005 3:49 PM

That's actually my great-great grandfather's house. I finally tracked it down a year ago and was extremely happy to find it still standing -- especially with a large yard attached. I love the style. Looks like a large addition was added to the back at some point. Too bad I don't have some sort of ancestral claim to it and can barely afford to buy a 650 square foot 2BR in Brooklyn these days. The family fortune (made from lumber by Dean's father Henry Sage in Albany) ran out a few generations ago. The Dean Sage name is still in use though -- we're up to Dean Sage V.

Posted by: Cindy at May 12, 2005 4:07 PM

Thanks, Cindy. How interesting!

Posted by: Brownstoner at May 12, 2005 6:36 PM

Henry Sage had the largest saw mill in the world on the banks of the Saginaw River in Bay City, Michigan. He is a frequent topic of discussion amoung researchers of local history in that community. Dean has a street named after him on the west side of Bay City. I have a copy of Biography of a Businessman, the biography of Henry Sage which was in print last I knew. Henry Sage founded the town of Wenona, Michigan which is now the west side of Bay City.

Posted by: user225937 at May 8, 2009 10:00 PM

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May 11, 2005

Architecture 101: Dean Sage House

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