Top 5 Stories on Brownstoner This Week: Living Like an American Girl Doll, a Park Slope Revamp

Live the American Girl Dream in the Grand Second Empire Home of Doll Samantha Parkington

Here’s a grand Second Empire style mansion in Westchester County brimming over with 19th century charm and enough 20th century pop culture bona fides to give it some extra cachet. Depending on your cultural touchstones, the house on the market at 81 West Main Street in Mount Kisco, N.Y., might look familiar as either the “Ragtime” house or the Samantha Parkington house.

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Fort Greene Italianate Townhouse and Three More to See This Weekend, Starting at $1.975 Million

This weekend, we have four historic homes with modern updates that are move-in ready. Two are in landmarked districts, including a stately townhouse in Fort Greene restored by the founder of Pratt’s Historic Preservation Program. The rest of the picks are located in Park Slope, Gowanus and Red Hook.

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The Insider: Park Slope Limestone Stunner Gets Top-Notch Revamp, Laid-Back Style

The recent work undertaken on this 1901 limestone beauty, replete with well-preserved inlay floors and other exquisite woodwork throughout, was “closer to a restoration than a renovation,” said Brendan Coburn, a founding principal of Brooklyn Heights-based CWB Architects. “The house was exceptionally well-built to start, and there was no need to change the configuration of things.”

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Emily Blunt and John Krasinski’s Lavish Park Slope Limestone Sells for $1.5 Million Off Ask

The exquisitely renovated and decorated Park Slope home of actors Emily Blunt and John Krasinski sold last month for $6,562,500 — considerably less than the $8 million ask. The sale just hit public records.

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Historic Clinton Hill Mansion Gets the McMultifamily Treatment With Startling New Look

The freestanding Second Empire mansion at 489 Washington Avenue in Clinton Hill, once a spot for civil war veterans, is getting a controversial new look. A rendering posted on the site shows off-center frothy white neo-Classical columns and a pediment fronting a banal modern apartment building, with mismatched windows.

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