« A Couple of Things Residential Sales in Brooklyn »
June 1, 2007
This Weekend: Houses in PLG, Gardens in FG, CH, PH
The 37th Annual Prospect Lefferts Gardens House and Garden Tour goes down on Sunday from 12 to 5 and, as usual, this is looking like a can't-miss event. Among the many turn-of-the-century brownstone and limestone houses on the tour, we think the former rooming house that has undergone a DIY period restoration by its owners sounds particularly fascinating. At the other end of the spectrum, a 1906 home whose interior was destroyed by a fire in the 1970s provides an example of a more modern take on the townhouse. To buy tix in advance follow the link below or stop in at K-Dog & Dunebuggy or Easy Access Real Estate.
Sunday is also the day for the Brownstone Brooklyn Garden District Garden Walk through Fort Greene, Clinton Hill and Prospect Heights. There are 17 (!) gardens on the tour this year. Highlights include a pair of storied gardens that fall in the Atlantic Yards footprint and may not be around much longer as well as a triple-lot garden with cascades and ponds. Tickets are $15 in advance at Tillie's and the Forest Floor and are $20 on Sunday at Tillie's, the Forest Floor and the BAM Triangle Garden. The tour runs from 11-5 and shuttle buses will be running.
37th Annual House & Garden Tour [LeffertsManor.org]
Brownstone Brooklyn Garden District Garden Walk [phndc.org]
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.brownstoner.com/mte/mt-tb.cgi/1272
Comments
Besides the two PLG ticket sales locations mentioned, advance tickets are being sold at locations throughout brownstone Brooklyn in Brooklyn Heights, Boerum Hill, Ft. Greene, and Park Slope. They're all on the LMA website. We'll also be selling tickets at the Grand Army Plaza Farmers' Market.I'll be working the late shift there (1:30--4:00) irf anyone wants to say hello.
Posted by: Bob Marvin at June 1, 2007 9:30 AM
who or what does the proceeds from the annual garden tour go to benefit?
Posted by: Anonymous at June 1, 2007 9:48 AM
The proceeds for the PLG House & Garden Tour go to the Lefferts Manor Association; The Garden Walk is sponsored by a group called the Brooklyn Brownstone Garden District who, I imagine, will provide more information if they see 9:48's question.
Posted by: Bob Marvin at June 1, 2007 9:56 AM
thanks bob. with a sponsor name, i found the following on-line, "Under the 501C3 of the Fort Greene Association, the Brownstone Brooklyn Garden District is a coalition of three neighborhoods: Fort Greene, Clinton Hill and Prospect Heights with common goals of improving quality of life through greening of the urban environment." still doesn't quite answer the question, but it's a start.
Posted by: 9:48 back again at June 1, 2007 10:06 AM
"9:48 back again"
You're welcome. FWIW, this is, I think, the 10th Garden tour and I have no doubt that the money they raise is going for a good cause. Of course,I'd rather that you go on OUR tour, OR do BOTH :-)
Posted by: Bob Marvin at June 1, 2007 10:33 AM
Does anyone have a heads up on what houses will be featured on the Victorian Flatbush House Tour a week from Sunday?
Posted by: Anonymous at June 1, 2007 10:38 AM
From the Garden Walk event page:
"Garden Walk ticket sales support the Annual Fall Bulb Give-Away for planting flowering bulbs in public spaces throughout the Garden District."
Posted by: Xris (Flatbush Gardener) at June 1, 2007 10:59 AM
Brown Harris Stevens in Park Slope is also selling tickets to the Prospect Lefferts Gardens and House tour. Located at the corner of 100 7th Avenue at Union Street.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 1, 2007 11:08 AM
10:38, you can find more information about the Victorian Flatbush house tour on the Flatbush Development Corporation's website:
http://www.fdconline.org/housetour.html
I've been a house tour junky for upwards of twenty years now and believe me, I won't miss this one....
Posted by: Anonymous at June 1, 2007 11:28 AM
My house is on the tour and I'm very proud of both the house and my lovely neighborhood. I've put a lot of work into preparing for the tour, and I look forward to greeting all 800 anticipated guests!
Posted by: Anonymous at June 1, 2007 12:44 PM
I feel great about the house tour now. Gotta love the 'image' we're projecting here...
Posted by: PLGer 4ever at June 1, 2007 4:15 PM
I love the house tours. I get design/decorating ideas and I "size up the competition." It was helpful prior to a kitchen remodel to see what similar homes in my area were doing. I usually volunteer for the Victorian Flatbush Tour because it's my neighborhood. It's a lot of work before, during and after the tour to get it all together. I volunteer in the AM and tour the homes in the PM. If you enjoy these tours consider volunteering or putting your home on your next neighborhood tour. You have to have a thick skin though. Although the vast majority of the guests are polite and save comments, especially the bad comments until they exit your home, you do get a few visitors who are not well versed in house tour etiquette.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 2, 2007 3:06 AM
Just about everything Anon. 3:06 AM wrote would apply to me if you substituted "PLG" for "Victorian Flatbush". I actually "discovered" my neighborhood through the 1974 HT and have worked on every one since 1975.
