829LincolnPlace1007.jpgWe were out of town, so we’re dying to hear how the First Annual Crown Heights North House Tour went on Saturday. So far, we’ve only gotten one email from a reader who attended. Here’s what she had to say:

This was a different kind of house tour. It was not a tour to showcase the latest renovation. It, instead, featured the original details of most homes. Several of the homes were a bit run down in my opinion but others were knock-your-socks off worthy. In particular two Crown Heights sisters have the most complimentary taste. The pair, who split a home at 9 Hampton Place (one of CH’s most charming enclaves), have taken the homes original details and added some great antique pieces without feeling stuffy. On the top floor, there is a tin ceiling with a skylight and free standing counters and it is wonderful. In the apartment downstairs, the glass tile and a 1950s lime green stove are whimsical and stunning all at the same time. Lots of preserved wood work and exposed brick help unite the new and the old. Also loved 829 Lincoln Place (photo). It’s owned by a younger couple who have renovated but maintained many original details. The added a parlor floor kitchen with a great counter top made from recycled materials and have a hidden top story. It’s also extremely colorful but still tasteful. One suggestion to the planners for next year, ALLOW PHOTOGRAPHY…

Any other feedback?
House Tourers, (Re)Start Your Engines: Crown Heights Next [Brownstoner]
Photo by Krista Kujat for PropertyShark


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

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  1. I believe this was the first tour in 10 years… and kudos to this group who got the neighborhood landmarked and put on the house tour. But.. I too felt the security at three of the homes I visited a bit foreboding.. but loved about half of the homes..which is exactly how I felt on the Fort Green House Tour last year… If anyone has done a modern reno in their Crown Heights pad, please put it on the tour next year!
    Perhaps resident artist neene will open up her home next year if her reno is done…

  2. The “uniformed security” was provided by local troops of Explorers who were volunteered by their police precinct sponsors. They were teenagers, most of whom didn’t know what a house tour was, and were told to help out in any way we needed them. We were short on volunteers, so these kids really helped out in a pinch. They were not “security” in the usual sense of the word. Frankly, I was proud to see teenaged black youth in a positive light, and was glad outside people were able to see them, as well. All black kids in the hood are not on the road to ruin.

    Anyway, the message about the shoe protectors got a little garbled in translation, and is one of the things we will change next year. There were really only 3 or 4 houses who requested them, but some of the volunteers didn’t know that, and we will make sure next time that volunteers give people who can’t handle putting them on a break. We are sorry for any inconvenience that may have caused. Incidentally, I have been at house tours in tony neighborhoods, and have had to wear those booties. People who are fussy about their floors know no neighborhood.

    Thanks, Bob, and others for understanding. I’m glad we made a positive impression.

    Crown Heights North HT Committee
    Co-Chair

  3. 3:04,

    I agree–my wife, who has had knee surgery, was not at all happy about the booties.

    BTW, I found out that the uniformed security was provided by some sort of PD training program for teens.

    OTOH, I know that it’s always hard to get people to show their homes and, I imagine any FIRST tour must be especially difficult–so I’d guess these extreme-seeming meaures must have been needed to reassure anxious homeowners.

  4. To all house tour organizers: Please on booties and no security. One sends a message that people aren’t reallly welcome and the other makes them worry about being there. As Bob said: “tourgoeers are very well-behaved.”

  5. 11;53,

    FWIW, I’ve had my far from H&G-worthy house on four house tours over 30+ years and NEVER heard a nasty comment. People who go on house tours are usually VERY well behaved.

  6. My wife and I really enjoyed this tour. I’m personally bored with “House & Garden” type tours and prefer ones like this, where I could imagine having a house like the ones shown. In fact, many of the houses on the southernmost part of the tour area WERE quite similar to my house and others in PLG. Further north, we were both quite taken with Dean Street, the only street on tour that’s in the “phase one” new CHN HD. We really enjoyed seeing the outsides of some houses that were not on tour which were unlike any we’ve seen elsewhere in brownstone Brooklyn, most notably several (IIRC) four story houses with limestone bases and shingled, apparantly frame, upper stories as well as two houses with fantastic haystack shaped domes on top (I have no idea what to call them–I wish I had a copy of the LPC’s CHN Designation Report).

    If I were looking for a house, I would have been very much encougaged by what the tour brochure referred to as “a mixture of old-timers, newcomers and those in between.” If I were looking to put down roots in a community, I would be far more impressed by this mix than I would have been if all, or most, homes on tour were owned by 30 something newcomers. Come to think of it, that’s just what impressed me about my own neighborhood when I first saw it on the 1974 HT.

    It was also apleasure to see and speak with several CHN residents who I had met previously through this website.

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