Victorian Flatbush

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Private Houses
Address: 81 and 85 Rugby Road
Cross Streets: Church Avenue and Albemarle Road
Neighborhood: Prospect Park South
Year Built: 1936
Architectural Style: Neo-Tudor
Architect: Robert T. Schaefer
Other Work by Architect: 799 18th St. and other houses in Fiske Terrace, Midwood and Ditmas Park. Other buildings in Flatbush and Long Island.
Landmarked: Yes, part of Prospect Park South HD (1979)

The story: By 1905 Dean Alvord, the developer responsible for Prospect Park South, had grown bored with his very successful project, and was looking towards the next housing development on his list of successful transformations of former farmland into gracious upscale and exclusive neighborhoods. He sold his remaining lots, and moved on. Over the next twenty years, the remaining lots of PPS were built up. In the beginning of this second period of growth, some of the houses were quite large, but as time went by, they got smaller and more efficient. The days of huge mansions with a staff of servants to keep them running was ending, and people began to want houses that were much less high maintenance. The economy was changing as well, and by the 1930s, the Great Depression had taken most of the steam out of the building market.

If you look at the real estate ads in the Brooklyn Eagle and other local papers during the 1930s, you can see that the downturn in the economy had also reached the leafy confines of this exclusive and wealthy enclave. Some of the largest houses began to take in boarders, or rent out their upper floors as apartments. Even today, some are still permanently divided, large enough to provide adequate space for more than one family, even by today’s roomy standards. A few people couldn’t hold on at all, and sold their large homes and moved on. This was the case here. 81 and 85 Rugby Road was once home to one large single family house. The Brooklyn Eagle documents several ads searching for boarders, and then renters, then a buyer. (more…)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Private house
Address: 135 Stratford Road
Cross Streets: Albemarle and Beverley Road
Neighborhood: Prospect Park South
Year Built: 1906
Architectural Style: Colonial Revival with Flemish detail
Architect: George E. Showers
Other Work by Architect: Other houses on this side of Stratford, as well as elsewhere in Prospect Park South
Landmarked: Yes, part of Prospect Park South HD (1979)

The story: Developer Dean Alvord began planning his elite Prospect Park South neighborhood in 1899. Like many people with great vision, it seems the planning stages and beginning developments were a source of great attention to him, but in a few years, when the project started to slow down, and was more than three quarters finished, he began to lose interest, and he began turning that attention to the next project, the next hurdles to overcome. By 1905, only six years later, he sold all of his remaining interests in Prospect Park South, and turned his attention to the development of Laurelton, Queens, a community he built in much the same fashion he built Prospect Park South.

The forty-five vacant lots remaining in the area were sold to the Chelsea Improvement Company, who began putting up houses that were generally smaller and less impressive than Dean Alvord’s magnificent mansions. Some of these lots were developed by the team of George T. and Lizzie Moore, who built primarily on this east side of Stratford Road, as well as elsewhere in the neighborhood. They worked mainly with architect George E. Showers. This team was responsible for this attractive, medium-sized Colonial Revival, with a twist. (more…)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Private House
Address: 242 Rugby Road
Cross Streets: Beverley and Cortelyou Roads
Neighborhood: Beverley Square West
Year Built: around 1901-1902
Architectural Style: Queen Anne
Architect: One of four architects, perhaps John J. Petit
Other Work by Architect: All with houses throughout Victorian Flatbush
Landmarked: No, but most of Victorian Flatbush that isn’t, should be.

The story: The “Beverley Squares” as they are called, both East and West, are sandwiched in between Ditmas Park and Prospect Park South in that vast former suburban area we call Victorian Flatbush. It is a mystery to me why they were not landmarked long ago when both Prospect Park South and Ditmas received the protection of landmarking. Housing such as today’s BOTD is typical here in the Beverley’s, and is a celebration of the imagination and spirit of the turn of the 20th century’s architects and the developers they worked for. These particular neighborhoods were the brainchild of prolific developer Thomas B. Ackerson.

With savings garnered from his job at the Knickerbocker Ice Company, Thomas Benton Ackerson, who went by “T.B.,” started investing in real estate. With a little more than $85K, he bought ten acres of Flatbush land from the Lott family and began to develop two neighborhoods now known as Beverley Square East and West. He envisioned an upscale suburban development where no two houses were the same and every house had a lawn. He had great drive, got great help and managed to have 42 houses built in Beverley Square West which sold in no time. T.B. was on his way.

