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:…
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.
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My comment was directed to Mr. B., the publisher. If he wants to live up to the mission statement of this column, he should apply the necessary resources to do so.
I am a customer, providing feedback. Of course, he can choose to do as he pleases.
I think MM does a good job of living up to the stated mission – she recently covered the MTA headquarters, if you recall, certainly a new enough building for you. And yes, you should have capitalized BAD in your comment, along with INTERESTING, NEW, and ALL – and you and others are certainly capable of seeing those houses elsehwere as well. And what transparency and opennes? I think we’re all aware of the hideousness going on unchecked around us; nothing’s being hidden – we all know the fate of the houses profiled here http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/gravesend/ and the results ain’t pretty.
Benson, you got it right with your first post – Montrose doesn’t have a car so she can’t easily get to the other locations. Do you have a one? Maybe you can pick her up and give her a tour….
Another guess is that someone dropped the parlor floor joists in order to get more height inside -note the bricked-up basement windows that could be a sign that the floor was dropped and now sits directly behind the former windows. Interesting.
The mission style was very popular in the 1905-1915 period and the dark Victorian facades were becoming very unpopular.
Babs and all;
Here is the mission statement for this column (I added the capitalization):
“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.”
You are entitled to your opinion of the homes in Gravesend. I think other folks are entitled to theirs too, if we could see them. Or are you opposed to the idea of transparency and openess? Frankly, I could care less what Kevin Walsh has to say about the homes in Gravesend. I and others are capable of making our own judgment.
This is a very interesting house and so is the writeup.
Are the brackets under the roof bit old? I can’t quite see. There are lots of little roofs like this that were originally shingles, but they’re not placed in this location (they’re generally over the lower windows). Maybe it’s original — Montrose has found 19th C Med roofs before.
The building does seem to be missing its cornice, which could suggest a 20th c alteration.
“Stunning” is a good word for some of the McMansion horrors erected in Gravend after the teardown of the original houses. As Forgotten NY says about Gravesend’s current climate, “Unfortunately, some folks disagree with the premise that they live in a treasured, venerable district, and treat their monuments with negligence, if not utter contempt.” For a look at some that survive, as well as a review of the area’s history (as one of the original 6 towns that became Broklyn, as well as the only one of English origin and founded by a woman), see here http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/gravesend/gravesend.html
Otherwise, I think we’ve all seen enough of the scary results of the indiscriminate tearing-down of older houses in this area.
MM my take on these is that they are 1870’s vintage.
Around 1905 or so they were updated with the Mission-style pent roof and stucco facing that lightened up the color of the facade -it is red brick beneath. Around that time the stoop was removed and the front door was lowered. Notice that the door’s threshold is below the basement beltcourse. That is not traditional or usual. Also the transom is a strange proportion. I bet that once one enters, there are more steps up. I doubt that these houses were originally built with a two-step stoop.
MM, you may be politically clueless, but your taste in architecture is wonderful.
I love this house. It reminds be of countless houses just outside Paris, in fact. It is dignified, and just harkens back to another era. I just love it.
Thank you for pointing it out.