Building of the Day: 1574 Bergen Street
Brooklyn, one building at a time. Name: Row House Address: 1574 Bergen Street, between Utica and Troy Avenues Neighborhood: Weeksville section of Crown Heights Year Built: Unknown Architectural Style: Italianate Architect: Unknown Landmarked: No The story: These attractive clapboard, or in this case, shingled, houses appear here and there throughout Brownstone Brooklyn. I always enjoy…
Brooklyn, one building at a time.
Name: Row House
Address: 1574 Bergen Street, between Utica and Troy Avenues
Neighborhood: Weeksville section of Crown Heights
Year Built: Unknown
Architectural Style: Italianate
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: No
The story: These attractive clapboard, or in this case, shingled, houses appear here and there throughout Brownstone Brooklyn. I always enjoy seeing them, as they represent rare survivors, and are more often than not, the first houses in neighborhoods to be covered over with aluminum or vinyl siding, asbestos siding or some kind of stone faced stucco. They often lose their cornices, hooded window cases, and porches. Rarely will you find an intact row of them, usually, like here, there will be one, perhaps two in the row that are whole, or almost so. This particular house is in the Weeksville section of Crown Heights, far to the east of the wealthy and upper middle class area near Nostrand Avenue. These were always working class homes. This one is remarkably original, with fish scale shingles, and mostly intact brackets and dentils on the window frames. The porch is also intact, featuring standard catalog issue, turned wood gingerbread, in great shape. These are classic vernacular Brooklyn houses, often pooh-poohed for their ordinary-ness, but a vital part of the pantheon of Brooklyn architecture.
(Photo: Property Shark)
So, Benson, the neighborhood in which this house sits, is one of Brooklyn’s poorest. No elites here. Just house proud people who are probably quite fine with their humble abode, as opposed to the NYCHA housing just down the block. There you have density, tall buildings, relatively new construction…..all that good stuff, right? Besides, this house is still in near original condition, at least on the outside, after 100 plus years. Amazing how it managed to duck that whole firetrap thing.
DitmasSnark- ha. thanks for that, I actually laughed out loud.
(you’ve also incited me to make my first post. no more lurking for me!)
Pretty sure we’re doing okay population wise, Benson even if Marty and Bloomie are unhappy with the census. NYC and Brooklyn by default are still huge urban centers compared to what.. your beloved Cleveland and Palm Beach?
yess! Awesome frame.
I’m well along on Minard’s trend of liking frames more than brownstones. Not only because that frame was the kind we could afford. Underappreciated little gems. The funny thing is that people think they are more humble, but typically they have the same proportions, layouts, parts catalog moldings, and plaster that all but the richest of brownstones would have.
Mopar- feel your pain. We finally did our outside last year, and only the front. Whether or not it made us exceed the resale value, I’ll tell you that it makes the house seem like it’s worth paying the mortgage on (compared to the old dented pink aluminum siding) and it changed the feel of our entire block.
I’m pretty sure you could get most of the front facade, cornice and molding detail for around 20K- but not windows. However- you pointed out that it is easier to do the windows with full new windows rather than replacements when you do the facade.
^^^ Must be fun at parties ^^^
By the way, our state used to be known as “The Empire State” for a reason, and our state motto was “Excelsior”.
Looking at this house, neither of those thoughts come to mind.
Firetrap.
The fact that it is still standing is testament to the no-growth policies of New York.
I’m still trying to get my mind around this fact: when I was a kid, New York State was #1 in population in the country, and the population of the US was 200 Million. Fifty years later, the population of the US has grown by 100 Million,about 50% and New York State’s has grown by less than one million. In 50 years, it has captured virtually NONE of that growth. It will soon be #4 in the country.
Pathetic. The sign of a loser culture and policies. The elite are happy, however. They can play with their hobby horses, like this house.
mopar, you don’t need an architect if you have a good GC who has a good carpentry/millworking sub.
The most challenging piece is the door hood. That’s where a good millwork company can help you and your GC fabricate the pieces.
You may want to make the repetitive pieces out of a moldable material. they are then neailed onto the wooden armature and everything is painted in the end. Its all carpeting 102 if not 101.
Minard, would I contact an architect? Putting up clapboard could run $10,000 or $20,000 or so for the facade. But what would the gingerbread details run and who would make them? Any carpenter? Thank you!
Also there is the additional issue of windows. If you’re putting on a new facade and you don’t have the original windows, you may as well put in wood Marvins and do it “brick to brick” (not that there is any brick) — that’s an additional $15,000 for the front alone, $30,000 for the whole house.
In the case of our particular house, we can’t put another penny into it or it we’ll exceed the market value. We also don’t have any pennies. But you know, if we did….