T.B. took his cues from the other developers around him, like Prospect Park South’s Dean Alvord and Ditmas Park’s Louis Pounds, and hired some of the same architects they used. John J. Petit, A. White Pierce, J.A. Davidson and Benjamin Dreisler designed all of the houses in Beverley Square. I was not able to sort out the mess of who did what, but one of them was the architect of this house. If I had to take a guess, it would be Petit who designed some of Prospect Park South’s most imaginative houses. (more…)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Originally Reverend Frederick A. Wright House
Address: 144 Westminster Road
Cross Streets: Albemarle and Beverley Roads
Neighborhood: Prospect Park South
Year Built: 1910
Architectural Style: Colonial Revival
Architect: Benjamin F. Hudson
Other Work by Architect: Row houses, 15th St. Park Slope; other suburban houses in Victorian Flatbush, also Bensonhurst.
Landmarked: Yes, part of PPS HD (1979)

The story: Many of the Colonial Revival Houses in historic Victorian Flatbush, especially in Prospect Park South, have been described in this column over the years as “being on steroids.” It’s a flip remark, certainly non-architectural, that just allows me to tell you that the building is not a strict interpretation of the textbook Colonial Revival style; it’s much more. The architect embellished, expanded and added all kinds of elements, including size, to his buildings, things that were never seen in the Georgian and Federal style houses of the mid to late 1700s, which were their inspiration. As developers and clients in the early 20th century sought bigger and bigger homes — like the McMansions of today — architects were wont to keep adding. The better ones did it well, and many of these houses are still highly admired today. But once in a while a purist arrives, and we can see what the Colonial Revival was all about. (more…)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Private House
Address: 177 Rugby Road
Cross Streets: Albemarle and Beverley roads
Neighborhood: Prospect Park South
Year Built: 1901
Architectural Style: Colonial Revival
Architect: John J. Petit
Other Work by Architect: “Japanese House” and many other houses in Prospect Park South, Ditmas Park, and Victorian Flatbush.
Landmarked: Yes, part of Prospect Park South HD (1981)

The story: This house was one of the earlier speculative houses to be built in Prospect Park South. Dean Alvord commissioned his chief architect, John J. Petit, to design a couple of houses that showed prospective customers what living in his swanky Prospect Park South could be like. This house was a good example, a large 3,400-plus-square-foot piece of Colonial Revival heaven here in Brooklyn. It worked, and in 1902, the house was bought by Mrs. Mary A. Smith.

The Colonial Revival style of architecture was America’s architecture, the favorite for the emerging 20th-century suburbs and growing small towns. Take pieces of mostly British colonial design, the elegance of classical detail and Georgian proportions, or perhaps a Dutch gambrel roof, or some New England shakes and shingles, and give them some all-American heavy meals. The results are massive 25-room suburban houses that few Georgians and far fewer Colonial folk would recognize, but were right at home in growing suburbs such as Flatbush at the time. (more…)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Two-family houses
Address: 88-90 Westminster Road
Cross Streets: Church Avenue and Albemarle Road
Neighborhood: Prospect Park South
Year Built: 1952
Architectural Style: Post-war suburban
Architect: Seelig & Finkelstein
Other works by architect: 105 Buckingham Road (apartment building), Beth El Jewish Center of Flatbush, which is on the National Register, and other buildings in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan.
Landmarked: Yes, part of Prospect Park South HD (1979)

The story: If these two houses were people, they probably would have thought they had arrived at the wrong party and then couldn’t leave. Ever. Surrounded by much larger, early 20th century suburban houses, these two-family houses were built on the lot once occupied by a very large Colonial Revival that was put up in 1911. Dean Alvord, the developer of Prospect Park South, was a man who devoted many years to this project, creating an upper class retreat for his moneyed clients. He had standards. He would have been apoplectic. But these houses, like other new houses in the neighborhood, are the result of later development, as the exclusivity of neighborhoods like Prospect Park South was replaced by the expediency and desire to get the most out of a property. Four families where there once was only one. (more…)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Private house
Address: 523 East 16th Street
Cross Streets: Ditmas and Newkirk Avenues
Neighborhood: Ditmas Park
Year Built: 1909
Architectural Style: Bungalow
Architect: Arlington D. Isham
Other buildings by architect: Most of the houses on this block, as well as others in Ditmas Park
Landmarked: Yes, part of Ditmas Park HD (1981)

The story: Ditmas Park is the most familiar neighborhood name for people considering what is now called “Victorian Flatbush.” It was developed as a suburban community, modeled on the neighboring upscale community of Prospect Park South, but for people of more middle class means. The land Ditmas Park sits on was once the farmland of the Van Ditmarsen family, a large farm established by Jan Jansen Van Ditmarsen, Jr. in 1695. The land remained in the family, now called “Ditmas,” until 1902, when they sold it to developer Lewis H. Pounds.

