Building of the Day: 417 Marcus Garvey Blvd

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: 417 Marcus Garvey Blvd, between Halsey and Macon Street
Name: Private House
Neighborhood: Bedford Stuyvesant
Year Built: Unknown
Architectural Style: Italianate, with later Renaissance Revival additions.
Architects: Unknown
Landmarked: No

Why chosen: This one caught my eye for a couple of reasons. First of all the shape is so distinctive. A very deep recessed doorway and then that protruding bay with a side window. I don’t think I’ve seen an Italianate brownstone facade with a brick bay, and then that pressed metal facade before. Perhaps originally, the brick had brownstone cladding, and a plain brownstone bay facade. The pressed metal facade was probably added a good twenty years later, along with the frieze below the cornice. The other interesting thing is a retail/residential mix in a brownstone on a block that is mostly tenement buildings with retail on the ground floor, apartments above. The building obviously has had a recent renovation, and a look on Property Shark shows that the owner turned what was 2 retail spaces into only one, with an added floor of residential space. What a difference from the 1970’s building shown on the jump, where the parlor floor was probably a church. I really like this building, I love the entryway, the doors, and the stained glass transoms in the restored second floor. Could it be that at one time the building in the empty lot to the left was a mirror image? That would have been cool, with the bays sheltering the entryways. I love what the owner did with this building. A great rebirth for a community on the rise.