Cortelyou Road: Vintage Stores and More
Cortelyou Road has been getting some attention over the past year for its improving retail mix. One of the recent additions is Cortelyou Vintage at 1118 Cortelyou Road which opened last summer. The owner explained its raison d’etre to a NY Times reporter at the time: “I’m looking to capture the young hipsters who want…
Cortelyou Road has been getting some attention over the past year for its improving retail mix. One of the recent additions is Cortelyou Vintage at 1118 Cortelyou Road which opened last summer. The owner explained its raison d’etre to a NY Times reporter at the time:
“I’m looking to capture the young hipsters who want unique furniture and who are not going to go to Levitz and buy new,” said the owner, Nicole Francis, who works as a financial planner and lives in a 10-room Victorian house nearby. “The key market is couples with young children.”
We thought the store was cute and a welcome addition to the strip but, frankly, the stash of chandeliers at the Thrift Shop around the corner was a greater find. Seriously. There must have been a hundred of them–some of them quite nice.
Commercial Strip Gaining in Charm [NY Times]
I know that house, Seamus. I have documented it, like all the others, for my archives.
I am working on the landmarking committee for BSW where these two houses are, and even if we get landmarked, it will take up to 5 years I am told, so lots of time to put up more of these horrors. The only bright spot is that many other homeowners are removing asphalt and asbestos siding and reshingling, restoring, etc… Both camps are spending money. But let’s see who wins. I’m hoping the neighborhood becomes increaingly haughty and insular with all the new Park Slope/Manhattan blood that’s arriving, and the people with no aesthetic (whether they are from Park Slope or Manhattan as well!) will cease to buy here. It is making for bad feelings amonst neighbors, that’s for sure.
re downzoning vs. landmarking… therein lies the rub in NYC… in non-landmark areas there is absolutely no aesthetic approval process, anything goes, as-of-right building to maximum FAR. Brick up a Victorian, Fedders in every wall, tiny crappy windows, icky wrought iron, whatever the developer conjures. The Community Boards and the Office of City Planning don’t care about anything but zoning. And at this point Landmarking takes too long and is too hard to achieve. So even if all of Victorian Flatbush is downzoned, it still won’t prevent bad stuff from happening to the balance of the Victorian homes. If you want your heart to sink, walk north on Stratford from Cortelyou and look at the shingle style house they are stuccoing, complete with 2′ x 3′ faux stone block lines… goes nice with the wood columns on the front porch… there needs to be some way to save these houses that is quicker and easier than landmarking.
I’m not surprised they are putting up brick siding….sad. My neighbor did a similar thing with her 100 year old wood frame….brick & stucco. It is ugly. It has been over two years and I still can’t get over it but I am getting used to it. Just as we’ll have to get over and used to the house on the corner of Rugby and Cortelyou. When I was getting the signature for the downzoning petition everyone was willing to sign but many people do not want landmark….to many restrictions.
Kudos to you anonymous at 11:20. Downzoning is the issue that we really need to talk about, not to mention Landmarking – they are in the process of bricking up the that had the fire on the corner of Rugby and Cortelyou. At least the owner didn’t sell out to the developer who wanted to build a high rise condo development on the site… but they did remove the stained glass windows and sell them off after the fire… I have heard that they are not screwing around with the collonaded facade which somehow survived the fire. It needs restoration, though, so I don’t know if I trust these guys… They’ve also carved it up into a three family. I guess that’s legal since it’s R6 zoned. I don’t know… that and the plans for the Stratford lot – just seems like bad Karma for Cortelyou Road. God I hate what they’re doing to that house that had the fire! I have to control myself and not run up, ring the door and try and educate them on historic preservation (yes, I’m an educated, self-rightous pain in the ass). These people clearly don’t understand the treaure they are so lucky to own in the first place. Rant, rant, rant…
I like Picket Fence. I like the food, but I like the atmosphere even more. It’s friendly there. The waitresses are also very attractive (sorry, but they are…). I’d much rather go there than travel to the Slope. Park Slope has better food to offer, but little in the way of friendliness–though there are a few places that will make an honest effort to feign good will, which counts for something.
Ditmas Park West does have an application in for down zoning. I personally got over 150 signatures.
bborn rears his ugly head yet again…. Yawn.
Seamus – this is what I heard at the last Beverley Square West meeting about the lot on Stratford and Cortelyou, which is in BSW: a developer purchased the lot and wanted to build an 8 story luxury condo building. This somehow was shot down, thank God, as 8 stories is just too tall. I think he wants 7 stories now, and that is no good either. This developement and another going up on Coney Island Avenue bordering the backyards of Stratford Road residents will intrude on the character of the neighborhood and have to be stopped. BSW has a zoning petition in at the moment to change the boundries of BSW from R6 to I thik R3. I think the Stratford developement will get in under the wire. What we would all like to see is a six story building, luxury condos, architecturally friendly to the rest of BSW, and with nice retail space on the ground floor. We have a very active and devoted resident here in BSW who did a tremendous amount of work on the rezoning preposal and he deserves our respect and admiration. Wish us luck. I don’t know if Ditmas Park West has a re-zoning application in, but they sure as hell should. And Beverley Square East, too. They have a monstrosity of a building going up on Beverley and East somthing or other… The house that stood there was torn down last year.
if picket fence is mediocre by park slope standards, I’ll take a mediocre sushi and pasta place on cortelyou too that I don’t need to shlep to park slope for. I’ll take convenience over seemingly better food any day with two kids under three.