House of the Day: 1372 Dean Street

Yep, agree with wasder, and others. Great looking place, probably not much period detail left, which is a bummer. I love the turret, too.

Great looking block, and this house is across the street from the oldest house still standing in Crown Heights North, the George B. and Susan Elkins House, at 1375 Dean.(circa 1850-55) The Elkins house also needs an owner and a sensitive restoration. It is listed with Corcoran, and for far less than this house. I really like this block, and check to see what's selling here every once in a while. Thank goodness it's landmarked.

The adjoining house in the photo is also empty, and was for sale last year, but the realtor never answered my phone calls or emails, and did not show up for an open house, which really is tacky and unprofessional. It has since been removed from the market. That house is a one family, and looks like one of those wonderful period gems that are certainly few and far between. I think there is some kind of group home in the house next to the empty one, and it separated from these two houses by the driveway of that home. The rest of the block is a mixture of limestones, brownstones and a couple of small apartment buildings.

Posted by: Montrose Morris at July 16, 2008 1:57 PM

bayridgegirl, you are correct. Lois Thompson of Corcoran used to have the Elkins house listing, it was on the website not all that long ago. I guess no takers. Too bad. It could be a unique house with a lot of class in the right hands, which happen to sit in deep pockets.

Please keep looking, we've still got lots of great homes here.

Posted by: Montrose Morris at July 16, 2008 2:51 PM

Amzi Hill - love the name. Another great Brooklyn architect of the middle to late 19th Century.

Posted by: Montrose Morris at July 16, 2008 2:53 PM

Dave and all, 1265 Dean is still on the market, they had another open house this last Sunday. I personally think it needs to go down under a million, but whoever buys it will have a really beautiful house on a really beautiful block.

Historically speaking, much of CHN was built as a wealthy suburban enclave. The village of Bedford, and by extension, Bedford Corners, roughly at Bedford and Fulton Street, on up to where the Armory is now, at Bedford/Atlantic, was a stagecoach and freight transportation hub, centrally located between Manhattan and the communities of Long Island. The building of the Bklyn Bridge in 1883, and the Kings County Elevated Railway in 1888 brought wealthy and upper middle class residents to the area. Many of Brooklyn's finest architects and builders built some of their best work here, men like Montrose Morris, Amzi Hill,JC Cady, George B. Chappell and Axel Hedman.

By the end of the 19th Century, many of the huge estates that lined St. Marks Ave had been replaced by upscale apartment buildings, and all of the streets had been filled in with elegant brownstones and limestones, and later, large full scale apt buildings, for the upper middle class residents of the area. A walk down most Crown Heights blocks will still show the many freestanding mansions and fine homes that are still here.

Like most neighborhoods, it's risen, fallen, and is rising again. I'm glad to be here in its renaissance.

Posted by: Montrose Morris at July 16, 2008 5:56 PM

Brooklynnative, you certainly have a jaundiced view of the neighborhood. Also your memory is severely flawed. There are no large apartment buildings that close to Dean. The closest are over a block or more away, and very few of them are all that awful. If you are referring to the large apt building across from the side entrance of 1265 Dean, that is a very quiet, very conservative and proper senior residence. The residents there are more likely to go upside your head with a tea cup for even suggesting otherwise.

Not all apartment buildings are filled with the poor or downtrodden, some are co-ops. Don't judge books by their covers, and make assumptions about what you don't know. I live a block away from Dean, and I know what I'm talking about. We're not perfect, but blanket statements like "Most people would not want to live there." are fighting words. That's blatent code leading to tired topics I really don't care to visit tonight.

Posted by: Montrose Morris at July 16, 2008 6:24 PM

11233, as the gospel song goes, "change is a-comin'", but realistically, it's going to take a while. Nostrand Ave is our largest and most commercial street. While many progressively minded people have wanted to add some much needed new retail and dining to this block, it is a hard sell. Apparently, most of the commercial buildings are owned by a couple of owners, who probably picked them up for a song in the 70's, when middle class merchants gave up on the area. For whatever reasons, the rents on these spaces, when they become available, are sky high, and the area is frankly, pretty seedy, with notable exceptions, so no one is rushing to be the first to open a better class of restaurant, or a more upscale shop of some kind. I am sure that once someone does, and is successful, the floodgates will open for more. This is not just for newcomers, either. Most people I speak to, from very varied backgrounds, would welcome new businesses. No one is happy with what we have now.

