Top 5 Stories on Brownstoner This Week: A Derelict Limestone is Transformed, 'The New Brooklyn'

Four Houses to See This Chilly Weekend, Starting at $479K

Another weekend on the horizon, another round of open houses, another four picks for your consideration. They’re a mixed bag in both style and condition, ranging from a gut-renovated flip to a bring-your-contractor special, brownstone to aluminum siding. Points on the compass are the South Slope, East Flatbush, Bushwick and Bed Stuy.

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Two Wood Frame Survivors in Boerum Hill

I’ve always liked these wood frame houses. They are tucked away at 69-71 Dean Street between Smith Street and Boerum Place, on only the second block of Dean Street. Perhaps because street and pedestrian traffic seems to stay on Smith, the houses seem to be a bit off the popular radar — a situation that probably saved them, after all these non-landmarked years.

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‘The New Brooklyn’ Looks at Gentrification, Inequality, Growth

There’s more to contemporary Brooklyn than meets the eye, argues author and Brooklynite Kay Hymowitz in her new book The New Brooklyn. The book explores the transformation of the borough by neighborhood, displaying Brooklyn’s famous diversity and questioning whether the new wealth that gentrification has brought about can drive positive change for the borough’s disadvantaged communities in the midst of a widening wealth gap.

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The Insider: Architect Transforms Derelict Crown Heights Limestone Into Polished Family Home

The bay-windowed limestone townhouse was “in poor shape,” said South Slope-based architect Ben Herzog in a masterpiece of understatement, before adding: “There had been people squatting in it, and there were definitely some bullet holes.”

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Fort Greene Townhouse With Ornate Cornices, Marble Mantels Asks $3.7 Million

Here’s an 1850s transitional Greek Revival–Italianate style townhouse in prime shape, which offers a spacious owner’s triplex with plenty of original details over a garden rental. It’s in the Fort Greene Historic District at 346 Carlton Avenue between Lafayette and Greene avenues, close to the Lafayette C train stop.

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