Building of the Day: 69-71 South Oxford Street
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: 69-71 South Oxford Street, between DeKalb and Lafayette Name: The Roanoke Apartments Neighborhood: Fort Greene Year Built: 1890…
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: 69-71 South Oxford Street, between DeKalb and Lafayette
Name: The Roanoke Apartments
Neighborhood: Fort Greene
Year Built: 1890
Architectural Style: Romanesque Revival
Architect: Montrose Morris
Landmarked: Yes (Fort Greene Historic District)
Why chosen: Before this was the Roanoke, it was an apartment hotel called the San Carlos. Morris designed this building a couple of years after his houses on Hancock, and right after his masterpiece, the Alhambra Apartments, on Nostrand Avenue in Bedford Stuyvesant, in 1889. It’s a much more somber and serious building, and was originally only five stories tall. The sixth story and the name change to Roanoke were added in the early 20th century, probably by Morris, as well. It’s got classic MM styling, the Romanesque details, the rows of paired dwarf columns and the loggia effect with columns in recessed window spaces. He was also fond of the Byzantine leaf ornament, and balconies. Originally, the layout featured a kitchen, dining room and reception parlor on the ground floor, with rooms above. By the 1920’s, the Roanoke was a favorite of nearby Navy Yard officers. By the last quarter of the 20th century, it was a burned out shell. It was then renovated, only to have the owners go bankrupt, leaving empty apartments, no utilities, and then the inevitable horde of squatters and drug dealers took over. Around 2005, it was cleared out, and renovated again, this time as expensive condos. Nothing remains of the original interior detail. I’m very glad the building was saved, it’s quite impressive up close, but honestly, they could have spent some money on a set of really nice, period front doors. Monty would be appalled.
Who was the developer?
Christopher Gray
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If all the restaurants where Diamond Jim Brady supposedly entertained Lily Langtree were laid end to end … I wouldn’t be surprised.
Christopher Gray
Actually, while the fire pretty much gutted the interior of the building, it’s only the the fifth floor facade and a tiny bit of the very top of the fourth floor facade that were reconstructed. I say this with 100% certainty. I live in the building and we had to go through Landmarks to do some additional renovations to the facade a few years ago. They showed me a photo they have on file of the building just after it burned and like I said only the fifth and sixth floors of the facade were completely destroyed. On the forth floor facade, the only part that had to be replaced were the bricks between the middle and right windows at the very top. You can even tell from the posted photo how the texture of the brick seems to change a little there. And when you see the building in person it’s easy to spot where the bricks don’t match. Maybe what’s confusing Minard is that their used to be a six floor that was added on to the building after the initial construction which also burned but wasn’t rebuilt during the renovation. So it wasn’t the 5th, 4th and 3rd floors of the facade that were destroyed, it was the 6th, 5th and a tiny bit of the 4th.
That is BrooklynPix.com.
At the time of the fire I lived on S.Oxford St.on the same side of the block as the Roanoke. I remember my landlord waking me up in the middle of the night to tell me that I should gather my valuables and get ready to flee. The fire was a wind whipped with embers going everywhere. It was just one vast high flame coming through the roof of the building. The FDNY did a great job in containing that fire to the corner of the block. If you go to BklynPix.com (Fort Greene 1), you can see a picture, which was taken in the late 1880’s, of that building.
At the time of the fire I lived on S.Oxford St.on the same side of the block as the Roanoke. I remember my landlord waking me up in the middle of the night to tell me that I should gather my valuables and get ready to flee. The fire was a wind whipped with embers going everywhere. It was just one vast high flame coming through the roof of the building. The FDNY did a great job in containing that fire to the corner of the block. If you go to BklynPix.com (Fort Greene 1), you can see a picture, which was taken in the late 1880’s, of that building.
We watched it burn from the stoop across the street: It was Dresden in Brooklyn… flames a hundred feet into the night sky. Firemen broke into neighboring buildings.
The story on the street was that a struggling developer sold condo apartments with no money down in the real estate depression of the late 1980s. For many years thereafter The Roanoke was the hell hole of Fort Greene.
Legend has it that originally there was a restaurant on the top floor where Diamond Jim Brady entertained Lilly Langtree. Please comment.
This is an old photo. I made a new entry way for this building about six months ago from quarter sawn white oak. It looks much better now.
Pigeon, believe me, the top three stories as well as all the windows and doors were gone. all that was left was the first floor brownstone masonry and the second floor brick masonry. Nothing was left of the interior nothing was left of floors 3, 4, and 5.
I’m sure the landmarks commission has photos.