House Tours
May 9, 2008
Brooklyn Heights House Tour Tomorrow
The annual Brooklyn Heights House Tour takes place tomorrow from 1 to 5 p.m. The tour, which costs $30, includes a townhouses of the Federal, Italianate and Greenk Revival variety as well as two carriage houses (one modern and one old-school). Tickets can be reserved by calling 718-858-9193; the tour kicks off at the St. Ann's School Lobby at 129 Pierrepont Street.
Brooklyn Heights House Tour 2008 [BHA]
BH House Tour 2007 [Brownstoner]
May 5, 2008
Fort Greene House Tour Wrap
Like the Brooklyn Flea, the Fort Greene House Tour yesterday benefited from some much overdue sunshine. We were only able to hit about half the stops on the tour, but there was nary a clunker among them. As expected, the highlight (for us at least) was a look inside the modern studio building designed by British architect David Adjaye. Unfortunately no interior photos were allowed. It was a modern design that employed cool (as in temperature) colors and clean lines while also feeling extremely livable. As for the more traditional homes on the route, we were most seduced by 219 Carlton Avenue, whose judicious use of European fixtures and some impressive cabinetry enabled the house to be at once comfortable in its traditional shoes and a little lighter and less stuffy than your average townhouse. As you'll see from the slideshow, we also made it to 237 Cumberland Street (a condo project with quite a backyard) as well as 297 Cumberland Street and 98 South Oxford Street, both of which had some serious old-school charm. What were your favorites?
April 24, 2008
Gearing Up for the Fort Greene House Tour
The 2008 Fort Greene House Tour is coming to you live on May 4 from 12-5 p.m. While the tour will feature its usual assortment of old-school brownstone-y goodness, the must-see stop this year will undoubtably be the David Adjaye-designed art studio which we called "pretty cool" when it was completed back in late 2005. Advance tickets are available for $20 at BAM, Yu Interiors, Gnarly Vines, The Saturday Green Market and, you guessed, the Brooklyn Flea. The tour kicks off in the garden across from BAM. For more info, you can also call 718-875-1855. Happy touring.
October 19, 2007
Bed Stuy House Tour On Saturday
On Saturday, the Brownstoners of Bed Stuy will be hosting their 29th Annual House Tour. Kicking off from the Boys High School at 832 Marcy Avenue, the tour will feature eight homes, one apartment and two businesses. Advance tickets for self-guided tour, which will run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., are available for $20 at a number of local establishments, including Brownstone Books at 409 Lewis Avenue and Bushbaby at 1197 Fulton Street. There's also a home ownership workshop from 9 to 10:30 a.m. to provide people with advice about how to finance the purchase of a home in the area.
Bedford-Stuyvesant House Tours Lure Younger Buyers [NY Daily News]
October 11, 2007
Prepping for the Prospect Heights House Tour
On the heels of last weekend's Crown Heights North House Tour, architecture and interior design gawkers get a shot at some of Prospect Heights most interesting properties this Sunday. Sponsored by the Prospect Heights Association, the house tour will feature nine homes— seven houses and two apartments— including 153 Prospect Place (left) and 364 Sterling Place (right). The tour also coincides with an effort by the neighborhood's preservationist community to obtain Landmark status as the spectre of large-scale development looms from the north. Tickets are $15 in advance from Tillies on Vanderbilt, Berman Realty at 105 7th Avenue and Tom's Restaurant at 787 Washington; tix are also available on the day of the tour from Forest Floor Antiques (which is the kick-off point as well) for $20. For more info, call 718-707-1277.
2007 Prospect Heights House Tour [PHNDC]
Prospect Heights House Tour Photos [Flickr]
Photos by Tracy Collins
October 2, 2007
House Tourers, (Re)Start Your Engines: Crown Heights Next
The late spring/early summer house tour schedule can get pretty intense. But by now you've had plenty of time to rest up for what's coming down the pipe the next two weekends. On Saturday, October 6, the Crown Heights North Association is hosting its First Annual Crown Heights North House & Garden Tour. Celebrating the area's recent designation as a Historic District, the tour will feature ten houses, two churches and one community garden. There's a kick-off event (at which public officials are expected) from 10:30 to 12:00 at St. Gregory's at 991 St. Johns Place; this is also where you pick up tix and start your tour. We've seen some of the descriptions of the houses on the tour and it sounds sweet. Here's a taste: "the intact fretwork screens over the stained glass transom windows, the intricate detail in all of the door frames, fireplaces and columns, and the stairwell bench flanked by columns, framed with more intricate fretwork carving, all on perfect parquet floors.” There's also a house that was renovated using almost exclusively salvaged materials. Tickets are $25; the tour ends at 5 p.m. Also, we'll have more on it next week, but, for planning purposes, the Prospect Heights House Tour takes place on Sunday, October 14.
House Tour Info & Tickets [CHN]
June 12, 2007
Scenes from the Crown Heights Walking Tour
About 100 people or so joined in on the walking tour of Crown Heights North on Sunday, starting off at St. Gregory's Church and ending at the corner of Bedford and Dean. In between, tour guides from the Crown Heights North Association provided tour-goers with architectural and social history about the neighborhood. The afternoon ended with a tea at the Bergen Street Community Garden. Did any readers attend? What was the most interesting thing you learned on the tour?
Photos courtesy of The Crownheightser
June 11, 2007
2007 Victorian Flatbush Tour: The Day After
From the looks of the massive photoset that local blogger Flatbush Gardener uploaded to Flickr last night, this year's house tour of Victorian Flatbush was a winner, a sentiment echoed in his blog post on the day. "This was the third year in a row I've gone on the house tour [and] this year was actually one of the best overall," he writes. "There was variety in the houses shown, largely because nearly every neighborhood of Victorian Flatbush was represented on the tour." Were other readers also impressed? What were the highlights of the tour?
2007 Victorian Flatbush House Tour [Flatbush Gardener]
2007 Victorian Flatbush House Tour [Flickr]
June 6, 2007
2007 Prospect Lefferts Gardens House Tour Recap
Checking out the two slide shows from Planet PLG and frequent Brownstoner contributor Bob Marvin made us extra bummed that we were not able to make it this year. While it looks like the tour had its usual staple of old-school goodness, we think the photos of the modern interior renovation look amazing. Was that the highlight for most people?
Planet PLG House Tour Slide Show [Flickr]
Bob Marvin's PLG House Tour Slide Show [Brooklyn Camera Club]
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]