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March 6, 2006

House of the Day: 52 Irving Place

houseHere's a listing in our own backyard we hadn't seen yet because its promotion appears to have been limited to Craigslist. It's fairly unremarkable, though if you lost the white vinyl windows and non-period metal gate you might have something to work with. But it's most notable for the fact that it is a brownstone in Clinton Hill available for less than a million bucks ($975,000). It appears to be quite narrow however and certainly in need of some work--just how much is hard to tell from the pics. There was an open house yesterday, so maybe someone can give us some color.
Clinton Hill One Family [Craigslist] GMAP P*Shark




Posted by Brownstoner at 11:42 AM | Comments (26)
Categories: Properties

Comments

this place has been for sale for about a yr

Posted by: electricgreek1 at March 6, 2006 11:52 AM

Has the price come down?

Posted by: Brownstoner at March 6, 2006 12:35 PM

yup ! they were asking 999k

Posted by: electricgreek1 at March 6, 2006 12:48 PM

Irving Place seems like a sweet little street, like Downing, residential, a little off the beaten path. The house looks nice enough -- why on the market for a year?

Posted by: renogirl at March 6, 2006 2:23 PM

Looks small. Maybe it needs a lot of work? Maybe its not the best part of the block? Who knows...

Posted by: Anonymous at March 6, 2006 2:25 PM

Speaking of Downing, why has there been no mention of the Dave Chappelle Block Party movie that opened this weekend on this site? It takes place in front of Broken Angel, where Downing meets Quincy. Aside from thoroughly enjoying the music, I loved the Brooklyn pride (even though he's from Ohio). It's a love letter to our 'hood.

Posted by: renogirl at March 6, 2006 2:27 PM

I think they filmed it back in 2004. Did they do the actual film opening in front of the Broken Angle too?

Posted by: Anonymous at March 6, 2006 2:42 PM

Funny how all the articles about it say the party happened in Bed Stuy when it's Clinton Hill...We''ll include a link tomorrow.

Posted by: Brownstoner at March 6, 2006 2:45 PM

Brownstoner, that's probably because it sounds more "urban" and "gritty" to say Bed Stuy. One of those rare times where being in the hood is an advantage.

I'm not too happy about that, but I find it interesting. Between Dave Chapelle and being a hot new nabe, Bed Stuy must have truly arrived! Can Starbucks and a Corcoran office be far off?

Can a blog reply drip sarcasm?

Posted by: Crown HeightsProud at March 6, 2006 2:57 PM

The "dividing line" between Clinton Hill and Bed Stuy traditionally began at Grand or Classon -- it's only been in the last 10 or less years that people started claiming that CH extended all the way past Franklin.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 6, 2006 3:10 PM

I went to the Dave Chappelle block party and it was on Gates... a few blocks up from Classon, I think. I guess that's technically Clinton Hill. perhaps they were referring to the crowd being mostly bedstuy?! lol... that was a total stretch but worth a try.

Posted by: stuy blkbuttrflie. at March 6, 2006 3:49 PM

The block party was in front of the Broken Angel at Downing and Quincy - so Clinton Hill. All the Notorious BIG stories and documentaries say he was from BS too when he lived on St. James near Fulton, again Clinton Hill. Guess BS has more street cred for Hip Hop purposes...

Posted by: Anonymous at March 6, 2006 4:32 PM

And Spike Lee grew up in Cobble Hill

Posted by: Anonymous at March 6, 2006 5:20 PM

Those areas were all considered Bed-Stuy until recently. Steet cred has nothing to do with it cuz Clinton Hill and Fort Greene were rough not too long ago as well (and they have been shouted out in plenty of rap songs). You have to be right up in the area to know the changes that have just recently taken place. And Quincy street is a Bed Stuy street, even if it starts just inside CH. The block party was dope tho, even in the rain!

Posted by: Drew at March 6, 2006 5:35 PM

Makes no sense. It is a Clinton Hill Street when in Clinton Hill and a Bed Stuy street when in Bed Stuy. I understand when people gripe that Bed Stuy or other neighborhoods are renamed by real estate agents trying to push the boundaries of what area is gentrified, but at the same time I think it is silly to say that, for example, Fort Greene and Clinton Hill did not exist at neighborhoods in their own right until they were gentrified.

