Building of the Day: 750 St. Marks Avenue
The BOTD is a no-frills look at interesting structures of all types and from all neighborhoods. There will be old, new, important, forgotten, public, private, good and bad. Whatever strikes our fancy. We hope you enjoy. Address: 750 St. Marks Avenue, between Nostrand and New York Avenues Name: Private House Neighborhood: Crown Heights North Year…
The BOTD is a no-frills look at interesting structures of all types and from all neighborhoods. There will be old, new, important, forgotten, public, private, good and bad. Whatever strikes our fancy. We hope you enjoy.
Address: 750 St. Marks Avenue, between Nostrand and New York Avenues
Name: Private House
Neighborhood: Crown Heights North
Year Built: 1891
Architectural Style: Renaissance Revival
Architects: George P. Chappell
Landmarked: Not yet, calendared in 2009.
Why chosen: This house has always intrigued me. First of all, it’s a 35′ wide beauty, with a nice private side entry, and a garage. The back of the house has sun porches which can be seen from a gap in the buildings on Prospect Heights, the next block over. It was designed by George Chappell, one of my favorite architects, a man who lived and did much of his best work in Crown Heights. He lived a block away, further up on St. Marks Avenue. This block was once lined with large mansions, but by the 1930’s most had been replaced by apartment buildings. This house, and the brick free-standing house next door, are the only private houses left on the block. This house probably replaced a large wood frame mansion, the building boom of the 1890’s in this area was relentless, as St. Marks was the premiere street in what was called the St. Mark’s District. For many years a doctor had his practice on the parlor floor of the house. Today, the house is divided into five apartments, one per floor, which considering the fate of many large private homes, is pretty amazing. I’d love to get inside someday, I just know there’s some great detail behind those shutters.
NOP, that’s really interesting. The house next door is also on my intriguing list. Now the tree in the front yard covers up so much, it’s hard to see what the house really looks like. Was your mother ever inside?
Look for the house here soon.
I find this house very odd. It is, in my view, very off-putting because it has a hidden entrance. There is something very unwelcoming about it. It reminds me of a famous painting by Van Gogh of a village church. At first it looks like a lovely chapel until you realize it has no door, it is inpenetrable and unwelcoming. Same here.
That sideways entry in the alley is just all wrong. It looks like a service entrance. A house should be welcoming. A grand house should make a big show of its welcome. This one is aloof and unfriendly.
Grand army, that’s a very good question. Offhand, I don’t know, some blocks seem to be purposeful, some look like they evolved that way over time. It is an excellent question, and since I want to know all there is to know about my neighborhood, I will do my best to find out.
I love the way Montrose weaves tales of history through a discussion of a building! (And NOP, too!)
Montrose:
I remember this house from my Crown Heights boyhood during the 1950’s and 1960’s because my parents considered moving the family into the house next door. (You can see its red brick in the photo’s left-hand corner.)
At the time, St Marks was relatively prestigious and a few more of the grand old houses remained between New York and Brooklyn Avenues. There were plenty of trees. And apartment houses, where we had several friends, were still very well maintained. (One lady on this particular block had a salon where she’d invite local artists to hang their paintings for view and discussion. I remember slipping between all the grown ups as they knocked back cocktails and debated the comparitive merits of Figurative painting and Abstract Expressionism. Pretty heady stuff!)
Our mother decided against the move because she thought the house gloomy. She also didn’t like its set back from the sidewalk, which was off-putting at night. (Another reason she wouldn’t move us to Eastern Parkway, where the buildings felt isolated from the street.) Even then, crime was an issue, and was beginning to percolate into middle-class neighborhoods, no better symbolized than the murder of two women sharing an apartment in the Upper East Side. (I think this was in 1962.)
And what was the murder rate? About what it is now. But it seemed the whole city was going to hell!
Nostalgic on Park Avenue
What a beaut!
Btw, Montrose, do you know enough of the history of Crown Heights/Prospect Heights to explain why there’s a sort of industrial “gap” bwteen the neighborhoods where the grand homes of CH North end but before the brownstones of PH appear? I’m thinking, for example, of the blocks of St Marks, Bergen, and Dean btw Vanderbilt and Franklin. It’s not that all the buildings on those blocks are industrial but some of the older residential buildings are very modest, in contrast to what lies on both west and east of them.
yeah, this is 1 of my fav too as I walk thru the blk on way to/from Children’s museum
Judging from that curved part by the entrance, I’ll bet it has a really nice staircase too.