Prospect Lefferts Gardens Brooklyn -- 125 Maple Street History
Photo via Google Maps

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: 125 Maple Street, corner of Bedford Avenue
Name: Private House
Neighborhood: Lefferts Manor in Prospect Lefferts Gardens (PLG Historic District)
Year Built: 1909
Architectural Style: Renaissance Revival
Architect: Axel Hedman
Landmarked: Yes

This block of houses is Axel Hedman’s finest residential row. He designed a lot of residential rows, some of which can barely be distinguished from each other, but as the old Southern cooking complement goes, he put his elbow in this one. It is truly different, and truly great rowhouse architecture.

The two corner houses on Bedford Ave, #125 and 126, face each other and form a majestic gateway to the row. This one, #125, is more impressive, mostly because of the ornate glass and iron entryway.

Both houses are limestone clad for the first two stories on the front facade, and pale brick above, and all across the ornamented Bedford Avenue facade. The ornament on these houses is pretty restrained for Hedman, who could slather on the ornament, and appears mostly on the side of the house.

The Mediterranean red roof tiles, and elaborate bracketed cornices, along with the multitude of windows, topped off by the side bay with its beautiful leaded glass casement windows are just gorgeous.

To top it off, the houses even have garages behind them, also with the same tile roofs. And, as per the Lefferts Manor Covenant, all of the houses on this block, including this one, will remain single family residences forever.


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  1. I heard from someone the owner of this house is a woman who owns commercial buildings on Flatbush in PLG. It’s a very well kept house. And huge. A true mansion.

    We’re actually a much faster commute to Manhattan now living in PLG, a full 15-30 minutes faster depending on time of day, than we were in Park Slope when the closest train to us was the heinous R.

  2. The Manor has some stunning homes and this house is a fine example. Of mansion quality (like so many others) it remains intact as a single family dwelling. Kudos to the LM covenant and kudos to MM – nice job!

  3. There are some Mediterranean roof tiles homes in Windsor Terrace that I gave a “thumbs down.” They seemed to unpleasantly contrast with their neighbors. I wonder how much my “thumgs down” was influenced by my seemingly erroneous conclusion that the distinctive Mediterranean roofs were not original.

    I must revisit and re-evaluate.