Pounds came to Brooklyn by way of Kansas, where he had begun to dabble in real estate development. He saw the potential in Flatbush, and started buying land, beginning first in the Beverley Square area, in 1899. Teaming with partner Delbert Decker, Pounds bought the Ditmas farm, and began developing it. There were some houses here already, but most of the neighborhood was empty, hilly land, with no roads, and certainly no utilities or services. Pounds and Decker began by having the land graded, roads laid, utility lines brought in, and the new blocks divided into plots. (more…)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Private house
Address: 125 Buckingham Road
Cross Streets: Albemarle Road and Church Avenue
Neighborhood: Prospect Park South
Year Built: 1910-1911
Architectural Style: Colonial Revival
Architect: Clement C. Brun of Brun & Hauser
Other buildings by architect: Brun & Houser designed apartment buildings, churches, and fine single family houses in New York City.
Landmarked: Yes, part of Prospect Park South HD (1973)

The story: I would imagine that anyone with a healthy ego would enjoy living in a temple. That must have been the mindset behind the fabulous and enormous temple-fronted Colonial Revival houses built at the turn of the 20th century. Prospect Park South, a planned community for upper-class people longing to escape the city streets but still be near the city, has quite a few of these houses, all designed by different architects, but this one is one of the best.

It was designed in 1910 by Clement C. Brun for George U. Tompers. The house is right next door to the famous “Japanese House” designed in 1902 by John J. Petit, and although they are as dissimilar as can be, one has to think that Brun designed a house for Tompers that was intended to give him as many bragging rights as the one-of-a-kind Japanese House has. Of course, that didn’t come to pass, but they tried. (more…)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Single family house
Address: 104 Buckingham Road
Cross Streets: Church Avenue and Albemarle Road
Neighborhood: Prospect Park South
Year Built: 1901
Architectural Style: Colonial Revival
Architect: Carroll H. Pratt
Other works by architect: Other houses in the area, also Parkville Station, Bensonhurst, and Inwood Station. Manhattan, Post Offices.
Landmarked: Yes, part of Prospect Park South HD (1979)

The story: This is an elegant and stately home, no doubt about it. It personifies the kind of home and the kind of people developer Dean Alvord wanted in his Prospect Park South community: upscale elegance and moneyed success.

The house was designed by Carroll H. Pratt, one of Dean Alvord’s staff architects, and the man who took over the position of chief architect after John J. Petit left the position in 1902. Petit was a much more imaginative architect, who drew on the wealth of the world’s great architecture for his inspiration. He designed some of the neighborhood’s most iconic houses, including the famous Japanese house across the street, at 131 Buckingham. But as inventive as he was, and as eclectic as some of his homes here in Prospect Park South are, it is this kind of home, this large Colonial Revival-inspired estate, which would have resonated with many of the neighborhood’s would-be buyers. (more…)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Private House
Address: 1314 Albemarle Road
Cross Streets: Corner of Rugby Road
Neighborhood: Prospect Park South
Year Built: 1903
Architectural Style: Shingle Style Queen Anne
Architect: Carroll H. Pratt
Other buildings by architect: other houses in PPS, Parkville Station PO. In Bensonhurst, and other banks, PO’s and gov’t buildings.
Landmarked: Yes, part of PPS HD (1979)

The story: There are three houses on this south side of Albemarle Road with corner towers, and this one is best remembered for its delightful cut-out porch on the third floor, just under its conical roof. As long-time neighborhood residents no doubt remember, this house has finally come out from under a sheathing of aluminum siding that covered up all of its clapboard, and shingle details; aluminum siding that was there when the neighborhood was landmarked in 1979. Although still missing the original slate roofing, the house is once more as the architect, and developer who commissioned it, originally planned. (more…)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Colonel Alexander Bacon House, aka “Sophie’s Choice House”
Address: 101 Rugby Road
Cross Streets: Albemarle Rd. and Church Avenue
Neighborhood: Prospect Heights South
Year Built: 1900-1903
Architectural Style: Queen Anne
Architect: John E. Nitchie
Other buildings by architect: various office buildings, homes, churches in Manhattan, Brooklyn and surrounding suburbs.
Landmarked: Yes, part of PPS HD (1979)

The story: Colonel Alexander S. Bacon was a West Point trained Civil War officer who became a very successful lawyer after the war. He moved to Brooklyn in 1880, and in 1887 was elected to the New York State Legislature. There, he made a name for himself through the Bacon Investigating Committee, which was charged to investigate political shenanigans in Brooklyn. Throughout his career, as a politician, lawyer, and career military man, he was quite vocal about a number of topics, and gained great local fame and even a little notoriety. He even insulted Teddy Roosevelt in print. More on him in a Walkabout piece, one of these days. At the turn of the century, he was doing quite well, and decided to have a home built in the posh new neighborhood of Prospect Park South. (more…)