Building of the Day: 245 Flatbush Avenue

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Commercial/residential building
Address: 245 Flatbush Avenue
Cross Streets: Triangle of Bergen, Flatbush, Sixth Avenue
Neighborhood: Prospect Heights
Year Built: unknown, probably early 1890s
Architectural Style: Renaissance Revival
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: No

The story: The intersections and criss-crossings of streets along Flatbush Avenue have afforded the opportunity for several of these triangular shaped buildings. This one, known by most as the “Yummy Taco Building” or, if you’ve been here longer, “the Tiger Sign Company Building” is probably my favorite. Like New York’s most famous wedge shaped building, the Flatiron Building, this little building takes full use of the triangular shaped lot. The original owner got as much bang for his buck as possible, which goes to show that no parcel of land in New York is worthless.

Try as I may, I was unable to find out on line who the architect was, or the original use of the building, but it seems to have been a three family dwelling above a retail or office storefront. That is what it is listed at now, as well. The square footage in each unit is about 950 sf. That may have been more than enough living or office space for one H.E. Raymond, a young man linked to this address in 1893.

H.E. Raymond was one of the young enthusiasts who took to the new sport of bicycling as if it were a religion. From 1883 until 1898, his name appears frequently in the Brooklyn Eagle in conjunction with his bicycle club, the Brooklyn Bicycling Club. He was treasurer, then president of the club during this time. Bicycling was a sport of the upwardly mobile at the time, as the new contraptions were expensive, and Brooklyn’s yuppie generations of that time took to it in the same way bicycling has made an impact on our city today.

In the last twenty years of the 1800s, young upper-middle class men created cycling clubs which would go on long cycling trips, participate in organized road races, and meet to socialize. The Brooklyn Cycling Club was one of the largest clubs. Other clubs included their closest rivals, the Kings County Wheelmen, and there were also the Brooklyn Ramblers, the Prospect Wheelmen, and many, many others. The more well-off clubs had official clubhouses, including the Brooklyn Bicycle Club, which headquartered in a brownstone at 62 Hanson Place. The truly dedicated took part in long bike hikes to Montauk, or Bear Mountain, or even Philadelphia. Considering these bikes were one speed, and not all that comfortable, and the roads were not that good, either; that’s quite a feat in of itself. They also competed in track and distance races, and were quite a popular, and often reported sport of the day. Some of the racers went on to become professionals, who were paid top prizes for winning.

H.E. Raymond apparently made a career out of biking. He was elected as the president of the newly founded League of American Wheelmen’s racing board, where he was a spokesman for the League’s racing events. In 1896, he had become the vice president of the Sterling Cycle Works, and the Eagle noted that he was on his way to Europe to represent the League of American Wheelmen at the International races in Copenhagen. It’s undetermined how long H.E. lived here, or if he used the location only as an office for the club. At any rate, his is an interesting story, one of the thousands of unknown tales taking place in our Brooklyn buildings. GMAP