Architecture 101: 378 Clinton Avenue
Ever since we arrived in Clinton Hill, we’ve been curious about this former mansion at 378 Clinton Avenue. The former residence of Julius Liebman (whose family started the brewery that would later become known as Rheingold), the 1909 neo-Federal house is currently owned by a group called Teen Challenge. According to LPC’s report on the…
Ever since we arrived in Clinton Hill, we’ve been curious about this former mansion at 378 Clinton Avenue. The former residence of Julius Liebman (whose family started the brewery that would later become known as Rheingold), the 1909 neo-Federal house is currently owned by a group called Teen Challenge. According to LPC’s report on the Clinton Hill Historic District, in 1925 the house was sold to Raymond Ingersoll who was borough president from 1934 until his death in 1940. The house was designed by the nationally-prominent firm of Herts & Tallant. Here’s what the LPC has to say about the architecture (though you may need an architectural dictionary to follow along):
The symmetrical house with gambrel roof is constructed of brick laid in English bond. The front facade is perfectly balanced and beautifully massed. The ground floor is articulated by three round brick arches with ornate impost blocks and keystones. Set within each arch are terra cotta Corinthian columns that support arches ornamented in the style of a Doric frieze…The fenestration of the second floor consists of three rectangular multi-paned windows with shutters and two tiny slit windows. A handsome cornice with a brick frieze runs above the second floor. The gambrel roof with stepped copings and paired end chimneys has slate shingles and three shed dormers — a double dormer flanked by single dormers — all with window sash with interlaced muntins.
I just bought a co-op on Clinton Ave about a block from this building and have always noticed this one! I am also wondering if anyone knows about the building on Washington Ave between Gates and Fulton that is completely decrepid and has an old model Ford Explorer parked on the front yard that appears to be filled with crap. The building is boarded up, but often I see utility trucks parked literally in the yard, and there is trash strewn about the property. It’s located next to a ramshackle-looking church, and there’s a soup kitchen sign that says “Open Sunday from 6-8pm”. If you’re walking down Wash. Ave toward the C station on the corner of Fulton, it’s on that same side of the street…Anyone else noticed this but me? Washington Ave is so beautiful till you get to that last stretch before Fulton…and in fact the rest of that block is fine with the exception of that property…I wonder if it is a last remaining crack house? Or are there homeless squatters in there? Wouldn’t you think the local community would want to do something about this?
This building reminds me of the one on Washington Ave. right next to the C line stop (just north of Fulton) – a similar facade but lacking those beautiful windows on the ‘gambrel’ roof – and which is located next to the saddest shell of a building in C. Hill. Anyone know what’s up with that wreck???
Yeah, beautiful building. Can you imagine this as a single-family home! Drool.
Thanks Brownstoner, I’ve always been curious about this place too.