Architectural Diversity on Herkimer Street
Christopher Gray visited Bedford Stuyvesant for this weekend’s Streetscapes column, which explores the “complex” mixture of buildings on Herkimer Street between Bedford and Nostrand. Some of the larger properties on the block, like the T.P. Wilkinson house at 78 Herkimer and the former Kismet Temple, have been given Building of the Day treatment by Montrose….
Christopher Gray visited Bedford Stuyvesant for this weekend’s Streetscapes column, which explores the “complex” mixture of buildings on Herkimer Street between Bedford and Nostrand. Some of the larger properties on the block, like the T.P. Wilkinson house at 78 Herkimer and the former Kismet Temple, have been given Building of the Day treatment by Montrose. The column also touches on a row of five brownstones that have each been painted a different color; a few homes that have seen some unfortunate adventures in aluminum siding; and a stretch of “two-story brownstone dollhouses with arched windows,” such as No. 47, shown above left. And there are fun descriptions of buildings like No. 32, pictured at right above: It “was built around 1890, its gawky five stories jutting out and over its two-story neighbors. Today a developer who tried that would be pilloried, but present eyes see a luscious, furnacelike ironspot orange brick, contrasting with details in a muscular rust-red paint. An 1893 ad in The Eagle promised velvet carpets in the hallways, something even Mr. Trump has not yet ventured.”
A Hike Down Herkimer Street [NY Times]
Photos from PropertyShark.
minard- I hope they have some cheap seats too.Not all of us are rich elitist landmarking snobs. Some of us are poor elitist landmarking snobs, ya know.
The local chapter of the AIA could be talked into an evening of mud wrestling if we could frame it in deconstructivist terms symbolizing the loss of palimpsest and the ad hoc erosion of psychological chamber-flow and “safe space” as expressed through the honorific, abstract morphology of filth and ego. I think they would love it. Tickets $100 in advance and $140 at the door.
Minard, I didn’t know we had a DMZ here in NYC.
Maybe, minard, but I was thinking Gold’s Gym where they have a boxing ring 🙂
It was a great piece, MM. I love Herkimer- especially the 3 (2?) buildings between Nostrand an NY with the porches.
are benson and christopher conspiring again? that does not bode well.
I assume “the usual place” is church?
This is a really interesting block, and Christopher did a really nice piece. I think it’s great that he went out of the Manhattan comfort zone, which most of his readers are in, and not only came to Bedford Stuyvesant, which he’s done before, but a block that most people wouldn’t have noticed, or thought to walk down. It’s a bit off the beaten track, being between Fulton and Atlantic. Most people tend to go to the great Bedford Stuyvesant blocks north of Fulton, not south. There is some great architecture on Herkimer between Nostrand and New York, as well.
DirtyHipster, the two-story building on the right in the photograph is indeed way out of scale, which is why the community board ordered them to add four stories.
And, “Architectural Diversity” is the B.com phrasing; mine was “a perfect urban jumble.”
Benson, we’ll meet at the usual place, yes?
Christopher
PS Gabby: thank you for not pirating the Times’ photographs, as does every other blogosite in creation.
haha benson – i do like the word “architectural diversity” though.
“Context” only aplies to modern developers, don’t you know?