Building of the Day: 133-137 Bainbridge Street

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Row houses
Address: 133-137 Bainbridge Street
Cross Streets: Stuyvesant and Lewis Avenues
Neighborhood: Stuyvesant Heights
Year Built: 1892
Architectural Style: Queen Anne/Romanesque Revival
Architect: Magnus Dahlander
Other Buildings by Architect: the entire rest of the row on this side of the block, also nearby 232-280 Decatur Street. Other houses in Bedford Stuyvesant, Crown Heights North, Prospect Heights, and Park Slope.
Landmarked: Yes, part of Stuyvesant Heights HD (1971)

The story: This is just the tail-end of the entire block of superior houses Magnus Dahlander designed for builder Walter F. Clayton, in 1892. 73-139 Bainbridge Street is the longest continuous group of houses designed by one architect in the entire Stuyvesant Heights historic district. Amazingly, there’s not a bad house, or totally repeated house, in the bunch. This row flows from one façade to another like a harmonious wave, with Romanesque Revival, Queen Anne and Renaissance Revival houses, in varying colors of stone, and with various ornament and trim represented in the group.

Dahlander has special fun with the rooflines, which are not as subject to the conventions of necessity as the rest of the houses. Here, mansard slate shingled roofs have fantastic towers, turrets and dormers, with oddly angled bays and whimsical turrets. Copper roofs have patinated, creating beautiful and unusual colors, highlighting details and ornament.

All this is from a Swedish architect who came to America in 1888, with an established career in Sweden. He stayed only eight years, and then went back to Sweden, where his career was even more successful, and he is a household name amongst Swedish architects. In the eight years he was here, he produced a huge amount of work, creating some of the most eclectic and interesting buildings in Brooklyn. He often worked with fellow Swede, Axel Hedman on both residential and civic projects, and the latter for the Swedish community, in the form of hospitals and old age homes. He also worked in partnership with Frederick B. Langston, another talented Bedford architect, and their homes can be found on Hancock Street in Bedford Stuyvesant, as well as in Crown Heights and Prospect Heights.

We don’t know why Dahlander decided to go back to Sweden, but he certainly left great work here. This group, as well as the group he did with Axel Hedman, only a block away, on Decatur Street, represent some of the finest row house architecture in all of Brooklyn. He came, he conquered, and he went home. Wow. GMAP