Building of the Day: 999 Bushwick 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: 999 Bushwick Avenue, corner of Grove Street
Name: Originally Gustav Doerschuck House
Neighborhood: Bushwick
Year Built: 1890
Architectural Style: Romanesque Revival
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: No

This is one of the finest of the brewer’s mansions on Bushwick Ave, built for Gustav Doerschuck. It’s a huge granite and brick pile, meant to impress, with its large tower, bays, bows and ornament.

There is so much house here, that some of the best little details get lost.

There’s a couple of wonderful little eyebrow windows on the top floor in the front, to the left of the tower, a lot of fantastic carved stone detail, all along the roofline, that unusual stone verge board trim in the eaves, in a stylized almost lacey pattern, and the expert detailing in the brickwork of the chimneys, as seen from the Grove St. side.

My favorite is the Viking prow-like stone detail on the very top of the roof. Sadly, back down on earth, a plain Home Depot door was inserted in the front, and the ground floor stone was painted, which it has been for years.

The property is now owned by the Federation of Multicultural Programs, Inc, a social service agency that houses and cares for mentally handicapped clients.

[Photos by Suzanne Spellen]