Building of the Day: 75 New York Avenue

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Private House
Address: 75 New York Avenue, corner of Pacific Street
Neighborhood: Crown Heights North
Year Built: Mid 1870’s
Architectural Style: Italianate/Second Empire
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: No.

The story: This corner mansion was originally the home of the Wood family, whose connections to the house first appear in the Brooklyn Eagle in 1878. John R. Wood, the family patriarch, was a real estate and properties lawyer. He was socially well connected, served on charity boards, and he and his family appear in the social pages of the paper. Mr. and Mrs. Wood had at least four sons, most with quite exotic first names. The youngest, Hildreth, died as a child of 12, in 1878, when he was playing in a nearby construction site, and fell, fracturing his skull. Happier days occur for the family much later, as they give parties in honor of the engagement of their oldest son, Henry Hayes Wood, to Miss Mattie Adams, in the last years of the 1890’s. One party, given by brother, Rawson Wood, had a farm theme, and the parlors of the house were strewn with hay, and decorated with farm implements, foliage and accessories. I’m sure the maids weren’t too happy about that one. The remaining brother, St. John, also celebrated, as his brother’s wedding took place a only a short block up the street, at the new Methodist Church on the corner of Dean and New York. John R. Wood died in 1898, and the house went to the new Mr. and Mrs. Henry Hayes Wood in 1902. When Mrs. Wood gave her first event, the Eagle noted: “The old mansion, one of the old fangled capacious homes of 35 years ago, was built first for comfort. The article also mentioned the gas newel post light on the parlor floor. Fast forwarding, to the present, the house may seem familiar to Brownstoners, because it’s been on and off the market several times over the last ten years, and has been featured here often. Much has changed since the Wood’s owned it. The house originally had an Italianate wooden cornice running just below the mansard roof, which can be still seen in a 1940’s photograph. It also had a porch which ran across the front. By the 1940’s, that porch had been enclosed with French doors, and a balcony had been built above it. All of that is now gone, which leaves the house looking rather stripped and naked. The family that owns it now rescued it from total abandonment in the 1970’s, and they did a lot of work, before getting on in years themselves. The house is now four apartments, but much period detail is said to still remain, including the gas newel post light. If and when the house ever sells, hopefully the new owners will restore the cornice and the porch. It will give the grand dame some much deserved respect.

(Photo: NY Public Library, circa 1940)