Building of the Day: 221-225 Hancock Street

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Row houses
Address: 221-225 Hancock Street
Cross Streets: Bedford and Nostrand Avenues
Neighborhood: Bedford Stuyvesant
Year Built: 1885
Architectural Style: Neo Grec
Architect: A. G. Stone/Robert Dixon
Landmarked: No, but part of the calendared Bedford Historic District (2013)

The story: After the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883, development in Bedford was on steroids. The area had enjoyed a relatively quiet existence as a sleepy village, populated by a few rows of new brownstone row houses, wood framed houses and large suburban style villas on large lots. But change was coming fast. By 1885, the city had built the first high school in Brooklyn in Bedford – Girls High School on Nostrand Avenue. This important building meant Bedford had officially arrived, and houses were going up as fast as developers and speculators could build them. One of those busy developers was George H. Stone, whose family company built a fair number of Bedford’s Italianate and Neo-Grec row houses around the area. George Stone owned and built the houses to the designs of A.G. Stone, who was working with accomplished local architect Robert Dixon. This group of three houses in one of many built by them.

Hancock Street has always been one of Bedford’s premier residential streets, and this block is now a mixture of Italianate, Neo-Grec, and Romanesque Revival homes. Montrose Morris’ Renaissance Revival apartment house, called the Renaissance, tops off the eclectic nature of the block. While most of the row houses on this block are flat-faced, these houses with their pointed bays, a Dixon favorite, are quite nice. Neo-Grec architecture is characterized by the incised geometric and floral patterns used as ornamentation in the brownstone. The wooden cornices on these houses are usually quite good, as well, and the wrought iron on the roof of the bays are great. All of that is still very much evident in these houses.

They were marketed to an upper-middle class market, and the houses sold quickly. Although these aren’t huge houses, very often they were home to several generations of extended family. Even people of some means who could have easily bought their own home stayed together. It’s an insight to an intergenerational way of life that has disappeared in much of today’s society. The lead house, number 221, stayed in the same family for over 33 years.

It belonged to William Young, who was the first owner. He was in the ship chandlery business, and had his business near the Red Hook docks. Chandlers supplied ships with operational goods such as rope, lanterns, sailcloth, etc. Mr. Young was very successful, and lived to the grand old age of 84. When he died in 1916, he was sharing the house with his married daughter, Mrs. George Swain, and her children, as well as his own adult sons. One son, Edward, was a victim in a horrible train accident in 1893 in Queens, were dozens died. Luckily for him, he emerged with only minor injuries.

The Swain children were mentioned in the social pages, and at their weddings. In 1919, the house was sold as part of William Young’s estate. A Dr. Lewis P. Addoms lived here in 1922, but by 1944, it had been owned by several other owners, and that year was again being offered for sale. It was now a four family house, which it still is today.

Next door, at 223, this house had two interesting owners. The first was Jack Cassidy, who lived here with his family around the turn of the 20th century. He died in 1906, at his summer home in Ocean Grove, NJ, but the funeral was here at the house. Jack Cassidy’s claim to fame was that he is credited as the inventor of the railroad dining car. The first example of his invention was used on the Pennsylvania Line, between Philadelphia and Baltimore. He was 71 when he died.

A later owner was John Dowd, who owned six Manhattan chain restaurants. He died in 1915, dropping dead of a heart attack in the drug store located in the lobby of Manhattan’s World Building. He was 74. By 1948, the neighborhood was becoming overwhelmingly black, and many of those black homeowners were from the West Indies. A man named Prince A. Codrington from the British West Indies was the owner, that year. He had gone back to the West Indies, died there, and the home was being sold as part of his estate. Several owners later, it’s a four family house, as well.

The third house, number 225 had a much quieter history. One of the first owners was George Lancing Carey, who died in 1892. He was a transportation man, having worked in an unspecified capacity for the Erie Railway, and later, the Old Dominion Steam Line. At his passing, he left a wife and six children. The next owner of the house was a James Lockman. In 1910, he and his wife, they were both in their mid-70s, were sharing the house with their married daughter, son-in-law Augustus Haviland, and their teenage children. The society pages would note the Haviland daughter’s wedding. Augustus Haviland was a well-known lawyer, and son of an ever more prominent lawyer, C. Augustus Haviland. They lived in the house from about 1907 until 1920. Like the other two homes, this house has also seen many owners, and is now a three family house. GMAP

Speaking of Bedford Stuyvesant, the 35th Annual Bedford Stuyvesant House Tour is this weekend, October 19, from 11 pm to 4 pm. This year, they are meeting at a different starting place, so if you are planning to go, please note: The starting place is Boys and Girls High School, at Fulton Street and Utica Avenue, NOT Boys High School, their usual starting spot. The A/C train to Utica Avenue lets you out right there. I hear they have a lot of special houses planned for this 35th anniversary, so go! More information is available on their website:www.brownstonersofbedstuy.org.