House of the Day: 59 Macdonough Street
This old-school four-story brownstone at 59 Macdonough Street in Bed Stuy has some great details but, according to a reader who saw it yesterday, is a ticking time bomb that needs a new owner asap. In an effort to “fix up” the house for sale, the current owner, who’s been in the house since 1999,…
This old-school four-story brownstone at 59 Macdonough Street in Bed Stuy has some great details but, according to a reader who saw it yesterday, is a ticking time bomb that needs a new owner asap. In an effort to “fix up” the house for sale, the current owner, who’s been in the house since 1999, is reportedly destroying some of its most characterful aspects, oblivious to the fact that these are precisely what make the house attractive to a large portion of potential buyers. Given the asking price of $775,000 and the proximity to the Stuyvesant Heights Historic District, we’re hoping someone out there will get interested in this place before serious damage is done. Update: The broker shot us an email to let us know that the owner’s work is limited to the top floor, which he had started working on before he decided to sell; he’s going to finish up that work and he’s not touching any of the other details in the house.
59 Macdonough Street [Craigslist] GMAP P*Shark
Foodtown’s C=town’s always in poorer
nabes. High prices not so great choice in meats etc. Just saying. Long history of
health violations. Young ones eat out
every meal anyway.
Dear 11.13 don’t feel bad, it has happened to others. People moved in to the Degraw house by the project. I lived on the block, rented one summmer. I wouldn’t
have bought on the blo9ck if they gave me a house for 300k let alone 999K. Sold
to a nice young couple from DC who didn’t
take enough time to see the nabe. Their real estate agent was good at selling, but not at fitting the right person to the right house. They put the house on the market a month after they moved in.
I should add that at night, it was a bad
crack block.
I have no problem in Harlem, westside
better than east right now.
I am a person of color and there are lots of blocks I wouldn’t live on in the five boros. It takes years for a drug block to turn itself around. You can put twenty new houses on a bad block, it just means better robberies
It’s a block by block thing. For years
I know people in the hood that walk so fast nothing bad can cath them. You
get older you might not want to walk so quickly.
To the poster who commented that PropShark had this as a 1-family: I don’t know about this particular situation, but our building in Bed-Stuy was originally a one-family but had been used as a 2-family for so long that the city gave our previous owners a “letter of no objection” or something like that which effectively changed the C of O with no waiting, no cost, no nothing. This may be the case here as well.
Observer at 10.38 pm,
I’m white and I’ve lived in BS since 2003. I have never felt unwelcome by my neighbors, and you do black residents here a disservice by stereotyping them as being prejudiced against whites. They aren’t. I’ve made a lot of friends in the neighborhood over the past few years (how many of us who have lived in Manhattan can say that?), and I like living here. Sorry you feel like people of color won’t accept you. Maybe you’ll come out to the nabe sometime and walk the blocks. See for yourself. Say hello to the people you pass on the street and keep an open mind. It’s a whole different vibe than what you want to believe it is.
10:38, I’m a white person who’s been living a few blocks north of this place for the past 2 years, and I have found the neighbors to be completely welcoming and friendly. There are a lot of longtime homeowners around here (30+ years in some cases) with tons of community pride. Acquaintances often assume that we are “holding on waiting for the neighborhood to change” – but frankly, I find that I’m more concerned with hoping that the neighborhood doesn’t change too much or too fast, or in ways that are out of character with the existing community. Right now lots of small businesses and amenities are cropping up on Tompkins, and that’s great.
Re: safety, I haven’t spent a lot of time on that particular block, but personally I would consider nearby churches an advantage – there will be people coming and going to choir practice, etc. so the block won’t have a deserted feel. Also the police precinct is located on Tompkins, many blocks away but the cops often walk down Tompkins to Fulton to go get coffee, etc.
And 11:13, we didn’t rent before moving to this neighborhood. We did walk around at various hours, check out crime stats, etc. but mostly we went with a good gut feeling that we had about the block. That feeling has more than proved true.
Bed-Stuy is not for everyone. No neighborhood is. But we feel grateful and lucky and to be living here.
Clinton Hill, for Chissake Denny, Clinton Hill. If you say Clinton Hills, nothing you say will be taken seriously. By the way, Clinton Hill IS one of the best brownstone neighborhoods.
BS is a big neighbor, I think anyone who is interested in buying a brownstone definitely should RENT first. I have no idea it’s safe or not. Everybody has different opinion about safety. I moved out 2500 sqft. apt. in Harlem. I just couldn’t stand neighbor anymore. I loved my apartment. That was my first purchase. Even 800K, it’s a lot of money. Better knowing what kind of place you will be living before purchase. Even myself has a bitter experience could fall in love with those beautiful houses….
i really like the housing stock in bed Stuy, i really do, but I think the area is still pretty unsafe and as a white person, i think I would be made to feel unwanted there. It’s a big city, there is no reason to move into an area where you are not welcome.
I own a brownsttone very local to the house. As faras parking it is generally very good, both my tenants have cars and have no problems. During church services (there is another bug beautiful church literally directly across the street) double parking is permitted during services. The neighborhood is good and neighbors are good generally.
The house is a nice house and has a nice 20×50 backyard. The price of $775 is right where it should be, and yes the guy selling has been there a long time.
Two year old super food town, clean and well stocked along with three banks (citi, chase and wamu) around the corner. LIRR is two blocks away along with the Nostrand Ave A train.