Ditmas Park

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Private house
Address: 1612 Ditmas Avenue
Cross Streets: East 16th and East 17th Street
Neighborhood: Ditmas Park
Year Built: 1916
Architectural Style: Colonial Revival/Bungalow
Architect: Harry Grattan
Other Work by Architect: Other houses in Ditmas Park, including 976-994 Ocean Avenue, houses on Ditmas Avenue, 18th and 19th streets
Landmarked: Yes, part of Ditmas Park HD (1981)

The story: Architect and builder Harry Grattan was one of those Brooklyn self-made men success stories. Real estate has made many men and woman quite wealthy and successful, and real estate was good to Harry Grattan. He was a Minnesota man, which almost counts as an immigrant in some circles, and grew up on the family farm. His father was a well-known horse breeder, specializing in fancy carriage horses. After high school, young Harry came to Brooklyn in 1889, and worked as a private secretary for Major-General Daniel Butterfield. He parlayed that experience into clerking at a bank, where he excelled, and then helped to establish the Greater New York Savings Bank, for which he was the secretary.

Like many up and coming young financiers, he turned his thoughts to real estate, and risked everything by leaving banking, and going out on his own, after only a year and a half at the bank. His first house was his own. Without training or degree, he designed the house on 13th Street in Flatbush on his own, drew up the plans, and supervised the building. He was later able to see it for a decent profit, and he was rolling after that. He went on to develop many other properties in Ditmas Park, Ditmas Park West, and other parts of Flatbush, with groups of houses on East 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and Ditmas Avenue foremost among them.

He designed many of these houses himself. Perhaps because he had no formal training, he was better able to design what he liked, regardless of the established forms, and his houses were all interesting and original. The book “Flatbush of Today,” published in 1908, said that “Mr. Grattan is not trammeled by the rules of any particular school of architecture and does not follow the fads of the hour. No two houses are alike.” (more…)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Originally Flatbush Congregational Church, now Flatbush-Tompkins Congregational Church
Address: 1802-1806 Dorchester Road
Cross Streets: 18th and 19th Streets
Neighborhood: Ditmas Park
Year Built: 1910
Architectural Style: Neo-Georgian
Architect: Allen, Collins & Jallade
Other Work by Architect: Louis Jallade: Thompson Meter Co. building in DUMBO. The firm: works in Boston, Vassar College, Union Theological Seminary, NYC.
Landmarked: Yes, part of Ditmas Park HD (1981).

The story: The Flatbush-Tompkins Congregational Church spire towers over Ditmas Park, and can be seen for miles. From a distance, one would think that here, in the heart of Flatbush, another Dutch-era church rises over the neighborhood, an enduring remnant of when the area belonged to the Dutch, who arrived here in the late 1600s. But that would not be correct. This church is from the 20th century, only a decade and a few years past one hundred years old. But what a church it is.

Originally Ditmas Park consisted of Dutch farms and didn’t become the suburban-style enclave we enjoy today until the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. At the same time the neighboring houses were being built, this church was also being established. In 1899, a group of worshipers began gathering in a house on Ocean Avenue, then in a store building on Flatbush Avenue, establishing themselves as the Flatbush Congregational Church. In 1900, they dedicated a wonderfully unique octagonal building that adjoins this church, which is now the parish house. This building was featured as its own BOTD earlier. (more…)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Originally the Rene Dumarest home
Address: 417 East 19th Street
Cross Streets: Dorchester and Ditmas avenues
Neighborhood: Ditmas Park
Year Built: 1907
Architectural Style: Four Square
Architect: Benjamin Driesler
Other Work by Architect: Row houses, free-standing homes and other buildings in Victorian Flatbush, Park Slope, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Crown Heights North and South, and elsewhere.
Landmarked: Yes, part of Ditmas Park HD (1981)

The story: The Landmarks Preservation Commission calls this house a Colonial Revival, but I think today, we’d just call it a Four Square, that uniquely American style of house that was a transitional style between Victorian Queen Anne and the Craftsman/Prairie style. It is basically a large cube, four rooms deep, usually with deep eaves, at least one central dormer, and a porch. They were built in both wood and brick, and are especially well suited for suburban lots like in Ditmas Park, where space was at a premium, but it was still possible to build a nice large house. This house was designed by Benjamin Driesler, one of Brooklyn’s busier architects at the dawn of the 20th century. He is credited for many houses in various parts of what we now call Victorian Flatbush, and was a huge architectural presence in nearby Lefferts Manor.

This is a fine looking home, and draws the eye when you are walking down 19th Street, but the real story here is the drama that took place in its walls. It may also be the inspiration for a popular teen novel. The house was built for the Dumarest family, and here lies our tale: (more…)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Private house
Address: 1700 Ditmas Avenue
Cross Streets: Corner 17th Street
Neighborhood: Ditmas Park
Year Built: Somewhere around 1902 to 1920
Architectural Style: Queen Anne/Colonial Revival
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: Yes, part of Ditmas Park HD (1981)

The story: I grew up in a large Italianate farmhouse in upstate New York, a rambling 1860s farmhouse with fourteen rooms. For a child, it was heaven. My brother and I each had our own room, and my closet was a large walk-in room as large as some of the bedrooms I’ve seen in my adult life. We had secret rooms under the stairs, and doors that led to nowhere. The house had a huge L-shaped kitchen, large living room, dining room and library/music room. I have to admit, that house spoiled me, while it also hooked me on old house living. Much later, as an adult, my parents told me in no uncertain terms, “Don’t EVER buy a large old house if you can’t afford the constant maintenance.” They knew what they were talking about. (more…)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Auditorium of Flatbush Tompkins Congregational Church, originally Flatbush Congregational Church
Address: 437 East 18th Street
Cross Streets: Corner Dorchester Road
Neighborhood: Ditmas Park
Year Built: 1899
Architectural Style: Shingle
Architect: Whitfield & King
Other works by architect: Engineer’s Club, Engineering Building, Carnegie garage in Manhattan; several Carnegie libraries across country; houses in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.; Carnegie Building, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy N.Y.
Landmarked: Yes, part of Ditmas Park HD (1981)

The story: The Flatbush Congregational Church was established in September of 1899. Like many budding congregations, they held their first services in a private house, then moved on up to a larger building, which was dedicated on Oct. 14, 1900. In a couple of years, they had outgrown this unique building, which seats 500, and began building a larger church next door, which was dedicated in 1910. That church will be a separate BOTD, as this earlier building is such a gem all on its own, and was designed by a firm with an interesting pedigree, as well as a lot of imagination and talent.

(more…)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Former Arthur Ebinger house
Address: 445 East 19th Street
Cross Streets: Dorchester Road and Ditmas Avenue
Neighborhood: Ditmas Park
Year Built: 1931
Architectural Style: Arts and Crafts/English Cottage
Architect: Frank J. Foster and R.A. Gallimore
Other buildings by architect: Suburban estates and homes in Great Neck and Old Westbury, N.Y.; California, Connecticut and elsewhere.
Landmarked: Yes, part of Ditmas Park HD (1981)

The story: The neighborhoods of Victorian Flatbush were developed as suburban enclaves beginning in the last decade of the 19th century. In the past, before many people became aware of the smaller neighborhoods that make up the area, all with individual histories, they often tended to refer to the entire group as Ditmas Park, the most well-known of these Flatbush communities. This house actually is in Ditmas Park, and is one of the best known of the neighborhood’s many fine homes. It’s also one of the most unusual. (more…)