Building of the Day: 56 Court Street

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Originally the “Collegiate Building”, now mixed-use commercial/residential
Address: 56 Court Street
Cross Streets: Joralemon Street and Aitken Place
Neighborhood: Brooklyn Heights border/Downtown Brooklyn
Year Built: 1926-1927
Architectural Style: Neo-Gothic
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: Yes, part of the Brooklyn Skyscraper District (2012)

The story: Court Street has a fascinating history, and is one of Brooklyn’s most important streets. In the 19th century, the blocks that run through Downtown, and make up Brooklyn Heights’ northern border were a mixture of commercial and residential buildings. This address was part of a group of mid-19th century four and five story brownstone buildings that had retail stores on the ground floors and residential or office space above.

The blocks between Joralemon and Atlantic had all kinds of things going on in them, including theaters, assembly halls, offices, shops and rooming houses. The two buildings that stood on this location prior to this one had a very musical heritage. This address was home to the Mollenhauer Conservatory of Music in 1874, as well as Smith and Bunce Pianos, later in the century, and in 1907, Muller’s Orchestra. There were also rooms for rent. In 1921, a distraught man who worked as a plumber, and who rented a furnished room here, committed suicide by inhaling gas from a tube. He left a note to his mother saying that life was not worth the struggle.

Soon afterwards, the building was sold and torn down. Court Street was changing rapidly, especially up the block, near Montague. The old Victorian-era office buildings and banks were falling one by one, replaced my new, modern and tall skyscraper office buildings. Buildings nearby and across the street were also being replaced by taller buildings.

Neither the LPC nor I were able to find the developer or the architect of this building. He designed it in the popular Collegiate Gothic style which was being used in Brooklyn by school architects like C.B.J. Snyder. Henry Oser had just finished his beautiful Neo-Gothic Central Building around the corner on Joralemon in 1925, and the Neo-Gothic Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce was in the middle of construction the same time this building was going up. The Court Street area was Gothic skyscraper heaven.

Perhaps the unknown architect chose this style also because of its earliest tenant. It was dubbed the “Collegiate Building” and among its first tenants was the St. John’s College School of Law. The Law School had been established in 1925, and was housed a couple of doors down at the Terminal Building at 50 Court Street. They soon needed more room, and rented space here for overflow classrooms. During this time, the college was building a dedicated Law School building at 96 Schermerhorn, on the corner of Schermerhorn and Boerum. They moved over to this building in 1928 and stayed until moving to Queens in 1972.

The first retail tenant, who took the ground floor and the window space above it, was a men’s clothing store called Coppinger & Biggs. Perhaps they figured the law students would want to dress the part. Over the years, the building became office space for many lawyers and law firms, helping to establish the phrase “Court Street Lawyer.” Legal Aid was in here until 1933. Other businesses had offices here, as well, including at least one Brooklyn branch of a Manhattan brokerage firm. The ground floor retail space also had several incarnations, including a restaurant, which from its advertising, was also in the old building as well. By the 1940s, there was an upholstery shop in here too; the ad doesn’t mention what floor it was on.

At some point near the turn of the century, 2000, that is, the building changed hands, and later became condos, along with the ground floor retail. The date this was done, and the number of units in the building is not listed on Property Shark. From listings on Google, there appear to be apartments of varying sizes and configurations in the building. Today, 56 Court is a part of the Brooklyn Skyscraper Historic District, designated in 2012.

(Photo:Christopher D. Brazee for Landmarks Preservation Commission)

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