Building of the Day: 495-503 4th Street

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Row houses
Address: 495-503 4th Street
Cross Streets: 7th and 8th avenues
Neighborhood: Park Slope
Year Built: 1891
Architectural Style: Romanesque Revival
Architect: John T. Allan
Other Work by Architect: Two other groups of houses on this block, as well as others in vicinity, and in other parts of Brooklyn
Landmarked: Yes, part of Park Slope HD (1973)

The story: Architect and developer John T. Allan was in partnership with his brother, James G. Allan, and their partner, Nathaniel Proskey. Their speculative real estate development firm was named Allan Brothers & Co. and they developed property in Park Slope, as well as in Williamsburg, Eastern Bedford, Clinton Hill, Crown Heights North, and East New York. For a while, business was booming, as all of Brooklyn developed rapidly during the last decades of the 19th century.

The Allan brothers were from Brantford, Ontario, where John Allan learned carpentry and architecture, both in school, and from his father, a builder. After getting established as an architect and builder in Brantford, he left Canada, moved to Boston, then Manhattan, and finally, in 1884, to Brooklyn. Here, he took a position as manager of the International Tile and Trimmings Company, a job he held for three years. By 1888, he had started building speculative houses of his own design and over the next ten or so years, racked up a respectable amount of housing, with a great many of them in Park Slope. He built flats on 5th Street, fifteen houses here on 4th Street, three on 3rd, and four on Carroll, between 8th and Prospect Park West, and nineteen houses on 7th Street, near 8th Avenue.

It’s not documented when his brother and Proskey joined him, but the firm went on to build and develop flats buildings and houses in Brooklyn Heights, Crown Heights, Clinton Hill, East New York and Williamsburg. Allan designed the Heffley School, a secretarial school that was a part of Pratt Institute’s campus, and remodeled many existing houses on Montague Street, in the Heights. Allan also designed buildings in Manhattan, and was responsible for an office building on Duane Street, as well as a stable on the Upper West Side, a couple of private houses, and a hotel on 47th Street, near Broadway. Not a bad track record at all.

Today’s buildings are a five building group of row houses that add to the streetscape of the Slope, a place where all kinds of architectural imaginings of the late 19th century took place. This group was the first group they built on this block, and were built in 1891. One of the other buildings they built on this block, 513 4th Street, was an early BOTD. They are categorized Romanesque Revival, although they are not as pure in style as other examples by Allan on this block. They do make great use of the orange colored brick that was used by several architects in the area, most notably CPH Gilbert.

The houses alternate in an ABABA pattern, and are quite elegant in their simplicity, using the brick to great advantage, especially as support for the alternating gables and dormers, all once supported by Mediterranean tile roofs. A strong horizontal line is established by the brownstone bands that link the doorways and parlor floor window transoms on the “B” houses, contrasted by a vertical presence in the “A” houses, as your eye is immediately drawn to the roofline and shed roofs. There are also some wonderfully whimsical down spouts on the facades, with terra cotta faces. Love it!

Unfortunately, things did not go well for Allan Brothers & Co. In 1894, they filed for bankruptcy, and had to sell off a lot of holdings, almost all of which were in Williamsburg and Eastern Bedford. In 1895, John Allan and his wife lost their infant daughter, Gertrude, who died only a few months after birth. She was buried in Brantford, Ontario. By 1902, the brothers were selling off prime real estate in Park Slope, but seemed to have stabilized. John Allan’s oldest son, Jackson, went into banking, perhaps in reaction to the ups and downs of the real estate market. Whatever happened to the families, Allan Brothers & Co. left behind a substantial body of work. The houses on this block designed by John Allan add to the attractiveness of this prime Park Slope streetscape. GMAP