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August 30, 2006
LPC Putting Vic Flatbush Nabes on the Calendar
Flatbush Life reports that Fiske Terrace and Midwood Park, two neighborhoods with the larger area known as Victorian Flatbush, are likely to receive landmark status in the upcoming months. On September 19, LPC plans to officially set a date for a public hearing on the matter. The two nabes encompass about 250 houses, many of which were built between 1904 and 1920 by the architects Theodore Ackerson and John Corbin. "The predominantly Colonial Revival and Shingle Style houses are largely intact, asymmetrically massed and feature spacious porches, elaborate projecting towers, oriels and bays, Palladian windows and deep eaves," reads a preliminary LPC brief. "The neighborhood also has an unusual street plan that includes landscaped malls and short streets that dead-end at the BMT subway cut." Seems like a no-brainer to us!
Landmark Status for Stately Nabe? [Flatbush Life]
Comments
I wonder how the owners of those houses feel. I couldn't imagine having to get approval from the LPC for any change to the exterior.
Posted by: TeoNYC at August 30, 2006 9:51 AM
Midwood Park houseowner here. Feel great about it. It will protect the character of the neighborhood and keep people from bricking up their facades as has happened in some of the other unprotected areas of Victorian Flatbush. Of course, there is the argument that I haven't yet had to deal with LPC for approvals so I probably don't know what I'm in for, but I'm guessing the trade off will be worth it.
Posted by: pk at August 30, 2006 10:14 AM
LPC is not so bad, although my (extensive) application did take 4 months to complete.
Posted by: Anonymous at August 30, 2006 10:25 AM
Isn't Julie Kestyn another broker who specializes in Victorian Flatbush houses? Her website: kestyn.com. I almost got a rental in a Victorian at Newkirk Ave from her once, but my husband voted me down and we ended up closer to Prospect Park...
Posted by: sylvia at August 30, 2006 10:42 AM
Brooklyn Properties does have a couple of current listings and has establishment into the larger Victorian Flatbush neighborhood.
Posted by: Anonymous at August 30, 2006 10:53 AM
"The worse thing about this is that Mary Kay Gallagher has her greedy hands on this neighborhood."
Unusual for me to speak in defense of realtors, but I think MKG has been one of the forerunners in promoting Victorian Flatbush. Her near monopoly status has probably had more to do with the broker community's lack of interest in anything South of the Parade Grounds (and for that matter, East as well) until this recent real estate run-up which forced the name brokers to forage deeper into Brooklyn for listings. Be gentle with the Grand Dame. ;-)
Posted by: crouchback at August 30, 2006 11:33 AM
Dealing with the LPC is not bad at all. I have had to deal with them on several occasions for my landmarked PS brownstone: replacement of windows, repair of mansard roof, addition of parlor-level porch in the rear. Much quicker than the DOB side!
Posted by: Anonymous at August 30, 2006 11:34 AM
Fingers crossed for Fiske Terrace and Midwood Park! I was spearheading the BSW landmarking movement, but have had to put things on the back burner due to the latest addition to our family, who arrived almost 7 weeks early. Since there are also several other children in our family, and I have a big freelance project coming up, I really need a few people to take the BSW project forward, especially on the back of the MP and FT applications if they are approved. All of Victorian Flatbush needs to be landmarked to protect the community as a whole. The individual neighborhoods make their own applications to Landmarks, but since they all border on one another, if the character of one neighborhood is damaged beyond recognition, we all suffer. There is strength in numbers. Plus, collectively, Victorian Flatbush as a whole is actually the largest surviving neighborhood of freestand wood frame Victorian houses in the entire country, an important designation and one that no individual neighborhood can assert on its own. Please contact me if you can help. Thanks.
Posted by: Erin Joslyn at August 30, 2006 1:05 PM
In our dealings with Mary Kay 20 years ago, she was the only class act we met in the pit of vipers that passed for "real estate salespeople"...and we were bottom-feeders, not high-end gentrifiers.
As for landmark status, our Caton Park association is split on the issue, most of us eager for it and some homeowners spooked by stories of permit hassles. I'd take a permit hassle over teardowns and Stucco Bloater invasions any day...although I'd miss the raffish independent vibe we've always had compared to our pristine adjacent landmark district of Prospect Park South. Either way, you brownstone babies, we STILL have garages and driveways!
Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at August 30, 2006 1:09 PM
I am sorry but how does Mary Kay have anything to do w/Landmarks. I don't think she has any control over this.
It seems to me that every time Victorian Flatbush is mention the same person seems to say almost the very same nasty things about her.
I guess you are want Brownstoner refers to as a TROLL, TROLL TROLL....
Posted by: Al at August 30, 2006 1:23 PM
Land marking status for any and all sections of Victorian Flatbush can't come quickly enough. Every week is seems someone get the "bright" idea that a wonderful wood frame Victorian would be much better off clad in brick (or stucco) or even knocked down to put up an apartment building.
Posted by: Arsenic and Old Lace at August 30, 2006 1:26 PM
R6 zoning in the area is also an issue Ditmas Park West Homeowners Association is campaigning for rezone. A Victorian house on Stratford near Cortelyou was just purchased, knocked down, and according to the association, the lot is slated for an apartment building. Nothing to stop it.
Posted by: Anonymous at August 30, 2006 3:25 PM
I grew up in Flushing in the 50's and 60's - near Main Street - and I remember seeing beautiful old Queen Anne houses torn down and replaced with apartment buildings - even as a child I was upset by it - I guess I was starting to care about old buildings even then - anyway the old houses are mostly all gone and the result isn't very pretty.
Posted by: Anonymous at August 30, 2006 5:53 PM
Whatever one thinks of Mary Kay's business interests, it's true that she championed Victorian Flatbush for decades, long before its recently acquired reputation as a "hot" residential neighborhood (with price tags to match). She used to be the only person who cared to even list possible exception of Julie Kestyn. who was also active out here long before the brokers on the other side of the park got on the bandwagon. Corcoron, BP, A&H, and Warren Lewis have all listed properties in this neighborhood in recent years, but the do owe some debt to Mary Kay and her pioneering ways.
Posted by: Anonymous at August 30, 2006 6:49 PM
Isn't the house that was torn down on Stratford on the block that is kind a DMZ between BSW & DPW ?
What nab do houses between Cortelyou and Dorchester belong to? Per this map they have no nab. http://www.marykayg.com/html/vic_flatbush.html
Posted by: Arsenic and Old Lace at August 31, 2006 9:31 AM
oddly enough, i think the houses between courtelyou and dorchester are considered part of flatbush proper. i might be wrong about that, and i don't have my book on the history of brooklyn neighborhoods in front of me, but i do remember that flatbush has weird long tentacles like that that reach into what would seem to be entirely different neighborhoods on its western side.
the buildings between courtelyou and dorchester are mainly large co-op and rental buildings, i'm not sure about the blocks between newkirk and foster... anyone?
Posted by: sylvia at August 31, 2006 10:39 AM
I was told that at some point the houses between Ditmas and Dorchester were incorporated into Ditmas Park West, although they were not originally pary of DPW. Got this from someone who is involved with DPW landmarking application.
Posted by: Erin Joslyn at August 31, 2006 10:45 AM
Also, it should be noted that before the apartment buildings went up on these streets, they were lined entirely with frame houses. There are usually a handful, sometimes more (marlborough and rugby b/w Ditmas and Dorchester, for example)that survive, nestled between the later buildings.
Posted by: Anonymous at August 31, 2006 12:29 PM
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