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July 9, 2007
'Berserk Eclecticism' on Clarkson Avenue
One of the great mysteries we've encountered on our countless Saturday afternoons trawling the architectural landscape of Brooklyn is the rambling, crumbling house on Clarkson Avenue just off Bedford in Flatbush. We first noticed it one day back in the Fall of 2005 and have revisited on several occasions. But we had no idea about its history until Christopher Gray's piece in The Times this weekend. The house, built by the brewer Herman Raub in 1902, defies simple stylistic categorization. Here's what Gray has to say:
Its roof planes are akimbo, like a Cubist avalanche. The front portico lunges out from the complex massing, while an open balcony on the third floor bursts through the roof like a jack-in-the-box. Unlike the neo-Georgian and other conventionally styled houses then popular in the neighborhood, Mr. Raub’s was topped by four-sided domes, pointed towers and jerkin-head gables, where the point of the roof is cut off at a slant.
While the exterior is worse for the ware, the spectacular interior—with its baroque murals, paneled dining room and double-height foyer—are surprisingly intact. Which may help explain the $3.15 million price that the owner for the last two decades is now asking for the house. Can anyone steer us to the listing?
A Fantastical Three-Story Concoction [NY Times] GMAP P*Shark
Top photo by Nicholas Strini for Property Shark
Bottom photo from My Life in Brooklyn
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Comments
I've admired this house since moving to PLG. It's the main reason we tried (unsuccessfully) to have part of that block of Clarkson included in the PLG HD in the '70s.
It would be great if it could be preserved, but I can't say I'm optimistic about that possibility.
Posted by: Bob Marvin at July 9, 2007 10:27 AM
This house is an old house lover's dream house. It's got history, great detail, and potential. Unfortunately, the owner may as well have set the price for 10 million dollars, he obviously has no serious intention of selling it, as you could buy 2 houses in Lefferts Gardens for that amount of money. I hope there is some way to preserve it, but as Bob says, doesn't look too optimistic.
I can understand the owner stubbornly holding on to it, but hope he at least makes a provision for passing it on. I know many people look at this house as a wreck begging to be torn down, but I think it's beautiful.
Posted by: Brower Park at July 9, 2007 10:46 AM
OMG, what a cool house.
If I moved there I would change my name to Adams.
If it were restored, it would be spectacular. A trophy house for a
rich guy or gal to show off.
Come on, you wealthy architecture lovers, you're out there. Believe me this would be so much cooler to own than a condo in Tribeca. You would be famous. Organizations would give you awards.
Go for it!
Posted by: Sam at July 9, 2007 10:59 AM
I think you are missing what is going on here. This house is being targeted for a developer to buy. The lot is huge (runs the entire block to the street around the corner). The owner uses the back part of the lot as a parking lot. There is a great deal of FAR here and that is why the price is 3.1 million. The house is in PLG and Not Flatbush as the article and Mr. B states.
It is a shame because it is one the most unique homes in all of New York City. I imagine if this house was in a wealthier, whiter neighborhood it would definately be spared.
Posted by: Tom G at July 9, 2007 11:36 AM
Oh, if the area is the pits, then forget it. No one will buy it to restore it then. Too bad. Can it be moved to Ditmas Park? or P.P. South?
Posted by: Anonymous at July 9, 2007 11:48 AM
Tom--That's why I said I wasn't optimistic.
I don't think the situation would be much better if this house were in "a wealthier, whiter neighborhood." Unfortunately (not withstanding the recent happy outcome on Lefferts Place in CH) greed trumps preservation MOST of the time.
BTW, PLG is part of Flatbush, which includes many neighborhoods. Clarkson Ave., on PLG's southern boundary, is in a different ZIP code and planning district from the rest of the neighborhood. I was speaking to the owner of the Clarkson Ave. house on this year's PLG house tour who told me that she gets mail from the Flatbush Development Corp. asking if she wants to work on the Victorian Flatbush HT, so there may be some confusion about our boundaries. [OMG--is a PLG--Vict.Flatbush border war brewing--keep reading Brownstoner to find out :-)]
Posted by: Bob Marvin at July 9, 2007 11:49 AM
what a gem just begging for restoration.... would be a shame if developers knocked it down.