Posted by: Bob Marvin at June 2, 2007 8:26 AM
I presume everyone reading this realizes that the statement about a release form is a fabrication. Unfortunately every time Mr. B deletes it, it pops up, over and over again.
Posted by: Bob Marvin at June 2, 2007 8:59 AM
It's so true about the house tours providing ideas for one's own renovations. An added benefit is you can ask the homeowner who their contractor is - great way to get recommendations. If you can't make the house tour remember you can always simply ask a neighbor if you can take a peek in their house. In PLG and most Brooklyn brownstone neighborhoods, neighbors will happily let you take a look around. I wish we'd snooped in more neighbors' houses before we did our bathrooms, for example. It shows you what the general standards are on your block, for renovations. You don't need to go too above or beyond what others are doing, nor do you want to be doing a lot less than others are doing either.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 2, 2007 10:41 AM
Hope to see you on the Victorian House Tour as well Bob.
Posted by: Anon 3:06 at June 2, 2007 10:57 AM
I'll try 10:57.
Posted by: Bob Marvin at June 2, 2007 5:35 PM
What's your point Anon 12:20PM? No where is exempt from crime. Not Osh Kosh, not Biloxi, not Manhattan and not Brookln (Park Slope, Prospect Lefferts Garden, Beverley Square West/East, Brownsville, Ditmas Park West/East, Clinton Hill, Bensonhurst, Fort Greene, Bedford Stuyvesant, Cobble Hill, etc.) So again I ask, What's your point?
Posted by: Anonymous at June 3, 2007 5:08 PM
Yeah, and nothing like that ever happens anywhere else in Brooklyn or NYC either 12:20pm. If your criteria for a NYC nabe is no crime whatsoever, you're going ot have a hard time shopping for real estate. Plus what's your point exactly? It's a sad event, the murder you mention. You could at least say that. Show some sympathy for the family maybe? Oh well.
As for us we had a wonderful time on the tour today! Our compliments to everyone involved. The houses were great this year. Such an interesting array from very traditional Victorian to ultra modern. But we especially enjoyed laughing and socializing with people taking the tour, and the tour volunteers. As we headed home we felt really great about living here in PLG.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 3, 2007 5:12 PM
You're wrong. PLG is exempt from crime.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 3, 2007 5:32 PM
I thought the tour was somewhat disappointing. There were some nice homes, but no "jaw droppers" and the overall tone of the event seemed slightly dour. A couple we went with left early (about which I am still a little steamed!). My husband and I stuck it out, but the event seemed to lack the 'spark' that it has had at times in the past.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 3, 2007 8:04 PM
IMO Mr B.s pre-tour assessment,based on the written description, was spot on.
His picks for most interesting houses were"the former rooming house that has undergone a DIY period restoration by its owners sounds particularly fascinating.[and] At the other end of the spectrum, a 1906 home whose interior was destroyed by a fire in the 1970s provides an example of a more modern take on the townhouse.
The former was no surprise to me as I've known the owners and the house for many years. The latter WAS a surprise--I don't usually care for modern renovations,but this one was stunning.
Posted by: Bob Marvin at June 3, 2007 9:27 PM
Oh, I forgot--the Clarkson Ave. house was also a surprise. Although I was in this house on aprevious PLG HT about 25 years ago, I had forgotten that these houses were virtually identical to the 4 story houses on Midwood Street which are my favorites. Obviously done by the same builder.
Posted by: Bob Marvin at June 3, 2007 9:30 PM
I agree that something was a little "off" at this year's PLG house tour. The selection of homes struck me as, while certainly not bad, fairly middle-of-the-road, and this can have a more dramatic effect on people's frame of mind than it should when those people have inflated hopes. So, the problem may not be with the tour itself so much as the pumped up expectations that people bring to the table.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 4, 2007 9:07 AM
I don't agree with Anon.9:07's"middle of the road" comment(no surprise to people who've read my many posts about PLG--I DO have an ax to grind here) and actually thought this was one of our best HTs and much of the restoration/renovation was VERY high quality.(I can't compare it to last year's though--I didn't get out of my own home, which was on tour).
However, the term might "middle of the road" might well apply to our neighborhood. With the exception of a handful of houses like the Todd mansions on Maple Street, houses here are not as grand as the largest individually designed Brownstones in the Heights, Park Slope's "gold coast", or the mansions in "the Hill." Those houses were built for the extremely wealthy.
