Building of the Day: 757 Fulton 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: 757 Fulton Street
Name: Habana Outpost/apartments
Neighborhood: Fort Greene
Year Built: 1870’s or very early 1880’s
Architectural Style: Neo-Grec
Architects: Unknown
Landmarked: No

Why chosen: This Neo-Grec building is a great combination of retail and upper apartments, and there are a decent number of these along this stretch of Fulton Street. They are the quintessential Victorian storefront buildings, with interesting cornices, brackets, and a great storefront facade. But the real reason I picked this photograph for the BOTD was to show the variety and history of the neighborhood, as seen from the other side of Fulton Street. There are almost 100 years of building traditions here in this small corner of Fort Greene. Next door at 759, is a small clapboard house/storefront, probably at least ten or twenty years younger than 757. What a contrast in size, showing the growth of Fulton Street, from small wood framed houses and stores, to much larger, more permanent, establishments. In the background on the right are the spires of Lafayette Presbyterian Church, built in 1862, possibly a contemporary of the clapboard storefront. To the left is the side of another Neo-Grec on South Portland, and behind that, the future of the neighborhood, as seen by those building in Fort Greene in the 1920’s. This is the Griffin Apartments, until the condo boom of the last ten years, among the highest residential buildings in the neighborhood. And back next door to the Habana storefront, a lean-to in the empty lot, to cover diners and equipment. From Romanesque to Neo-Grec Revivals, to the Renaissance and back to the most simple of shelters. Brooklyn, in a nutshell.