Posted by: bren at July 9, 2007 12:06 PM
Aha, the owner's eyes may indeed be "FAR, FAR away", focused on the booty to be made from selling it to a developer...that would explain why he was squirrelly with the reporter. (Or he could just be an insanely greedy/optimistic eccentric.) The sad part is that wacky rotting house-gems in rough neighborhoods should be the last frontier for plucky bottom-feeding fixer-uppers, not chum for condo-building sharks. (Sigh) I guess plucky bottom-feeders have to go to Camden or something now.
As for PLG being "part of Flatbush," to my knowledge it is not generally considered so in common usage, but I for one welcome them under the big tent.
Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at July 9, 2007 12:13 PM
Brenda,
There's a brass line in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden showing the old boundary between the City of Brooklyn and the Town of Flatbush; PLG is on the Flatbush side. The "Social History of Flatbush" was written by Gertrude Lefferts Vanderbilt, who grew up in the family homestead, moved to Prospect Park in 1918, but originally on what is now Flatbush Ave., between Maple and Midwood Streets.
OTOH, PLG is the only part of Flatbush (other than the Albamarle -Kenmore Terrace HD)that was built with mostly row houses, so it's natural for renovation-minded homeowners to identify more closely with the other brownstone neighborhoods to the north. Nevertheless, most residents will say they live in Flatbush, if only when they get tired of using the long neighborhood name,or explaining just WHERE PLG is.
FWIW, ONE PLG block, Parkside between Flatbush and Ocean, seems to also fall within the FDC coverage area, but I suspect that most of PLG was left out when FDC was started in 1975 because a neighborhood association with similar goals had been started here several years earlier--I'm not sure though--I was a newcomer then.
Posted by: Bob Marvin at July 9, 2007 12:31 PM
I remember this place being painted purple back in the 70's
Posted by: Anonymous at July 9, 2007 12:56 PM
Picture this house with the open porch and its gingebread restored, multi-color slate in a zig-zag pattern on the roof, facade painted in a Victorian color scheme of greens and tans and maroon, a nice "gothik" revival fence in front. To die!
Really, could not be beat. You could even build a new income-producing property in the back and have it pay for itself over time.
All it takes is one person w/vision.
Posted by: Sam at July 9, 2007 12:58 PM
Oh, didn't know about the entire block lot. Yeah, targeted for a developer, for sure. Damn, that means it won't be preserved, for sure. The only thing saving it right now is the perception that this is in a "rough" neighborhood. When that changes, as time will tell, it will get snapped up pronto.
Well, maybe I'll have made my fortune by then. I'm working on it.
Posted by: Brower Park at July 9, 2007 1:02 PM
That's perfect, Sam. Your lips to God's ear.
Sorry about the "for sures" there. Must be in my teenage writing phase this afternoon.
Posted by: Brower Park at July 9, 2007 1:05 PM
Please, I mean no offense, but would like to offer some free copy editing. The exterior is worse for WEAR, I think, not worse for "ware." Also your penultimate sentence is not a sentence, so it really should be separated by a comma from the one preceding it. :-)
Posted by: punko at July 9, 2007 1:23 PM
Brenda,
All my relatives who used to live in the area still call PLG "Flatbush". When I told them I was moving to PLG I got blank stares, but when I said I was moving to Rutland Road they said "oh, you mean Flatbush." So while it may not be common usage for the kids these days, it is definitely common usage for the old folks.
And oh yeah, this one's a tear-down for sure. Sadly.
Posted by: Anonymous at July 9, 2007 1:37 PM
right on, punko.
Posted by: Anonymous at July 9, 2007 1:51 PM
This house has looked this way since I first saw it in 1967 and there was a cool soda fountain on the corner with shakes and burgers and the spinning stools; to be seven again. The area was Flatbush then and P.S. 92 is around the corner and the area was just being mixed.
Posted by: anon at July 9, 2007 3:40 PM
I am 3:40pm and I guess I am an old folk because it was Flatbush all my youth. In the sixties there were mostly white poor families on Rogers, Nostrand and Bedford living above the stores and there was 26 lanes of bowling on Parkside between New York and Nostrand. Our block of Clarkson were two family houses with an egg factory and a Cheverolet dealership and Mister Softee garage and 250 and 270 Clarkson as the big rental units where most of my friends lived; we played rifleman back then with broomsticks. Parkside between Nostrand and Rogers were service depts. for all the car dealerships and there was a Bohack on the corner of Bedford and Clarkson.