Houses in Lefferts Manor and other PLG blocks were intended for the substantial upper middle class of the turn of the last century and were often built on spes, in large groups. They are, on the other hand, generally more elaborate than "ordinary " brownstones in many other areas (for example the two houses in which I rented apartments in the South Slope--no offense intended).
For me, this is one of the attractions of my neighborhood--yrmv
Posted by: Bob Marvin at June 4, 2007 9:57 AM
Whoops--make that "on spec"
Posted by: Bob Marvin at June 4, 2007 9:58 AM
I didn't think there was a problem the houses. I didn't see anything I'd write home about, but I didn't see anything I'd be embarrassed about, either.
However, I do agree with 8:04 that there was a strange 'atmosphere' surrounding this event. 'Dour' seems like to strong of a word to describe it. I thought people seemed distracted, as though there hearts were somewhere else.
Was there a game on or something?
Posted by: Anonymous at June 4, 2007 10:13 AM
Did anyone else catch this in the May 27 New York Times:
"...outside 105 Winthrop Street in Prospect Lefferts Gardens in Brooklyn, a group of men surrounded a 30-year-old man and stabbed him several times, the police said. The victim, whose name was not released, was also taken to Kings County Hospital Center in critical condition, they said."
Posted by: Anonymous at June 4, 2007 10:24 AM
Yeah we saw that, 10:24, everyone addressed it already, the fact that you're attempting to make people believe the only neighborhood in all of NYC that has crime is PLG. I guess you missed the news about the murders in Bed-Stuy, Midwood, Carroll Gardens and Fort Greene the last few weeks and months. Or is May 27th the only day this year you picked up a newspaper? They do print one every day you know.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 4, 2007 11:50 AM
Disagree totally 10:13. We went on the tour too, and saw only smiles. We had a great time. Yours is a strange comment to me.
The only people who seemed distant or distracted were a couple of the homeowners. Maybe they overheard some cattiness earlier in the day. Like we see here! I didn't overhear anything like that myself, but I've heard tell it happens.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 4, 2007 11:55 AM
I had an okay time on the tour, though to be honest I did see some frowns and also heard several comments expressing disappointment.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 4, 2007 12:19 PM
Maybe you kept running into some particular malcontents, 12:19 while you were doing the tour. That's too bad. We only saw happy people who were really complimenting the houses. In fact I was surprised that we did not encounter people standing around criticizing things. I was definitely assuming we'd see that. But we didn't.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 4, 2007 12:42 PM
Having had my own home on tour four times I can well understand how a homeowner in that situation might ocasionally seem distant or distracted--they were probably thinking of some detail they forgot in preparation for the big day. The only place you will NOT see that are HTs like the one I went on years ago in Charleston, where the homeowners were all absent and their identities were concealed. Brooklyn HTs are more personal.
Posted by: Bob Marvin at June 4, 2007 1:33 PM
Wow, my experience was much more in line with that of 12:19. I talked to a lot of people taking the tour who were very disappointed, and at one point we elbowed our way through a good sized group of people on the sidewalk who were debating why this years tour was sub par. Oh well...eyes of the beholder I guess.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 4, 2007 3:42 PM
It is so hard to get people to put their homes on HT's. Although you know that there will be comments, it is still hard to deal with. Most of the Tours have seen fewer homeowners willing to go through it. I know that as a previous post stated you need "thick skin." I don't have the guts for it. I do thank my neighbors all over BK (FG, CH, VicFl, etc.) for their graciousness in allowing us to see their hoes.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 4, 2007 4:55 PM
Sorry Anon 4:55 here with atrocious typing skills. That would be "homes"
Posted by: Anonymous at June 4, 2007 4:57 PM
Hilarious typo, 4:55pm!
You're so right to thank everybody all over Brooklyn for letting we hordes of nitpickers into to see their homes they put so much into. That was nice of you to say.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 4, 2007 5:13 PM
Okay now I'm showing my atrocious editing skills, in my post at 5:13. Yikes! You know what I'm saying.
Posted by: Anonymous at June 4, 2007 5:15 PM
I really enjoyed the tour. What it lacked in 'jaw dropping/oh my-ness!' it made up for in showing real ideas and real possibilities for real home owners and home owners to be.
It is fun to see really impressive homes and interior design that you could never imagine being able to afford, but I think the idea of this house tour was more practical. My favotite house on the tour was the arts and crafts decorated home (on Midwood - I think). Great warmth and style. It gave me many ideas about blending traditional with modern.
Posted by: anon at June 5, 2007 6:57 PM
Post a comment
Please be patient while your comment is published. It may take a moment.