John Petit's Vision for Prospect Park South
“There’s no other New York experience like walking west on high-energy Church Avenue, then turning left on Buckingham Road into a still, storybook enclave of large freestanding houses of encyclopedically varied styles,” writes Francis Morrone in last Friday’s NY Sun. When developer Dean Alvord bought the 50 acres of land in 1899, his goal was…
“There’s no other New York experience like walking west on high-energy Church Avenue, then turning left on Buckingham Road into a still, storybook enclave of large freestanding houses of encyclopedically varied styles,” writes Francis Morrone in last Friday’s NY Sun. When developer Dean Alvord bought the 50 acres of land in 1899, his goal was “to create a rural park within the limitations of the conventional city block and city street.” Details like the planted medians with rounded edges intentionally try to create the effect of having left the city grid. The 1903 house at 131 Buckingham Road (original postcard, above), dubbed ‘”the Japanese House”, is Petit’s most famous work, but Morrone prefers 94 Rugby Road, a Spanish Mission-style house, and 100 Rugby Road, a Swiss Chalet. (Recent photos of all three houses are on the jump.) Across the street, at number 101, is the John Nitchie-designed Queen Anne featured in Sophie’s Choice.
John Petit’s Visionary Home Designs [NY Sun]
From 1997: Delicately Oriental, but ‘Practical’ [NY Times]
Postcard &recent photos of Rugby Road from Victorian Flatbush
Recent photo of 101 Buckingham by Don Wiss
The Japanese House at 131 Buckingham
The Spanish Colonial at 94 Rugby Road
The Swiss Chalet ar 100 Rugby Road
I have seen an older photo in an architecture book of the Japanese house when it was painted a solid steel gray. I was pretty shocked at that. I don’t particularly care for the way the house on Rugby ? looks now, the one they are trying to sell for over two-million. Thought it was more impressive in all white years ago.
On the Victorian Flatbush Walking Tour, we were told that that section is the most stylist architecturally diverse in the USA. There is a bit of everything all one after the other.
Agreed – love the Japanese house but my absolute favorite is the Swiss Chalet.
OK, unless the Japanese style house was fully repainted since the Victorian Flatbush Walking tour, it’s currently a orangey/red with green trim. (not the yellow and green color shown in the photos above).
You can see it, plus the Sophie’s Choice house (which was painted pink for the movie but is no longer pink) and other houses in the area by clicking the thumbnail for the walking tour album: http://arsenicandoldlace.dotphoto.com
What I hate about the Japanese house are the gaudy “historically accurate” colors they chose to repaint over 10 years ago. It was a lovely shade of yellow with white trim, and had a nice cherry blossom tree out front. But it was falling apart back then, I remember the yard being a wreck until the new owners took over.
looove the spanish colonial.
What I find fascinating about the Japanese House is that, although it was widely publicized and lauded in its day, it was a difficult sell for developer Dean Alvord. It gathered dust for several years, eventually selling for significantly less than the cost of construction. Alvord had even advertised the house in Country Life: http://shop.vendio.com/vintageads4u/item/668564437/index.html
Here’s a link to an interesting NY Times piece on the house’s history: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503E0D81F38F930A15750C0A961958260