Building of the Day: 797-805 Prospect Place

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Flats buildings
Address: 797-805 Prospect Place
Cross Streets: Nostrand and New York avenues
Neighborhood: Crown Heights North
Year Built: 1903
Architectural Style: Beaux-Arts/Renaissance Revival
Architect: William Debus
Other Buildings by Architect: Flats buildings, row houses, double duplex houses throughout Crown Heights North. Also flats buildings and row houses in Bedford Stuyvesant, Stuyvesant Heights, Prospect Heights, Bushwick. Best known for Beaux-Arts row houses on Chauncey Street and Stuyvesant Avenue, near Fulton Park, in Stuyvesant Heights
Landmarked: No, and yes – part of Crown Heights North, Phase II (2011)

The story: This was once an elegant corner, an aristocratic example of French-inspired design, until it got its head chopped off. Consequently, only two-thirds of this group of three flats buildings is landmarked. The three buildings, when intact, formed an elegant and gracious doorway to what is arguably Crown Heights North’s most beautiful block.

The buildings were built in 1903, when Prospect Place was in the heart of the St. Marks District, an upscale enclave centered around St. Marks Avenue, only a block away, filled with large mansions on spacious lots, and elegant row houses and small apartment buildings. This was one of Brooklyn’s most exclusive neighborhoods, rivaling wealthy Clinton Hill and Park Slope in income and beauty.

The block of Prospect Place is a wonderful mixture of 1890s row houses, freestanding and semi-detached mansions and gracious flats buildings. These three upscale flats buildings were built in 1903 for developers Julius Strauss and Samuel Charig, and were a great addition to the block.

The architect was William Debus. Many architects specialize in certain kinds of buildings. Debus is on record for fine row houses, especially in Stuyvesant Heights, but his forte was small and elegant apartment buildings. He was the first Brooklyn’s architect to design new apartment buildings under the 1902 New Tenement Law, which had new and improved regulations regarding light, air, safety and sanitary facility standards.

We know very little about Mr. Debus. He practiced in Brooklyn between around 1896 through to the 1950s. Although his name appears French, he was probably of German extraction, as were most of the people with the Debus surname who lived in New York at the same time, according to census records and city directories. He was head draftsman for German-American architect Henry Vollweiler, who practiced out of Bushwick. Vollweiler was a prolific architect of row houses, breweries and tenement buildings in the area. By the turn of the century, Debus had opened his own offices.

Debus got a reputation as an expert on small apartment building, most of which are in Bedford and Stuyvesant Heights. They are mostly in the Renaissance Revival/Beaux-Arts style, with light colored building materials like limestone and classical ornamentation. We don’t know if Debus had a formal education in the Beaux-Arts style, but he certainly had an affinity for it, and these buildings show his mastery of the form.

They are made of limestone, with ivory colored brick. The buildings have classical styled quoins on the sides, some of the windows have splayed lintels, and most have prominent keystones. Classical elements such as cartouches and garlands ornament the entryways. The original apartments were spacious, with 5, 6 and 8 rooms, with coffered ceilings in the dining rooms, butler’s pantries, upscale plumbing, electricity, and all of the latest modern conveniences.

A look at the newspapers for the three buildings shows a series of tenants who were upscale in nature, especially up through the ‘teens. They included people on the Social Register, whose weddings and funerals made the papers, and more than one debutante. Several people summered in New Jersey and upstate, and many advertised for servants. There were several doctors, lawyers, school principals and other professionals in the mix.

The building on the corner, No. 797, has an interesting history. Since it also faced Nostrand Avenue, there were storefronts on the ground floor, with the entrance to the apartments on Prospect Place. In 1921, the Brinkerhoff School was in one of the storefronts. It was a sewing school, where students could learn to make their own clothing.

Between 1927 and 1931, one or both of the storefronts was taken up by the Community School of Music, which was owned and run by Rudolf Jacobs. He and his staff taught all kinds of instruments and perhaps voice. An article in the Brooklyn Eagle featured his 12-year-old son playing the violin. The photo is too dark to reproduce here. Mr. Jacobs also defended his decision to teach his students jazz, a move that offended many of the parents of the day.

But hard times were coming, and by 1931, the school had changed its name to the Community Music and Dance School, offering dance lessons. By 1933, only the dance school survived. After 1933, it was gone. As you can see from the photographs, the top stories of the building are long gone. I was not able to find out when that happened, but people were living in the apartments up until the Brooklyn Eagle stopped printing in 1954. I assume a fire damaged the building, and the owners decided to save the ground floor, only, and not rebuild. It probably happened in the 1960s or ’70s. Of the three buildings, No. 797 was not included in the landmark district.

(Photograph: S.Spellen)

GMAP