Building of the Day: 275 Clinton 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: 275 Clinton Avenue, corner of DeKalb Avenue Name: The Clinton Apartments Neighborhood: Clinton Hill Year Built: 1897 Architectural…
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: 275 Clinton Avenue, corner of DeKalb Avenue
Name: The Clinton Apartments
Neighborhood: Clinton Hill
Year Built: 1897
Architectural Style: Neo-Classical
Architect: Edward Betts
Landmarked: Yes
This large, elegant 5 story building is one of the earliest, and arguably, the finest luxury apartment building built in Clinton Hill.
It is configured in an E shape, and originally had only 30 apartments, two per floor in each of the three wings. The apartments would have been huge, and had all of the accoutrements of an entire home in each apartment, all in a very sedate and elegant setting.
The DeKalb side of the building is the only place where exuberance ran wild, with caryatid columns supporting a Mediterranean roof and a bronze and glass vestibule.
The architect and owner, Edward Betts, is the same architect who designed the Polhemus Place limestones, in Park Slope, featured last week.
The Clinton, which on the inside has the feel of an apartment building in Cleveland or Boston, is covered in the Brooklyn Eagle of Sunday, June 05, 1898. The article includes floor plans.
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If “Vinca” would correspond with me with how his information (above) contradicts the post of “Minard Lafever” I would be grateful. I don’t quite follow it, but may be misreading the post.
Christopher Gray
Streetscapes@NYTimes.com
Montrose:
In the 1950s, when I was a youngster in Brooklyn, this was still a “good” building.
Living there were my parents’ friends who owned a Lincoln convertible: black, red leather interiors, white “rag” top and white-wall tires.
Man, what is ever great to tool around Brooklyn in that thing!
Best moments: Pulling into our street in Crown Heights and seeing all my pals stop dead in their tracks, their jaws dropping!
As for the building, I recall hearing about a “society” scandal that occurred around the turn of the century: a bachelor living with his mother; the disappearance of a young girl; a fortune in missing cash and jewels.
Not quite the Dakota. But for Brooklyn, pretty good.
Sounds good Minard, but not reality-based. For factual information on early co-ops, including co-ops that survived the Depression, see this article from Habitat Magazine: http://bit.ly/aH4kOK
Rob, those SUVs cost about a year and a half of your take home pay. You could never afford to own one. Good thing you hate them.
The Dakota was built as a rental building. Many of the first coops, from the 1920’s, failed during the great depression and reverted to rental status. Modern coop legislation dates to circa 1950. I would guess the Dakota became a co-op sometime in the 1950’s or 1960’s.
The oldest co-op that is still a co-op is on Gramercy Park East. It was one of only a handful that survived the 1930’s and then re-geared after 1950.
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Lovely photos, they show the building and its setting well.
except for those fugly SUV’s. it wouldnt be so bad if the cars looked nice, but todays cars are SOOOOOOOOO ugly and fat.
*rob*
I think the Dakota may be the oldest co-op in NYC; it was built as one. My info is from ACRIS (NYC database)/PropertyShark.
there are a bunch of bldgs built in the late 1800’s that were coops from the being vs. the more popular conversion route. so unless this is one of those, no way it’s one of the oldest coops in nyc