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July 19, 2006
House of the Day: 1252 Dean Street
This baby's a beauty: Tons of original woodwork, fireplaces and floors plus a new kitchen. It's also on one of the best streets in the nabe. Is it worth $1.1 million? To someone, we bet. And that's all it takes.
1252 Dean Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
Comments
I weep. I yearn. I want!!! That is some beautiful house. Yet another reason that Crown Heights North is becoming a landmarked district.
Posted by: Bx2Bklyn at July 19, 2006 12:13 PM
Beautiful house, and being listed with Corcoran, it will get some good exposure. This particular agent has made a real effort at marketing this area. But when I walk around the neighborhood, it often seems like many houses are listed with firms that I have never heard of and who don't have a real web presence, but just hang out a sign with a phone number on it. Is this effective? How are homes typically changing hands in Crown Heights? Does it tend to be people in the neighborhood selling by word of mouth?
Posted by: ameraleed at July 19, 2006 2:07 PM
I'm suing you guys for a new computer. All the drool damaged my keyboard.
Posted by: yente at July 19, 2006 2:09 PM
Hey Bx2Bklyn and CHP (and other Crown Heights mavens)--
So I take it we're now hearing the term Crown Heights North because that will be the name of the new historic district. Will there eventually be a Crown Heights South, or is "North" the main historic area? Are folks who live in CH now happy with the areas that are being designated? Thanks for any info.
Posted by: Tinarina at July 19, 2006 2:10 PM
Beautiful house! I hope they have an open house soon. Greg Todd is a great guy, and really does work hard for Crown Heights. He's lived here for a number of years and is very involved in the community.
Tinarina, there is a Crown Heights South, geographically speaking. It's the other side of Eastern Parkway down to Empire Blvd. When people think of the horrible riots and strife in Crown Heights, it was over there, where the large Hasidic community and the Caribbean community are side by side. There is some wonderful architecture in CHS, especially on President Street. There have been threads on Brownstoner about those properties several times in the last six months. I have to say I don't know all that much about CHS other than that. When I walk around, I generally stay on my side of Eastern Parkway, and there certainly is enough to see on this side.
As to whether people are happy about the designation - some are, some aren't, and I don't think most people are even aware of it yet. From the meetings I've been to, most of the people who are against it are really afraid that landmarking only means there will be another city agency telling them what to do, and that repairing their houses is going to be much more expensive. There certainly is some truth to that, but I think that the overall benefit to the entire community supercedes the individual in this case. The absence of Fedders houses and inappropriate high density apartment buildings will go a long way to keep Crown Heights a beautiful, desirable, and more valuable neighborhood in the future.
Posted by: CrownHeightsProud at July 19, 2006 3:41 PM
Houses like these are lovely and will surely appreciate at some point.
However, as someone who has bounced around from park slope to cobble hill to carroll gardens to fort greene, lemme ask one multi-part question:
if you own this house, do you have to get a subway in order to find a coffee shop with wifi? Can you sit on your stoop with your front door open? is there a park for a dog with energy within walking distance? how about some place that sells such "luxuries" as wine, cheese, fresh meat and fish to say nothing of organic fruit & veggies? Is there a proper japanese restaurant anywhere? can you walk around the blocks at 9pm to stretch your legs with not a care in the world?
Look at my handle. I like this sort of stuff. Can I do these things in eastern clinton hill, let alone crown heights or bed-stuy or PLG? Or are these houses only for tired execs who have 3 hours free in front of the TV, or in the back garden with the kids before bedtime? or for brownstone junkies whose highlight of the year is a neighborhood house tour and the rest of the time they spend on polishing their woodwork or up-scaling their ceiling moldings?
Posted by: JB at July 19, 2006 4:36 PM
sorry - my mistake, my handle used to be StoopSitter. lol.
Posted by: JB at July 19, 2006 4:38 PM
Nice, but on the floor plan I only see 1 bathroom. Am I missing something? If so, that's alot to pay -- I can't imagine someone not wanting a 2nd in a house that size.
Posted by: ilh at July 19, 2006 5:16 PM
JB/StoopSitter,
I have lived in Crown Heights for the last year, between Franklin and Bedford, moved there from Park Slope and have the following to report: There are coffee shops, on Franklin, on Fulton, on Nostrand, they might not have Wifi, but that is probably comming soon. Brower Park is pretty large, and 4 blocks from this house. From where I live it is a 15 min walk to Grand Army Plaza and Prospect Park, closer to the Museum and Bot. garden (is ther Wifi in there cafe?) Add 5 min for this house. I still belong to the Food Coop, and usually get there in 10 minutes on my bike, but I am pretty hard core about loading up the bike with groceries. There is a great butcher near this house and organic produce at a small store on Nostrand, near Prospect. There is a Prospect Heights CSA which would provide plenty of organic produce, and again there is the farmers market, we often walk over. I don't know about Japanese, but I will be frank and say that we frequent the restaurants in PH on Washington, Vanderbuilt, and Carlton. It makes for a pleasant evening stroll. AS for Strolling in general, I have never had a problem. I went for a long walk on July 4th and received several very friendly/neighborly offers of hot dogs from people barbequing in front of there houses. This is the biggest change from Park Slope, not fear when I walk around, but constant neighborliness. I love it. Everyone else sits on their stoop and says hello as you pass. When I sit on my stoop with the door open (which I rarely did in PS) I have to pay attention to the people passing because 90% of them will say hello. After a year in Crown Heights I know more people on my block then I did after 13 years in PS. Not only do I leave the door open when I sit on the stoop, I can leave it open while I go in to refill my cup of coffee or answer the phone and never has anyone even opened the gate to my front yard.
