Building of the Day: 187 Hicks 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: 187 Hicks Street, corner of Pierrepont Name: Originally Florence Court Apartment Hotel Neighborhood: Brooklyn Heights Year Built: 1901…
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: 187 Hicks Street, corner of Pierrepont
Name: Originally Florence Court Apartment Hotel
Neighborhood: Brooklyn Heights
Year Built: 1901
Architectural Style: French Renaissance Revival
Architect: Frank S. Lowe
Landmarked: Yes
This was one of Brooklyn’s most exclusive apartment hotels, built on the site of the McLean mansion, one the the Heights’ grand old piles, at the turn of the century. It was built by Louis J. Horowitz, a developer who specialized in high end Heights apt buildings; he was also the owner of the Montague Apartment Hotel.
This one was built large and appointed well, and was sold out before it even opened. Two ground floor apartments with street entrances were reserved for doctors’ offices.
The reception room was enormous, with areas for reading and writing, supplied with newspapers and stationery, a separate Turkish room, where men could smoke, and plenty of comfortable seating for residents and guests. The top floor had a private restaurant for tenants and their guests, with an option for room service.
A dedicated telephone in each apt. connected tenants to the restaurant. The basement held the janitor’s office, large laundry and drying rooms, and bathing facilities for the servants. Maid service and hall boys, to run errands, were always available.
Each of the seven rooms, plus bathroom, apartments had long distance capable telephones, electricity, hot water, and a private mail chute. The kitchen had porcelain sinks, a refrigerator, and a gas range. The bathroom had the newest fixtures, open nickel plumbing, and was tiled throughout.
There was a separate servant’s toilet. The public rooms were finished in the finest woods, oak, cherry, walnut, and had fireplaces in the dining room and parlors. The owners also offered the possibility of renting two apartments and joining them together.
This has always been an impressive building, especially on the Hicks St. facade, with the wings adjoined with decorative buttresses, bridges, and Beaux-Arts ornament. Today it is a condo building, and made the news in the last few years, when a well known actor bought an apartment here.
[Photos by Suzanne Spellen]
FlashlightWorthy is correct. I’ve lived in this building for many years. It’s theoretically possible that one of the top floor apartments was originally used as a “restaurant” but if anything, it was more likely to have been used as a kitchen and service center for residents who wanted meals served in their apartments. Each of the 2d-7th floors have the same layouts, and while the building was “renovated” when it was purchased by a developer and co-op’ed, it’s just not possible for the 7th floor to have been used as described. Further, it is not correct that all apartments have or had 7 rooms. The B & C lines certainly do not have the space. This is a good lesson in not believing everything you read – ever heard of puffery? It was no less of a technique of real estate developers in 1901 than it is today!
Many buildings were reconfigured during the Depression. Maybe this one was too.
The Elvis head always scared me as well! Is it still there? Maybe I’ve just gotten used to it.
Oh, the description of the hotel did note that there were apartments as well as the restaurant on the top floor, it is a huge building. Perhaps the apartments you are familiar with were ones that had always been there.
My information is from an article in the Brooklyn Eagle, written just before the building opened. They described in great detail all of the amenities that the building had going for it, including multiple fireplaces in each apartment, the restaurant,etc.
Over the last 100 years, the place could have changed dramatically on the inside. What appealed to people in 1901 probably didn’t appeal to very many of them 50 years later, and the building could have been completely refigured one or more times over the years, and it would still look plenty old. Unfortunately, I do not have access to records that go back that far.
Ok, it’s a co-op. My bad. And you were right, I was referring to Paul Giamatti.
I lived in that building for 2 years about a decade ago and a good friend still lives there. I have to say, most of what you write doesn’t ring true with my experience there or the floorplan.
it’s a co-op, not a condo.
I don’t know how a restaurant ever could have been on the top floor — the apartments up there have the *exact* same layout and details as the rest of the building. I suppose at some point the building could have been cleared out and completely reworked but that seems unlikely. I’m not sure how there was ever more than 1 fireplace per unit as the only apparent chimney is on the SW corner of the building — giving only 1 fireplace per floor, let alone 2 per unit.
Oh, and the actor is Paul Giamatti — he bought the apartment directly above my old one.
Interesting this is the BOTD, did anyone else notice that a 3BDR in this building recently went for more than 20% off asking (972K v. 1.25M). Anyone know the story behond this, seems odd for this neighborhood that has low 3 BDR supply and high demand
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/building/187-hicks-street-brooklyn
The building is Co-Op, and the famous actor is Burt Reynolds.
I haven’t noticed it recently, but one of the ground floor windows on Hicks Street used to contain a lifelike bust of Elvis that would scare the bejesus out of me every time I walked by. It was just above eye level and would appear to be staring right down at you if you happened to look in the window.