Building of the Day: 52 Livingston Street

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Row house
Address: 52 Livingston Street
Cross Streets: Court and Clinton Streets
Neighborhood: Brooklyn Heights
Year Built: 1846
Architectural Style: Gothic Revival
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: Yes, part of Brooklyn Heights HD (1965)

The story: This delightful Gothic Revival home is one of the joys of Brooklyn Heights. It was originally only two stories and a basement and, according to Clay Lancaster, in his groundbreaking book on Brooklyn Heights, was the home of the widow Matilda Brown, in 1846. Lancaster goes on to note that the very Romantic style Gothic ironwork, cornice, porch, and fencing was probably put on in 1854, to complement the Packer School, which was being built across the street at that time.

Greek Revival architecture provides a perfect blank slate for this sensitive kind of upgrading, and it was done well. The Gothic tracery here is delicate, yet very present, allowing the building itself to wear it well, and not be bogged down by too much, or too heavy a hand. Remarkably, it has survived for all these years, lasting through changes in styles, wartime iron drives, and theft and vandalism. At some point, a third story was added, in a very sympathetic addition that does not detract from the rest of the building.

One of the residents of 52 Livingston over its long life was Dr. Mary DeBooij Ingram, a pioneering female physician who died at the age of 81, in 1932. She had a fascinating and remarkable life, worthy of a movie. She was born in Scotland, the daughter of a minister, whose church was the Cathedral in Dunblane, Scotland. She received her education in Edinburgh, London, Paris and Dresden. She left Paris to become governess to Sir Charles Aitchison, the Lt. Governor of India.

Returning from India, she went to visit her brother in Montreal, and somehow ended up in Brooklyn, where she entered the Brooklyn Training School for Nurses. That was followed by a degree in 1893 from the University of Michigan, in medicine. She interned in the Hospital for Women and Children, in Boston, and then returned to Brooklyn. She practiced medicine in Brooklyn for over forty years.

The New York Times, in their obituary, noted that Dr. Ingram was a member of the AMA, the Brooklyn Women’s Club, the Medical Society of the State of New York, and the Medical Society of the County of Kings. She also loved music and literature. I can see someone with her wealth of experience and travel in this house. She must have been quite the lady in this refined Gothic cottage. GMAP