Original Brownstone Plans
Forgive me if this is a dumb question, but is it possible to find the original “blueprints” for brownstone. If so, where do I start?
Forgive me if this is a dumb question, but is it possible to find the original “blueprints” for brownstone. If so, where do I start?
can anybody elaborate on the DOB’s ‘basement’ files? if i ask them to go to the basement will they know what i mean? i’ve been to the DOB before and the basic file had almost no info, so if there is some treasure trove down there, i want in on it!
First check out Brooklyn DOB for a Brooklyn house.
Address: 210 Joralemon Street 8th floor room 816 bet. Adams and Court Streets.
Ypu may also try t get a copy from the I-card available sometimes on HD website.
If there were any plans filed after 1983 then there is microfilm as well.
It might actually be more helpful to ask what you are planning on using the original plans for? If the goal is to do renovations or an addition, then you will almost certainly need a comprehensive survey of the existing building to create architectural plans for the new work.
We can create a detailed survey drawing set to use as the basis for further design work. Please contact us at 718-852-2650. http://www.jpda.net
There are also very interesting historical records located at the Brooklyn Historical Society. If not blueprints, often the advertisements by the developers of the 19th Century showing the row of houses being constructed and the dates. You have to call to make an appointment to use their library. Their librarians are very helpful. Check it out.
Brooklyn house, start at Brooklyn DOB
My house was built in 1880. Two owners from same family since I bought it two years ago. I went to the DOB and asked to see the file for my address. They said since there has been no action on my house there is nothing on film. So, they went to “the basement” and retrieved my “original file”. In that file was a copy of a plumbing upgrade from the 40’s and my a copy of the original blueprints and building permit. The previous owner showed me the original blueprints at my closing. She kept them. There were also some differences from the plans to what was actually built. But were the same house.
The plans on file for my house at the DOB are not my house. It shows 3 windows across the back side of the parlor floor, for example, which actually has always had only two windows. There are numerous differences and the plans – which are certainly old – are also just as certainly NOT the plans from which the house was built. Probably they were a generic brownstone plan rammed thru the DOB back when they did the original files in 1907 (ever wonder why all of the houses appear to date from 1907? Many brownstones were built 30 or more years earlier, just the DOB added ALL the files at once in 1907.) Who here thinks corruption at the DOB isn’t a city tradition?
Anyhow, that was the long way of saying if there are plans on file, if it’s a rowhouse, there’s not much of a guarantee they’re actually your house.
For the basement records you’re talking about, does one go the DOB in lower Manhattan, or the one in Downtown Brooklyn?
DOB records (in Manhattan) start around 1867 – prior to that, you won’t find anything. After that, it is somewhat hit or miss, particularly for row houses. Records for buildings south of 38th Street (approximately, don’t remember the exact street) are available at the Municipal Archives on Chambers Street. Records for all buildings are available at Manhattan DOB on microfilm. Again, original records will not necessarily be available (but sometimes later alteration plans are just as useful).
Records for Brooklyn are much less hit, much more miss. I don’t know when Brooklyn established a DOB, but it was sometime in the late 1860s or early 1870s. Older (pre-1930) records are very few and far between, particularly for the lower blocks (older sections of town). But they do exist for some blocks/lots, so it’s worth a look. And even if DOB has the folder, they might well claim otherwise. (Also, if you find your folder, copy everything in it – if you go back 6 months later, something is liable to have gone missing – I’m dealing with exactly that scenario right now!)
The dates that the city has for buildings in some of their databases doesn’t have anything to do with whether or not they have the records – I think there were some default dates that a lot of properties were set to. Basically, if a city database has a date for a building, don’t believe unless you’ve corroborated it via a new building record at DOB or other research.