Have a look in old Brooklyn Daily Eagle archives from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Their are plenty of references to Fort Greene, the "Clinton District" and Clinton Hill as neighborhoods. The names of the neighborhoods are not new inventions just because for the past 50 years people called everyting from downtown Brooklyn through Bed Stuy the same thing.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 6, 2006 5:56 PM

For whatever reason Bed Stuy is more well-known outside of NYC (or even Brooklyn) than Fort Greene or Clinton Hill -- just makes more sense to tell people you're from a place they've heard of.

Posted by: babs at March 6, 2006 7:25 PM

Er, getting back to the house. If it is the one I saw a couple months ago, it is an SRO which has been nicely surfaced. But kind of small. In this immediate neighborhood there a lot of unoccupied or semi-occupied homes crying out for some TLC. Prices are too high for people like me to buy and rehab on our own, while the owners only have to pay the RE taxes and so are waiting for that perfect offer. It is stalling the changes in this corner (without providing housing for the poor since many landowners prefer an empty house to the problems of tenants.)

Posted by: Anonymous at March 6, 2006 7:29 PM

Sorry, I know this is supposed to be about the house, but just to quickly respond to anon 5:56, I wasn't trying to say FG and CH didn't have an identity before recent gentrication. I was just pointing out that the gray area within which CH turns into BedStuy has been pushed further and further into BedStuy as a result of the neg image of BS and the improving one of CH. I don't really care about the 1800's, I'm talking about the last 10-15 years. And as a Quincy Street res, I'm gonna speak for the whole street and say we're all in BedStuy. Ha!

Posted by: Drew at March 6, 2006 7:55 PM

Am I wrong, or was "clinton Hill" not an invented by real estate agents trying to repackage FG and BS right about '95 - '97 because they weren't acceptable choices. Does anyone else remember wondering what the heck this new "Clinton Hill" nabe was? I'm a Pratt Grad, too, so spent ample time in the thick of whatever it was.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 6, 2006 11:25 PM

I grew up in Brooklyn, and to my recollection, white folks generally did not differentiate between Clinton Hill & Bed Stuy. These areas were predominantly black, so of course there was differentiation - it's too large to really be one nabe. Fort Greene was always a separate nabe.

IMHO, Bed Stuy was popularized by the phrase "Bed Stuy - Do or Die" in rap songs & merchandise.

Posted by: CancelMoose at March 6, 2006 11:44 PM

Anon 11:25, you are wrong. Clinton Hill was designated a landmarked historic district in 1981. It has been a neighbohood by name since the 1840's. Just because you don't know the history of an area you live in doesn't mean it has no history.

Regardless of whether you believe the border of Bed Stuy is Classon or Franklin, the block party was definately in the boundaries of Clinton Hill.

Posted by: Shahn Andersen at March 7, 2006 1:03 AM

In the 1990s, everyone I know thought of St. James, Grand, Classon, etc. as Bed Stuy. Maybe people were technically wrong then, but people tended to refer to Clinton Hill as a pretty smalll sliver from maybe Vanderbilt to Washington. As evidence, Mos Def,Talib Kweli and Big Daddy Kane all referred to the block party location as Bed Stuy, and they grew up here. I'm not disputing the official landmark designation boundaries, and I'm def not talking about the 1840s, just the perception of most people who have been here for a while.

Posted by: Drew at March 7, 2006 10:21 AM

Drew - well, the newer residents of Clinton Hill like the original name of the neighborhood, so we'll continue to call it that. I like Bed Stuy too, but I don't live there. Just because someone in the 1970s didn't know the difference between Clinton Hill and Bed Stuy doesn't mean we should change the name of the nabe.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 7, 2006 10:28 AM

I'm Anon 10:28 - I reread my previous post and wanted to say that I think it sounds kind of snarky. I didn't mean to so I hope I didn't offend drew. I'm a bit of a history buff ...

Posted by: Anonymous at March 7, 2006 10:44 AM

Who cares what you call the neighborhood? I live on Grand and am just happy to own a four story 20 ft wide brownstone that I bought for $600K in 2001. Call it Circusville for all I care because it is my home and I couldn't be happier!

Posted by: Anonymous at March 7, 2006 12:53 PM

Yeah i hear you, i guess i don't really care either. i was just responding to people saying that the dave chapelle block party and biggie smalls were saying that area was bed stuy for some kind of street cred, when people have long thought of those areas as bed stuy. that's all.

Posted by: Drew at March 7, 2006 2:47 PM

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