The Mystery of 323 Prospect Place

Ever wondered why the houses near the corner of Prospect Place and Underhill Avenue don't adhere to the block's right-angled grid? So did Prospect Heights resident (and Built Environment blogger) Josh Jackson, who got obsessed enough with the topic to start researching the block's history:

One of my first theories was inspired by the High Line, an abandoned freight line on Manhattan's West Side. At the turn of the century, the Vanderbilt railyard (now better known as the Atlantic Yards) was ringed by Brooklyn's meatpacking industry. To facilitate the movement and loading of freight, the Armour Packing company built an elevated freight line to cross Atlantic Avenue.Perhaps, I imagined, the freight line cut southeast through Prospect Heights to the rotated block.

Was his initial hunch right? Nope. The answer lay, as he chronicles in the most recent issue of Lost Magazine, with the evolution of the Flatbush turnpike. Click on through for the play-by-play.
323 Prospect Place [Lost Magazine]

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If you really like it, it's for sale through Kensington Realty.

They don't have a website and I haven't had the opportunity to call.

Posted by: quig at April 9, 2007 10:28 AM

"a classic three-story brownstone built, in this case, from brick."

if it's not clad in brownstone, how is it defined as such?

Posted by: confused at April 9, 2007 10:38 AM

Awesome! Good detective work, Josh. It's amazing to see how Atlantic and Flatbush Aves have such a long history of being major roads. Ancient Indian trails? Wow.

Posted by: sylvia at April 9, 2007 11:54 AM

I walk by this house almost every day. It has a very old apple tree in its(extremely well tended) yard. Every time I pass it, I can't help but imagine the person who planted the tree, and all the people who, over the years, have cared for it. I hope whoever buys the house cares for the tree and yard as well as the current owners.

Posted by: Emilie at April 9, 2007 12:42 PM

This is juicy!

Property Shark maps of lot-lines are even better for sleuthing irregular lot lines and old street routes, such as Red Hook Lane in Downtown Brooklyn affecting a lot-line all the way on Atlantic Avenue between Court and Boerum; the further exension east of Stuyvessant Street (Peter's old driveway to Broadway) in the East Village on both sides of E 12th between 2nd Ave and Ave A; a whole slew of old farm roads out of grid that used to extend further in Flatbush in a 10-block radius around Ave M.

Any other gems?

Posted by: Anonymous at April 9, 2007 1:02 PM

Fun article. Slightly off-subject, but I saw a wonderful photo from the 1940s of the little stucco clad house on the opposite side of the street (NE corner of Underhill and Prospect). Back then it's wood-frame origins were still intact. The building had wood clapboards, large windows and was functioning as a grocery store. Very charming in an old world way. Sadly today's stucco exterior and reduced windows make it look squat and very unprepossesing.

Posted by: NeoGrec at April 9, 2007 1:04 PM

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April 9, 2007

The Mystery of 323 Prospect Place

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