Crown Heights does not have many execs, but we have kids learning to ride their bikes on the sidewalk, old folks making sure you do the right thing with your trash and lots of eyes on the street. Neighbor is a verb here, and a very active one.
Posted by: ameraleed at July 19, 2006 6:17 PM
This is an exquisite house and, after Ameraleed's thoughtful response, I'd sure be interested if not already ensconced in Clinton Hill!
Posted by: Archiefina at July 19, 2006 9:42 PM
Like Ameraleed, I was in the Slope for about 13 years. Now I'm just over the border from this CH beauty, in Bed Stuy. I've experienced the very same thing in my neighborhood. It's like being in a small town...only friendlier. JB, I understand what you're saying about the lack of amenities, but I really don't get the "sitting on your stoop" or "stretching your legs" angles. Please do explain what you mean by this, because I do it all the time and I'm quite puzzled by your comments.
Posted by: yente at July 19, 2006 11:17 PM
Ameraleed and Yente, thank you for the kind words for your new neighborhoods. Both of our neighborhoods may be lacking in amenities, as most on this board know them, and these things will come in time. The genuine feeling of neighborhood has been here for years and is something that cannot be imported in with sushi and radicchio. I am very glad both of you are experiencing what makes both neighborhoods worthy of the fierce loyalty we bring to discussions on these boards. Perfect - no. Problems - yeah, some big ones. But still a great place to live.
Posted by: CrownHeightsProud at July 19, 2006 11:25 PM
the sitting on my stoop comment was because I am fond of doing that where I live now - in the middle of cobble hill - but a neighbor who has lived here for donkeys years warned me to not leave the front door open when doing this because there was a recent incident where someone who left their front door open was locked into their closet while their house was ransacked. and this was on the best street in cobble hill! when I pointed out that it seemed a very safe street he pointed to graffiti on the postboxes and said there are still problems from time to time.
So I figured it was likely that in crown heights the influx of people with the means to afford 900k houses would make them more of a target than in boerum hill. Stands to reason to me.
The same comment applies to walking around at 9pm. If I wanna walk around at dusk, do I have to make sure i'm not carrying a wallet, wearing a ipod, or a nice watch? or look like i might have those things? Are you guys trying to tell me that petty street crime is as exactly low per capita in crown heights as it is in the aforementioned "established" suburbs?
Posted by: JB at July 20, 2006 10:55 AM
Seriously, llh pointed it out first, but ONE bathroom for the entire house? That's just silly - especially if there are more than two people who will be living there, let alone if they have guests or want to entertain. For any other neighborhood, $1.1 would be a steal and adding extra bathrooms no big deal but for something like this (beautiful though it is), I can't imagine it making too much sense.
Posted by: parkblocker at July 20, 2006 10:58 AM
Parkblocker, I'm glad someone finally followed up on my comment about the bathrooms. I was wondering, looking at the floorplan, how easy it actually is to build another (or 2) bathrooms. It seems as if you'd definitely want at least 2 on the 2 bedroom floors (that is, another one on the top floor), but the plumbing line seems to be in the extension. Would you have to bring plumbing all the way up to the top floor, and would that be difficult/expensive? Putting a powder room on either the ground or parlor floor (where you'd likely also want another one) seems easier and cheaper to do. Does anyone with more expertise know how simple all of this is? And does it mean you can't live in the house for a while after purchase?
Posted by: ilh at July 20, 2006 11:16 AM
You could put a bathroom on the top floor where the trunk room is in the middle of the floor, and perhaps lose the pass through between the 2 bedrooms. It would be pricy to run the pipes up through the house though, very true.
It would be easier to put a powderoom on the ground floor in the extension, or even lose the office for a bathroom.
If you keep the house a one family, and I would hope a new owner does so, you could certainly live in it while putting in any kind of bathroom. They don't actually have to turn the water off until you are actually connecting the pipes to the main system.
Whether or not that is economically viable depends on the buyer, and also whether they pay full price. This is on one of the primo CHN blocks, and is a good investment, and to get an intact house in this neighborhood (or any other except for PLG) is a wonder, and I think houses in that condition, on those great blocks will be going for the upper reaches of CH property prices, one bathroom or not.
I also think one could leave your door open for a while, and also wander around with a walkman at 9 PM and be fine. I've done it, and my block is not as nice. There are also several other white families on that block, a couple of which I have met, and they all love it there, and have been quite welcome.
Posted by: CrownHeightsProud at July 20, 2006 2:51 PM
First, this house seems very narrow. Anyone else notice that?
Second, I walk to Prospect Park (two blocks away), sit on my stoop at dusk, surf the net using Wifi and buy fresh veggies and fruits and meats in PLG. I'm not sure about Crown Heights or Bed Stuy. They are quite materially different from PLG.
For those who demand only the finest in terms of convenient shopping and the finest products, much of Brooklyn is not for you - at least for the time being.
But that's fine. If certain neighborhoods lie beyond what you can reasonably tolerate, you should certainly avoid them. I don't have a problem with my neighborhood (PLG), but then, I'm not very delicate or refined by nature...
Posted by: Ed at July 20, 2006 9:15 PM
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