Building of the Day: 22-24 Brevoort 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: 22-24 Brevoort Place, corner of Bedford Place Name: Row Houses Neighborhood: Bedford Stuyvesant Year Built: 1860’s 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: 22-24 Brevoort Place, corner of Bedford Place Name: Row Houses Neighborhood: Bedford Stuyvesant Year Built: 1860’s Architectural Style: Second Empire, transitioning into Neo-Grec Architects: possibly Amzi Hill Landmarked: No Why chosen: Brevoort Place is a small one block street sandwiched between Atlantic Ave and Fulton St, Bedford and Franklin Avenues. Perhaps because of its location, it has managed to avoid many of the devastating changes that plagued nearby blocks of Bed Stuy. A walk down this block shows almost intact rows of Italianate and Ne-Grec brownstones, most with intact stoops, and cornices. Then we have these beauties. These large five story Second Empire homes were probably built at the same time as the smaller brownstones, but were built to impress. They are in remarkable shape, with intact facades and rooflines, except for the loss of the stoop at 24 Brevoort. They are a generous 25′ wide, the widest houses on the block, and are attractively ornamented with incised lines and trim transitioning them into the Neo-Grec period. I’ve attributed them to Amzi Hill, who was quite active in the area, at this time and probably designed many of the smaller brownstones, as well. Hill’s distinctive “signature” is his decorative brickwork on the sides of his corner houses, and very similar examples from the same time period can be found all throughout Bed Stuy, Clinton Hill, and other neighborhoods, in buildings that we know he designed. The old town of Bedford centered around this area, and in the 1860’s, this was the center of commerce and trade. Perhaps these houses belonged to wealthy merchants or businessmen. They are a fine reminder of this area’s rich history and this block is one of Bed Stuy’s hidden treasures. 
I used to live on this block for at least 15 years. I love that this house added some memories of the distant pass. However, the block is not so unknown. Many people use it as a short cut to Atlantic or Bedford so the traffic is dreadful and dangerous. Also, the homeless shelter across the street on Atlantic was a pit for rapist, molesters, criminal minded. You name it. I always got my car window busted or the neighbors as well. I don’t normally dump on Bed Stuy because we have a smorgasbord of you all that do but I couldn’t wait to buy my first home in Stuyvesant Heights.
MM: another clue would be the city directories, was this the home of one family in the 1880’s, or several?
Physical clues can be found in the interior moldings, is the crown molding on the parlor floor similar to those above? Is the fireplace mantle on the parlor floor similar to those above? If the answers to those questions is yes, then I bet you dollars to donuts this was not built to house a single family. Like the Alhambra, the Renaissance, and other grand apartment buildings of the following decades, the corner lots in residential neighborhoods were sometimes reserved for apartments. The Victorians had a good grasp of city planning. They knew that some people preferred apartments -either temporarily, or in retirement, or when starting out, and provided that option. It was very urbane really.
Minard, I’ll have to go back and look at the back of the houses. There may have been an extension or conservatory, and they removed it. Perhaps the brickwork will have ghosts.
You are probably right, grand army. Since there aren’t good records, we sometimes go by appearance, and in doing so, I probably got some dates wrong. The smaller houses are earlier for sure. Of course the city records are no help, they say the house was built in 1930. Must have been the time of one of their “great fires.”
These houses are either by one of three architects. Amzi Hill, Robert Dixon or Isaac Reynolds. this is a great block I often call it the step child of Bedford Stuyvesant. Once the school and the church came down I think this block changed for the worse.
Beauty. Too bad no stoop.
***Bid half off peak comps***
Was Neo-Grec architecture unique to New York? You don’t seem to see it in other parts of the country. It shows up in decorative objects like light fixtures, furniture and wallpaper, but not as an entire architectural composition.
Very often the iron cresting on these houses were donated to metal drives for the “war effort” of the first or second world war. I actually do not think that wrought iron could have been that useful to the war effort but it was the thought that counted.
were the mansard-like top floors added later or original? Gorgeous!