Architecture

Axel Hedman Designs Something Different in Prospect Lefferts Gardens

This block of houses on Maple Street is truly different, and truly great row house architecture.

Photo by Susan De Vries

by Suzanne Spellen

12/03/2019 3 minute 0

Editor’s note: This story is an update of one that ran in 2012. Read the original here.

This block of houses on Maple Street is Axel Hedman’s finest residential row. He was Brooklyn’s most prolific designer of Renaissance Revival housing, and he designed a lot of houses, some of which are very similar to each other, but as the old Southern cooking compliment goes, “he put his elbow in this one.” It is truly different, and truly great row house architecture.

The two corner houses on Bedford Avenue, Nos. 125 and 126, face each other and form a majestic gateway to the row. This one, No. 125, built in 1909, is more impressive, mostly because of the ornate glass and iron entryway. Both houses are limestone clad for the first two stories on the front facade, and pale brick above and all across the ornamented Bedford Avenue facade. The detail on these houses is pretty restrained for Hedman, who could slather it on, and appears mostly on the side of No. 125.

The Mediterranean red roof tiles…

…and elaborate bracketed cornices, along with the multitude of windows, topped off by the side bay with its beautiful leaded glass casement windows, are just gorgeous.

To top it off, the houses even have garages behind them, also with the same tile roofs. And, as per the Lefferts Manor Covenant, all the houses on this block, including this one, will remain single-family residences forever.