Walkabout with Montrose: Terra Cotta Delights

Thanks for the well wishes and comments, everyone. Wasder, I'd love to. We'll talk.

There is a wonderful book on the subject: Terra-Cotta Skyline by Susan Tunick. It traces the history of terra cotta ornament in New York City, and has some great info and wonderful photographs by her brother, Peter Mauss. Most of the shots are in Manhattan, but there are some of Brooklyn and the other boroughs, as well.

She is affiliated with the Friends of Terra Cotta, a non-profit dedicated to the preservation of the nation's ornamental treasures in terra cotta and ceramics. Their website is:http://www.preserve.org/fotc/
The site also has a database of articles on terra cotta and ceramics. I saw some great articles I want to read someday. Unfortunately, the articles themselves are not on the site.

I'm constantly amazed at how well this stuff holds up, especially the limestone pieces. I'm not expert enough to be able to tell if some of it is hand carved or cast, I suspect both, but there are buildings in Crown Heights North, especially, like the first cover shot for the piece, that still look new. That building was built in 1899.

Posted by: Montrose Morris at March 31, 2009 11:35 AM

Troy, it took me longer to edit the piece down than to write it. I had to leave out a lot of information that would have been interesting, but space considerations forced a severe edit. Besides, I can always add more in the comments. In the long run, pictures speak louder than words, and flickr is a great way to not be edited in one's photographs.

Posted by: Montrose Morris at March 31, 2009 11:39 AM

More4less, I knew you'd catch that one. It's a fantastic building.

Babs, so true, thanks. Ward's Bakery was a big loss. The building the Goldstein's of DDS, at least I think it's where they live, also has a lot of glazed terra cotta trim. We need to look up more often. I just noticed some on Nostrand Avenue that I hadn't seen before the other day, as well as on the theatre, now church, on the corner of Nostrand and Eastern Parkway, which I didn't have photos of.

Posted by: Montrose Morris at March 31, 2009 11:49 AM

1842, no! How stupid. Aesthetics aside, water can get inbetween the paint and terra cotta, and chances are, it won't last another 100 years. Plus, removing it destroys the details, especially when people power wash or sandblast paint away from brick. What a shame. Those were iconic facades.

Posted by: Montrose Morris at March 31, 2009 11:55 AM

Tiptoe, Montrose Morris was one of Brooklyn's finest late Victorian architects. Some of his best works are in Bed Stuy and Crown Heights. I've lived in both communities for a long time, and taking his name as my "nom de plume" was a way to honor his work, as well as those communities.

I didn't get outed as a woman until showing up at a Brownstoner gathering. Up until that time, I had kept my postings gender neutral, and I had the fun of surprising quite a few people. Monty will be the topic of a column at some point. He was an interesting man, and quite talented.

Posted by: Montrose Morris at March 31, 2009 12:02 PM

Will do, etson. Those topics will be explored, along with more general topics of style and things like this, ornament and features that are found in all neighborhoods. I have some interesting info on a wide range of architectural history subjects. Since it's getting warmer, my camera and I hope to get around more, too.

Posted by: Montrose Morris at March 31, 2009 12:47 PM

Mopar, terra cotta is, after all, really a form of brick, and bricks are still standing from Biblical times, having been baked only in the sun, not kilns. So unglazed terra cotta should last as long as the building it's on, barring some sort of obstacle that allows water to pool, and not run off or evaporate, as per usual.

Those terra cotta armies in China lasted centuries, too. It's amazing stuff.

Posted by: Montrose Morris at March 31, 2009 1:02 PM

DeLepp, the usual wander around. Many of the limestone and white brick house facades shown are on Dean St. between Nostrand and Brooklyn, some on Brooklyn Ave between Pacific and Eastern Parkway. The lion's head with the foliate trim that is under a bay is on Park Place off Kingston, across the street from the much discussed mansion at 1094 Park Place. All of the really ornate Gothic looking facades on Flickr are on Park Place between Nostrand and New York.

Most of the brownstone brick terra cotta is in Bed Stuy, some in Stuy Hts, but also all over greater Bed Stuy. There are some great limestones there too, as well as brownstones and brick in Crown Heights.

Posted by: Montrose Morris at March 31, 2009 1:43 PM

Sam and Joe, I suspected as much, and therefore included "carved stone" in my text. The fact that such carved ornament was readily available, and probably pretty reasonable, still blows my mind. Most of the carvings are as fresh and as precisely detailed as the day they were installed. Can you imagine the cost of say, the foliate with the lion, for a bay, would be today?

Posted by: Montrose Morris at March 31, 2009 3:23 PM