Building of the Day: 1090 Greene 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: 1090 Greene Ave, corner of Goodwin Place Name: Former Henry C. Bohack house Neighborhood: Bushwick Year Built: late…
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: 1090 Greene Ave, corner of Goodwin Place
Name: Former Henry C. Bohack house
Neighborhood: Bushwick
Year Built: late 1870’s, early 1880’s
Architectural Style: Italianate
Architects: Unknown
Landmarked: No
This is a handsome home, a vanishing remnant of the days when Brooklyn was filled with wood framed Italianate houses. There are great details here: the columns, and entryway, the finely carved cornice, and the splendid window frames and bays.
It’s now, in part, the Lighthouse Church of God, but was once the home of Henry C. Bohack, the founder of the Bohack’s Supermarket chain. He opened his first store on Fulton Street in 1887, and the chain, at its height in the 1940’s, had 740 stores in Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island, employing over 3,000 people.
Henry Bohack died in 1931, but the stores went on for several more generations. In the late ’60’s, they tried to grow out of financial problems, expanding into Westchester, and elsewhere, but the effort failed big time and the chain went bankrupt in the 1970’s.
Many of their stores were sold to Daitch Shopwell, which became Food Emporium. Anyone who grew up in NYC before that time remembers Bohack’s, as their stores were literally, everywhere.
As for this house, few in the neighborhood now know the Bohack’s name, but the house remains as a fine example of residential architecture in a neighborhood with an eclectic mixture of architectural styles and a rich history. They need historic designation protection.
Thanks to Kevin Walsh of Forgotten NY, for a very well put together, and fascinating walking tour of Bushwick yesterday. The group was an interesting, eclectic group of people, and we all followed Kevin through the heat of the day, and learned a lot about Bushwick. It was great.
[Photos by Suzanne Spellen]
Someone once told me that the supermarket on 7th Ave. and Carroll St. in Park Slope (a Key Food for as long as i can remember) used to be a Bohack back in the day.
There was a Bohack’s on the corner of Henry and Love Lane in Brooklyn Heights til the late ’70’s, pre-Dag’s, current site of the CVS.
LowerUWS, yes, those are the houses I mean. They are exceptional, in my opinion.
Mopar and Montrose, do you mean the houses on Linden, just below Bushwick? Those houses look cool. If it’s not the Linden houses, could you tell us which row you mean? Thanks!
This looks a lot like that yellow house in Fort Greene or Clinton Hill, I think on Lafayette, also built on a corner lot.
MM, are the best historic resources contiguous on Bushwick Avenue? That would be necessary for a district, as opposed to individual, designation. I used to drive Bushwick Avenue fairly often and my recollection is the grand buildings are interspersed with the less grand.
No, not all of them, but there is certainly room for a Bushwick Ave. historic district. There are enough buildings on Bushwick and some of the side streets to merit a district. Granted, some of the homes have been radically altered, but a lot of them haven’t, and it would behoove us to protect them before they get remuddled like their neighbors. At this point, there is nothing to prevent that. Some of the side streets, which no one notices while gaping at the mansions, have really, really good houses. Not to mention a wealth of really good sacred architecture.
Montrose, what needs historic designation protection? All the houses in Bushwick? The wooden houses? I’ve often wondered about historic protection but the vast majority of houses in this area have been sadly altered, probably because so many were wood and were covered over in siding.
This is one of two or three in the area I’ve seen with original wood siding. It’s in stellar condition. The others are on the verge of collapse.
Mopar, I absolutely love that group of houses you’re talking about, and want to see if I can find out anything before I post on them. I think they are among the most beautiful groups of houses anywhere in Brooklyn.
There will be more, trickled in over the next weeks. I try to keep the neighborhoods varied throughout the week.