Building of the Day: 231-235 Rogers Avenue

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Retail/residential
Address: 231-235 Rogers Avenue
Cross Streets: President and Union Streets
Neighborhood: Crown Heights South
Year Built: early 20th century
Architectural Style: simplified Renaissance Revival
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: No

The story: Crown Heights South developed much later than its neighbor on the other side of Eastern Parkway. That is one of the reasons that the separation of the neighborhoods was made by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, when they were looking to landmark in the area. Eastern Parkway was the perfect dividing line, and there is a great deal of difference in the architecture on the north and south sides of this boulevard. Crown Heights North, by and large, was the old Saint Marks District and Bedford area, always meant to be an upper middle-class, and then upper-class neighborhood. By comparison, Crown Heights South, which is the original Crown Heights neighborhood, had a much slower and less affluent beginning. With the exception, of course, of President Street, between New York and Kingston Avenue, which developed into a wealthy enclave known as “Doctor’s Row.”

The first things that had to go to promote development were the shanty towns and the Kings County Penitentiary, and by the turn of the 20th century, they were on their way out, leaving a large neighborhood open for speculative development of attractive and solidly built row houses, semi-detached row houses, and apartment buildings. Most of the streets have back alleys for trash removal, and the newest amenity, the garage. I would hazard a guess that Crown Heights South has more garages than any other predominantly row house neighborhood in Brooklyn.

The styles of these houses show the progression of time and architectural styles. The oldest are Renaissance Revival limestone and brownstones, followed by Colonial Revival bricks, then 1920’s Mediterranean and Neo-Tudor and Arts and Crafts style cottages. Apartment buildings were going up at the same time, also in varying styles, getting larger and larger as time progressed. Building along the avenues, especially commercial avenues, probably happened in tandem, but these buildings often combined a retail and residential element to get the most bang from a buck. And so we come to this group of stores/homes.

Even for the time period, these are remarkably small, short buildings. Most of the nearby stores with apartments overhead are three or four stories. But these are only two, and are listed as “one family, with store.” They are all 20×50’ houses on a 100’ lot. Whoever the architect was, he imbued these modest buildings with some low-cost, design class. The uniform windows are topped with voussoirs and cement keystones, with cement friezes and cartouches, all giving the buildings some panache, and also tying them stylistically to the Renaissance and Colonial Revival buildings that are literally around the corner.

The use of the basket weave design in the brickwork is especially fine, as are the facades, in general. I like the curved rooflines, modern enough to no longer have cornices, but still marking a transitional bridge between the designs of the late 19th century, and the coming Art Deco styles, which also appear, in varying forms, in the neighborhood. Simple little buildings one can pass every day, but they add a lot to the neighborhood. GMAP