Building of the Day: 903-905 St. Marks Avenue

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Row houses
Address: 903-905 St. Marks Avenue
Cross Streets: Brooklyn and Kingston avenues
Neighborhood: Crown Heights North
Year Built: 1901
Architectural Style: Renaissance Revival
Architect: Johnson & Helmle
Other buildings by architect: (Helmle) Nassau Trust Co., St. Barbara’s and St. Gregory the Great churches, Boathouse in Prospect Park, Hotel Bossert and much more
Landmarked: Yes, part of Crown Heights North HD, Phase 1 (2007)

The story: All great careers have a start somewhere, and for Frank Helmle, one of Brooklyn’s finest architects, the early works help define the later work achieved when he was at the top of his game. Between 1896 and 1901, Helmle and Ephraim Johnson had an architectural office in Williamsburg, and then their partnership dissolved. During that time, their only buildings seem to be these two. Helmle would go on to great things, and a fantastic career. Johnson disappears forever. But they left these buildings, two exceptionally substantial looking homes on a very upscale and tony block of the St. Marks District.

Frank Helmle came to New York from Ohio, and studied at Cooper Union. In 1890, he went to work for McKim, Mead & White, where he mastered the forms of the Beaux-Arts style, and the classicism that would embody the fin de siecle White Cities movement. He stayed with them for five years, and then went out on his own. One of his first commissions was the Nassau Trust Company in Williamsburg, which he designed in 1888. It’s a very classical granite and limestone building, with Ionic columns very similar to the ones he designed on these two houses.

I guess we’ll never know why he needed Johnson, but the pair got the commission for these two houses from Bernard J. Gallagher. He was one of Brooklyn’s leading movers and shakers in Democratic politics during the 1890s. He may have lived in one of the houses, but his son, George Gallagher, definitely lived in number 903. George Gallagher did pretty well himself, and was on the board of Brooklyn Edison, and was a director of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company.

St. Marks Avenue, the center of the St. Marks District, one of Brooklyn’s most exclusive neighborhoods in the early 20th century, is lined with fine houses. This block between Kingston and Brooklyn was no exception, and today is the only block still retaining most of its original housing stock. For the Gallaghers, Helmle and Johnson designed solid, sturdy, upper middle-class houses. The classical details still remain remarkably intact, as does the original gold script spelling out the addresses. I’ve always really liked these houses, and still would love to get inside to see what remains of the original detail. I’ve been told the corner house is very much intact. GMAP