Building of the Day: 617-623 3rd Street

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Row houses
Address: 617-623 3rd Street
Cross Streets: 8th Avenue and Prospect Park West
Neighborhood: Park Slope
Year Built: 1910
Architectural Style: Renaissance Revival
Architect: Axel Hedman
Other Buildings by Architect: other rowhouses on 3rd St, PPW, Maple St in PLG, Ocean on the Park Houses, PLG, Dean Street, St. Marks Avenue, CHN, Union Street, CHS, and elsewhere.
Landmarked: Yes

The story: These sun-dappled limestones are among the classiest speculative houses in Park Slope. They exude graciousness, a classic timelessness, and well…money. They probably sold quite rapidly when built, and have been appreciated by their owners ever since. They are the product of one of Brooklyn’s most prolific architects, Axel Hedman. Had there not been an Axel Hedman, the neighborhoods that developed most fully at the end of the 19th, and the beginning of the 20th century – that being Park Slope, Stuyvesant Heights, Crown Heights North and South, and Lefferts Manor, may have looked very different. And that‘s not including his flats and apartment buildings, of which there are many.

Axel was everywhere, with a distinctive style that is quite easy to spot. He was so successful in his row houses that he inspired a couple of copycats who also built similar houses, but the Hedman’s still stand alone. Hedman wholeheartedly embraced the Classic lines and materials of the White Cities Movement, a significant sea change in American architecture that took place after the Chicago World’s Exhibition in 1893. There, the architects involved in building the huge fair’s exhibition halls and buildings embraced the ideals of Greek and Roman architecture, creating gleaming white stucco buildings that started a movement away from the brownstone and red brick previously in high regard, shifting the preference in building materials to white limestone, pale brick, and marble.

Some may unfairly say that Hedman was at best a two or three trick pony, as his classic English basement row houses, with balustrade porches and florid Renaissance inspired trim can be found at least twice in all of the above neighborhoods, but I think that’s wrong. I’ve been studying Hedman’s work for a while, and he was subtle. This group pictured is only part of a larger group of eight houses, built in an ABCACDAB pattern. He varies his styles just enough to differentiate them, but with details that complement the building itself, and the ones next door, which are both totally different than themselves, and the group as a whole. Then he tossed one in that is totally different altogether! And it works! Hedman was also known for the quality of his interiors, as well. I’ve been in a lot of his houses, including his flats buildings, and he always uses the best woods, details, hardware, finishes and accoutrements. Even chopped up, painted and beaten up over the years, I’ve never seen a bad Hedman house. The guy was really good. GMAP