Posted by: anon at July 9, 2007 3:59 PM
"The only thing saving it right now is the perception that this is in a "rough" neighborhood." From your mouth to god's ear, Brower Park. I usually fight that perception, but, whatever works....
Unfortunately, with the new "luxury" (in the sense of being only halfway a pile of s**t) Lefferts South not only taking our name, but going up in a somewhat "rougher" area to the south of PLG, I doubt that this (mis)conception will be much help :-(
Posted by: Bob Marvin at July 9, 2007 4:07 PM
What I would like to see done:
Restore the house to its original condition. In the back, where the parking lot is, develop a 6 story condo building (Perfectly in context with the other apartment houses). Then everyone wins.
Thoughts?
Posted by: hi! at July 9, 2007 4:26 PM
That works...Kind of a broken angel concept...
BTW..I agree with the Flatbush attatchment, but "central Flatbush"?.. since Ebbets Field was always stated as in Flatbush then it makes sense this is indeed Flatbush...though my aunt live on Crown Street around the corner and always called it Crown Heights... Which relates to today's news of the two cops getting shot in Crown Heights...which was really PLG...which some still call Flatbush...
Posted by: Tom G. at July 9, 2007 5:29 PM
To make things even more complicted, Ebbets Field IS in Crown Hts (north of that brass strip in the BBG) but "Flatbush' probably made for better newspaper copy :-)
Posted by: Bob Marvin at July 9, 2007 6:16 PM
Uh oh--make that "Ebbets Field WAS in Crown Hts." Talk about living in the past!
Posted by: Bob Marvin at July 9, 2007 6:18 PM
Well Bob there is still Ebbett's Field apartments.
Oh, how I wish there was still a 26 lane bowling alley on Parkside...
Posted by: Anonymous at July 9, 2007 6:59 PM
PLG is certainly Flatbush, but obviously it has acquired another, separate identity over the years, due to it's brownstone associations. However, and Bob can correct me if I'm wrong, there are a substantial number of surviving freestanding frame Victorian homes in PLG. There were actually many, many more freestanding frame homes starting around Clarkson and heading south, joining up with the surviving areas of Victorian Flatbush, as well as the now defunct Vanderveer Park, to the east, which is almost completely destroyed. As early as the 1920s, homes in this area (near Crooke and St. Paul's, as well as down Flatbush and Ocean) were raised to build apartment buildings. There are still a few frame homes to be found in this vast area, which once must have comprised nearly 1000 freestanding frame homes.
Posted by: Erin Joslyn at July 10, 2007 8:26 AM
Nothing to correct Erin.
In the PLG Hist. Dist, Lincoln I (S. side) has all large frame houses; Fenimore II (N. side) has a mix of frame houses and brownstones.
Posted by: Bob Marvin at July 10, 2007 8:57 AM
Just a bunch of typos :) Got a baby on one hip while I'm typing!
Apologies.
Posted by: ErinJoslyn at July 10, 2007 11:06 AM
I'm really sick of you guys who want to shrink wrap everything you guys think are historic bs.
If you think its worth saving just buy the freaking place. put your money where your mouth is.
Posted by: armchair_warrior at July 11, 2007 9:21 AM
I moved to Parkside Avenue as a kid in 1944, and the back of this house was down the street. The house was an anomaly back then, stuck between apartment houses and brownstones further down Parkside. Of course, it was in a lot better shape, and while I don't remember them, we played with the kids who lived there. We always referred to the house as the "mansion" and even for kids, it was a fantastic construction, unlike anything else around. I've never forgotten that house and it would be a shame for it to be torn down. I visited the area a few years ago--to see where I grew up and to revisit the "mansion". I'd be surprised if it sold to a developer--when I was there the area didn't look right for development--it's far from being gentrified, but again, that was a few years ago. Who knows today?Unfortunately, I don't know what PLG stands for--when I lived there in the 40's and 50's, it was in the heart of Flatbush. And unless the streets have moved, it still is.
Posted by: guest at October 16, 2007 1:09 PM
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