Kingston and Bedford are our other commercial streets. Bedford is getting some interesting movement going, I think it will actually be changing the way Franklin and Classon are changing, and I predict we will be trucking over to Bedford well before Nostrand Ave gets it together.

Kingston has possibilities. The architecture supports the idea of small shops and cafe/restaurants. Unfortunately, there are a lot of abandoned and ill-used apartment buildings on large stretches of Kingston, and until those are rehabbed, big changes are not forthcoming. I do know that a couple of people are planning at least one coffee shop, and perhaps resurrecting the old Kingston Lounge, a wonderful space for a good restaurant to emerge.

Posted by: Montrose Morris at July 16, 2008 10:45 PM

Amzi, I see lots of good things happening on Bedford on your side of Atlantic. I think it will be a very viable location. It's too bad they tore down those great old large mixed use apartment buildings, I think that they could have been rehabbed into really nice new housing. I hope whatever replaces them is not as fugly as further north on Bedford.

I agree about Grant Square, although I think the seniors have a pretty good claim to the Union League Club. I did some research on the building, and it was amazing for its time, and was quite influential in the community. The square must have been something, with the Imperial Apartments, the 23rd Regiment Armory, the Union League Club, and the other grand buildings on the square. Not to mention old Ulysses S. Grant on his horse. The Union League sponsored the statue, btw, as they were a Republican (party of Lincoln) club. Lincoln and Grant are prominantly featured in the terra cotta facade.

I love this stuff - the book is forthcoming.

Posted by: Montrose Morris at July 17, 2008 12:12 AM

Brooklynnative, I get defensive over "most people would not want to live here" remarks not because it implies that other parts of town are better for whatever reason, but because it implies that there is something so inherently wrong with Crown Heights, that no rational person would want to live here. And that is just not true.

Tonight, after reading your initial remarks, I had to go to a meeting about 6 blocks from this Dean Street house. It was around 6:30, and walking up a very quiet and beautiful NY Ave, past 2 amazing churches just across the street from the Dean St. house I had to laugh at the absurdity of your statement. I saw an interracial couple piling their beautiful kids into a car. I passed two older men who have obviously been here for years having a spirited discussion about rent pricing. Two 20's something white girls were carrying grocery bags into one of those dreaded apartment buidings on NY Ave, and all up and down the avenue people were coming in from work, sitting on their stoops, walking their dogs,and doing everday normal neighborhood stuff. No one looked like they didn't want to be here.

I was tempted to shouts "We are so normal, we are you, we all want the same things. Why is that so hard for people outside of this neighborhood to understand?" Then I went to my community meeting, where we were about the business of improving Crown Heights for everyone.

I think where you live is great. I would love to have Prospect Park, the museum and the Botanic Garden at my door, and great restaurants down the block. But not everyone can live in Park Slope, even if we all could afford it. Crown Heights is a beautiful neighborhood that

Posted by: Montrose Morris at July 17, 2008 12:44 AM

is coming back into its own. My vision is a multicultural neighborhood that retains its unique Afro-Caribbean/American culture, and is enriched by the participation and contributions of everyone else who chooses to make it home. The amenities will come, make no mistake, as will the other improvements that are necessary for the betterment of all. Probably never for everyone, and that's just fine. But by no means, not even now, a place that can be classified by anyone as somewhere that "most people would not want to live". Who are most people? If it's not code, then what is?

Posted by: Montrose Morris at July 17, 2008 1:24 AM

To clarify: the neighborhood may not be for everyone, I'm not saying that the improvements won't benefit everyone. That is not fine, although probably also true, sadly enough. Our rising tide will not lift all boats, or be appreciated by all, and we must never forget that those concerns need to be addressed, as well.

Posted by: Montrose Morris at July 17, 2008 1:31 AM

Brooklynnative, you contradict yourself. If you were interested in buying near Brower Park, then you would be buying on the same side of Eastern Parkway as Dean Street and all of the rest of Crown Heights North that you say you would NOT buy in.

I don't think landmarking has had much to do with pricing across the board. There were as many homes listed for over a million before landmarking, which was only last April, as now. I think the high prices reflected the overall inflated prices that all of brownstone Brooklyn suffers from. And for what it's worth, most of those houses were unique - stand alone mansions, or untouched one families, and all were handled by the large firms. The smaller local firms still carry a majority of the average, regular homes that are sold in the area. I have always said that the best way to sustained growth in this community is through sensible pricing.

Posted by: Montrose Morris at July 17, 2008 10:23 AM