Hancock Street: How Sweet It Is

BrownBomber, you might want to get in touch with the Brownstoners of Bed-Stuy group. They do the house tours every year, and also have several other projects going. One of their founding members, who has since passed away, lived a couple of doors down from these houses. They are more than familiar with the area, and may be in the process of getting the area landmarked themselves. I know that had been a goal. I have contact info at home, and will post later, unless someone beats me to it.

Oh Lord, you are correct about the NY Times house. It is the one on the far left of the picture. I saw it a few months ago, when the listing first came up. It has great bones, but needs a lot of work. The owner had started a renovation, but had to relocate for their job, and literally left the kitchen cabinets in the boxes. However a person with taste and vision, and some cash could make the place a showplace.

BrownBomber, I belong to Crown Heights North Association, which is in the process of getting parts of CH Landmarked, and it is a very long, tedious and involved process. We’ve been at it for almost 3 years, most of which is before my time in the organization, so I may be wrong there. It involves applying for status, and doing a ton of research and documentation. A study had been started in the 70’s for CH, so that helped tremendously, as a lot of research into the buildings themselves – architects, builders, style of architecture, size, materials, and any other interesting and relevant facts, had mostly been done. We followed up by having volunteers out in the streets taking digital photos of every single building in the proposed district, literally thousands, which are listed by address, block and lot numbers. All of this, along with a ton of other paperwork was submitted to Landmarks. It also helps to have some juice with LPC, as we are also competing with other proposed districts elsewhere in the city, so we had to get the backing of local pols, civic leaders, etc. We finally made the front of the line, and the LPC investigative staff, of which I believe they only have about 3, for the whole city, has been seen patrolling the streets taking followup notes. All of that will go to LPC, and hopefully before we are all dead, much of CH North will be a very large historic district. The two founding members of Crown Heights North Association, Denise Brown and Deborah Young, deserve sainthood for all of their work, as does anyone who helped. The proposed CHN historical district will be the largest in the city, and basically covers CHN from Pacific Street to Sterling St, from Rogers to Kingston.

If the folks over in my old nabe want to go for it, it’s hard work, but would be worth it.

Hey Brownstoner. I enjoy reading you everyday. Wouldn’t miss it. I’ve never posted before but as you are featuring Hancock St., I felt it my duty. I own 244 (not featured in your photo) and have for about 2 years. I had been living in a co-op in one of the mansions on Clinton Ave. in FG/CH, a decent size one bedroom, and when the kid came the wife and I started looking. The housing stock in BS was just too beautiful to ignore. We had seen a lot of crap in FG/CH and some interesting properties in PLG and CH, but when we saw this place on Hancock the collective jaw dropped. Plus it was at least 150,000 dollars cheaper than anything else we saw! Inside was a mess, it had certainly been an SRO at one point, their was water damage from a leaking bathroom from the 2nd floor to the basement that was neglected for years, ancient plumbing and wiring, I’m sure everyone knows the story. The roof was shot, we had to shore up the joists in the basement, the works! But Oh the bones of this place are amazing. 7 fireplaces, 4 skylights, an octagonal shaped living area for the tenant (It took us 6 months just to get the downstairs two floors ready for someone to live), stain glass ( anybody know anyone who fixes it?) molding and wainscotting for days, front room with that flocked velevet wallpaper-(lynncrusta?), and we’re not finished yet. We’re living on the second floor while the third floor still is being worked on, and hope to move up there by the fall. The dough I had from the sale of the co-op has long since run out, so things are moving a lot slower, but let me just say when I walk out my front door and just take a look around, the architectural beauty is breathtaking. Thanks for featuring one of Brooklyn’s breathtaking streets and an excellent neighborhood.

Definitely not Fulton. There’s nothing on Fulton that looks like that. I think its actually 242, the last complete home on the left of the picture. Does anyone know of any other Morris houses that it could be?