Building of the Day: 70 Havemeyer 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: 70 Havemeyer Street, corner of North 5th St. Name: Church of the Annunciation School Neighborhood: Williamsburg Year Built:…
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: 70 Havemeyer Street, corner of North 5th St.
Name: Church of the Annunciation School
Neighborhood: Williamsburg
Year Built: 1889-1893
Architectural Style: Romanesque Revival
Architects: Unknown F.J. Berlenbach, Jr.
Landmarked: No
Why chosen: Look Ma, Williamsburg! This is a great old school and a great introduction to Williamsburg. The school was built by the Church of the Annunciation, which is just across the street, and they also had a convent and an orphan asylum nearby. The church will be covered here at another time, but was founded by German Catholic immigrants who settled much of Williamsburg in the mid 19th century. The congregation started to plan for the school and raise funds in 1889, and the premits were issued in 1893. It was run by the Sisters of St. Dominic, this particular group of Dominican sisters were from Regensburg, Bavaria, and they lived next door in their convent. Their building is now condos. The school was in existence until 1973, and has an alumni website. The building itself is a classic Victorian pile, with large windows, and a very nice corner tower with a turret and bell tower, dormers and some very well done long arched windows. The tower face sports elegant carved signage in Latin with the name of the school. The font is really great, as is the delicate carved ornament. Today the school is an alternative learning center for children and home to the Williamsburg Northside Preschool Annex.
The Greenpoint Smith Gray building is landmarked too – it’s part of the Greenpoint HD.
The Berelenbach House that I mentioned above should also be on the recent landmark list – it was designated at the same time Hecla Iron Works was.
The Smith Gray building – I’d forgotten about that. There is a completely mangled Smith Gray showroom at the intersection of Greenpopint and Manhattan Aves too (all you can really see of the original are some columns).
That stretch of Broadway is great. I don’t like it as much as I did 15 years ago when the same buildings were there and it was wide, empty, and negelected, but I can live with the changes.
The school and the convent next door were both designed by F. J. Berlenbach, Jr. The convent (built for the Sisters of St. Dominic, who were located at the corner of Graham and Montrose) was started in 1889 (NB #522). The school was not started until 1892 (NB #561).
There were two F. J. Berlenbachs – the father, who was a prominent builder and the son, who became an architect. The church (completed in 1870) was certainly not designed by the son – he was 13 at the time of construction. It might have been BUILT by the father – he built other churches, including Most Holy Trinity on Montrose (Frederick Schickel, 1885). It is possible that the father designed the church (the role of builder and architect was pretty fungible back then), but I have not come across any instances where Berlenbach, Sr. was listed as an architect for a building. (The attribution of the church to Berlenbach comes from the AIA Guide.)
BTW – Berlenbach’s house at 174 Meserole Street is a designated landmark. It was constructed in 1887 by the father, after designs by the son.
LPC has actually done a lot of work in North Brooklyn over the past five years. In addition tonyhe Fillmore and Eberhard Faber districts, they have designated the Domino Refinery, Austin Nichols Warehouse (184 Kent, undesignated by David Yassky and the City Council), the little Smith Gray building on Broadway and the Hecla Iron Works (all in Williamsburg) and the Ulmer Brewery in Bushwick. They are in the process of designating St. Paul’s German Evangelical Church on South 5th and Rodney. There are a lot more they could designate, but LPC hasn’t been ignoring us.
As I remember, all four buildings are attributed to Berlenbach, but I don’t remember seeing any primary source material on any of them. The buildings were constructed over a period of 20 to 25 years, so it’s possible that some of those attributions are wrong.
I know Berlenbach did the church, but couldn’t find the architect for the school, at least not in the Eagle.
Dumpy, maybe, but Fillmore Place is quite old (older than most of Brownstone Brooklyn!) and one of the few mostly intact real estate developments from the pre-Civil War period. (Read more here: http://www.wgpa.us/fillmore/)
I’m pretty sure the architect of the Annunciation School is F. J. Berlenbach, but that is working from memory – I’ll see if I can confirm that when I’m home. It is a great building, part of a complex that includes the church itself, the rectory next door (both across Havemeyer from the school) and the convent, which is to the right of school in this photo. It is actually the convent that was converted to condos, sometime in the late 70s or early 80s (I think it was done as a sweat-equity limited-dividend type project). As wine lover said, Williamsburg Northside has their new elementary school here (and yes, they are the owned by the people who own Claremont Prep and some other (maybe charter) schools).
Well, they were deemed interesting enough for the LPC. I find most of Williamsburg pretty dumpy, actually, but that’s part of its charm. Did anyone see the NY Post’s article on what annoys NYers most? Hipsters made the list only in Brooklyn – wonder why? Perhaps we’re the only borough so plagued.
“Actually, Fillmore Place in Williamsburg was landmarked last year (just south of Metropolitan Ave between Driggs and Roebling). ”
The houses on Fillmore Place are pretty dumpy.