The Union League Club-House
This is a 1891 photo of The Union League Club-House on Bedford Ave. in Crown Heights Grant Square. With all the talk of the Montauk Club apartment today I thought it would be interesting to see what people thought about this building. You see the similarities in architecture but this building looks even more upscale…
This is a 1891 photo of The Union League Club-House on Bedford Ave. in Crown Heights Grant Square. With all the talk of the Montauk Club apartment today I thought it would be interesting to see what people thought about this building. You see the similarities in architecture but this building looks even more upscale and larger. I really hope that someone could bring this great building back to its glory days. When I pass this area I try to imagine how it was 100 years ago. Do you think we will ever see this building have its renaissance.
http://www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com/bigmap/brooklyn/crownheights/grantsquare/index.htm
Check out this link.
The upper portion and some of the windows have been pretty butchered. The terra cotta is still pretty nice, though.
Yes, Amzi, the Union League is still in Manhattan.
My understanding is that it split from the Union Club because of the Union’s confederate sympathies. (New York was a big cotton town, believe it or not, where many manufacturers and bankers were sympathetic to the South.)
The result: Park Avenue has two enormous club houses, one the Union (in the East 60s), the other the Union League (in the East 30s).
The first Union League was on Fifth Avenue and looked similar to the Grant Square club house. I wonder if they had the same architect.
And Bessie, sometimes — not always! — “deferred maintenance” is a historic structure’s best friend (until the right owner with deep enough pockets comes along!)
NOP
I know this building well and have always liked it in spite of it being down at the heels. It is landmarked and owned by a private landlord. It has been leased by the City since 1984 as a senior community center (not senior housing as per wikipedia)on the first and basement levels and as ACS offices on the upper floors. The interior has been stripped of any details, yet the rooms have high ceilings and good natural light.
We have faced a number of challenges with this place over the years, especially regarding burglary and graffiti. One weekend the place was broken into three times. The shiny stuff over the paint on the stone is an anti-graffiti coating circa 1998. I can only suppose they painted in the first place because of graffiti.
Unfortunately we are unable to perform any exterior upgrades as our source of funding for renovation is federal and the New York State Office of Historic Preservation makes it nearly impossible for us to do anything to the exterior of historic properties.
I read that this club came out of the Manhattan club. I did not know there was still a club in Manhattan. NOP your great source of information. I can read your post all day….
Amzi:
What a beauty! And note the way nearby row houses perfectly complement the Union League’s architecture. Grant Square was definitely the place to be back in the day.
By the time my family lived down the block during the 1950s, the club was long gone, but the building remained, as it does to this day. Even before then, the lot to the right in your photo (a great one, by the way) was filled in, so the club didn’t quite dominate its surroundings as it once did. Nevertheless, architecturally it was among Brooklyn’s most distinguished buildings, and I’m delighted to know its still there.
The club, the Imperial Apartments, the Armory and several other fine structures around the square give this part of Crown Heights great “bones.” And, as Montrose Morris points out in another thread, much of the area is landmarked, so as it’s improved (with projects like the Dean Street house renovation discussed on another thread), its terrific character will be preserved.
The Union League better than the Montauk? I’d say they’re equivalent. The relative austerity of the former befits its roots among Civil War Republicans. Better to be sober than fanciful like the Montauk, given its background. (And talk about severe: Park Avenue’s Union League Club, with similar roots, is among the most austere in Manhattan.)
Again, thanks for the great photo. No doubt, Grant Square should be a highlight of Brownstone Brooklyn.
Nostalgic on Park Avenue
Amzi:
What a beauty! And note the way nearby row houses perfectly complement the Union League’s architecture. Grant Square was definitely the place to be back in the day.
By the time my family lived down the block during the 1950s, the club was long gone, but the building remained, as it does to this day. Even before then, the lot to the right in your photo (a great one, by the way) was filled in, so the club didn’t quite dominate its surroundings as it once did. Nevertheless, architecturally it was among Brooklyn’s most distinguished buildings, and I’m delighted to know its still there.
The club, the Imperial Apartments, the Armory and several other fine structures around the square give this part of Crown Heights great “bones.” And, as Montrose Morris points out in another thread, much of the area is landmarked, so as it’s improved (with projects like the Dean Street house renovation discussed on another thread), its terrific character will be preserved.
The Union League better than the Montauk? I’d say they’re equivalent. The relative austerity of the former befits its roots among Civil War Republicans. Better to be sober than fanciful like the Montauk, given its background. (And talk about severe: Park Avenue’s Union League Club, with similar roots, is among the most austere in Manhattan.)
Again, thanks for the great photo. No doubt, Grant Square should be a highlight of Brownstone Brooklyn.
Nostalgic on Park Avenue
sorry I guess it is the attic fifth floor that is gone..
Ray you might be hurt to see it but the fourth floor is all gone today. No more eagles on the top…
Oh don’t get me started on Bedford Stuyvesant… This is why I think Landmarking is important. We have these great treasures in our faces all over Brooklyn. It is really sad that the city dose not help in trying to preserve buildings like this like they should. In many of the cities in Euorpe they would never let buildings like this come down and get chopped up. This building was designed by P.J. Lauritzen and built the same times as Francis Kimball Montauk Club. This building one time had bowling alleys and shooting galleries in the basement, large dining and reception rooms on the first floor,library and billiard rooms on the second floor. Also had private bachelors apartments on the third floor with a gymnasium on the fourth and a rooftop lounge. This place sounds like it was the place to belong at the turn of the century.