Building of the Day: 766-772 Dean Street

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Wood-frame houses
Address: 766-772 Dean Street
Cross Streets: Underhill and Washington avenues
Neighborhood: Prospect Heights
Year Built: Unknown
Architectural Style: Italianate
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: No

The story: For all of the 12 years I took the B65 bus past these houses on Dean Street, I’ve wondered about them. Why were two of them set so far back so far from the street, and more curiously, why are the lots slanted? I couldn’t find too many definitive answers, but I did find out some interesting things. I hate to be an alarmist, but I don’t think they’ll be here in five years, so here’s what I could find out while you can still catch a glimpse.

The simple answer to why the houses are set back in the lots is that there used to be buildings in front of them. Today’s houses originally were behind the others. This was not all that uncommon on long lots and can be found here and there in Brooklyn, especially in older neighborhoods with mixed use residential/commercial buildings. If the lot size and the timing were right, neighborhoods like Carroll Gardens, parts of Brooklyn Heights, Boerum Hill and other neighborhoods occasionally have two houses on a lot; often a storefront with tenements above in the front, or a business in the front, and a smaller frame house in the back. At various times in the 19th century, one or more of these properties had two buildings on the lot.

As to the slanted position on the street: The earliest map I have is from 1880. It and the map from 1886 shows that this rhombus of land was owned by the New York Equitable Insurance Co., probably before the street grid was laid out. Their land boundaries correspond to the slanted lots. It looks as if the city fathers just left the lines alone when the rest of the city grid was laid out. Since it’s a very short and odd shaped block anyway, why not?

No. 766 is the small Italianate two-story house to the right, No. 768 is the odd shaped building in the middle, and No. 772 is the building on the left, the only one not set back. There is no No. 770. Since they were so far back from the street, at one point in these buildings’ histories, someone took full advantage of the isolation.

In 1877, United States Revenue officers staged a raid at 766 and 768. Here’s what the New York Times reported: “Officers seized an illicit whiskey distillery at an early hour yesterday morning, which had been operating at 766 and 768 Dean Street. The officers took possession of a tin still of 360 gallons capacity, a copper worm and doubler, a three- inch pump, three lengths of hose, five horses, three wagons, a lot of coal, half a barrel of rum, and 2,500 gallons of mash. No arrests were made.”

768 and 772 were tenement houses. In 1892, a kerosene lamp in the frame extension of 772 blew up. It destroyed the furniture of Michael Flannery, the tenant, but fortunately did not spread to the entire building. In 1912, a little eight year old girl who also lived at 772 was run over and killed by a wagon belonging to Peter F. Reilly storage, which was located down the road. Authorities determined the driver never saw her, as she darted out into the street from behind another wagon.

From all newspaper accounts, none of the buildings in this group, whether present today or not, were low-rent establishments (the whiskey still notwithstanding. Besides, that’s entrepreneurial.) Ads in the papers show inquiries after housekeepers, cooks and cleaners. Mentions in the papers are for weddings, anniversaries, student awards, a missing person, and one or two other tragedies. The worst thing to happen here also happened in 772. In 1920, an entire family was overcome by gas fumes in their apartment.

Gaetano Marino and his wife Lucille were found by their tenant, Luigi Palucci, who was coming back from work, and had to walk through their apartment to get to his room. When he opened the door, the gas fumes hit him in the face. He ran to get police. They found the Marino parents dead in their bed. Their two children were in the next room, unconscious but alive. They were taken to Jewish Hospital, as was Marino’s elderly father, asleep in a third room. The cause of death was a leaking gas jet in the parent’s room.

The two set back houses are unusual enough to still attract attention. The owners of 766 have an odd shaped lot that includes a bump out on Dean where a house once stood. It makes for great gardening space. Think of the long rows of vegetables or flowers one could grow.

(Photograph:Christopher Bride for PropertyShark)

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