Building of the Day: 377 Prospect Place

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: 377 Prospect Place, between Underhill and Washington
Name: Private House
Neighborhood: Prospect Heights
Year Built: Unknown
Architectural Style: Neo-Grec, sorta kinda
Architects: Unknown
Landmarked: No

Why chosen: Here’s another is my collection of ordinary houses. They are vernacular houses built for people of modest means, usually nothing fancy, perhaps the Fedders of their day, but they still have a charm unlike the ordinary houses usually built today. This one is a stylistic jambalaya. Stoopless row houses are pretty rare in Brooklyn. This house and its neighbor are two of a kind on this mixed use residential/industrial block. Two steps up, and you are at the door, more similar to homes in Philadelphia or Baltimore, not usually Brooklyn. There Is an empty house next door, and this house has side windows, so that lot has been empty a very long time. The basic shape and materials of the houses says Greek Revival, but the decorative incised patterns on the lintels and doorway are textbook Neo-Grec. And then you have that cornice with the Mediterranean tiled roof! A roof that doesn’t extend from the top of the building, but a foot or so down. An awning, really, with great brackets. Were they added later? Part of the original design? Is the front door transom original, and what did the original door look like? Were these houses built well before the commercial buildings, are they survivors of Prospect Heights’ earlier days? So many questions for such a small and ordinary workingman’s house. Mysteries waiting to be solved.