Building of the Day: 839 Putnam Avenue

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: 839 Putnam Avenue, between Malcolm X and Patchen
Name: Private House
Neighborhood: Bedford Stuyvesant
Year Built: Unknown
Architectural Style: Greek Revival
Architects: Unknown
Landmarked: No

Why chosen: No fancy mansion here, but a simple and roomy home. What caught my eye was the size and scale. Two stories, a wide 20′ in the main house, a good sized yard, and a delightful addition that still sports the original fishscale and shaped shingles. A comparison of the two cornices would lead one to believe this addition was put on perhaps 10 or 20 years later. Not a lot of detail, which makes what exists stand out: the shingle patterns, the cornices and the wrought iron fencing with the spoked wheel design. It’s now a two family, and I would have loved to have seen the original door. This is way east in Bed Stuy, an area that did not get the extensive re-building that points west received, so there are still a lot of frame houses and earlier Greek Revivals out here. I really like this one.