Model Homes on Montgomery? (Calling on Montrose)
The houses on Montgomery Place in Park Slope, many of which were designed by C.P.H. Gilbert, are quite varied in style. Someone once told me that the variation was partly due to the fact that the houses were intended to serve as model homes — potential buyers could view them and choose to have them…
The houses on Montgomery Place in Park Slope, many of which were designed by C.P.H. Gilbert, are quite varied in style. Someone once told me that the variation was partly due to the fact that the houses were intended to serve as model homes — potential buyers could view them and choose to have them replicated elsewhere in the borough. That seemed a little fishy to me, so I dismissed it as folklore.
Lately, however, I’ve noticed that some of the house styles on Montgomery are in fact repeated in slightly modified form on other streets in Brooklyn. The Gilbert house in the photo above, for example, was completed in 1890. From 1892 to 1894, homes by other architects that are very similar to Gilbert’s (and virtually identical to each other) were built on Carroll, 5th and Dean Streets (all data is from the LPC designation reports). Another Gilbert on Montgomery from 1889 has doppelgangers on 4th Street that were built in 1891.
I still don’t think there’s any truth to the model home story. However, I can’t seem to find any houses in Brooklyn that are similar to Gilbert’s designs and also predate them. It looks like Gilbert inspired a number of copycats in his day. Montrose, any insights or theories?
Thanks to both of you. Gilbert and the others designing for specific patrons would explain both the variety and the fact that, with few exceptions, there are no exact duplicates of the Montgomery Place houses elsewhere in Brooklyn.
I think most of Gilbert’s houses were literally unique when built (can’t find any older buildings like them in the five boroughs), and then within a short time copies with minor trim variations popped up in various rows of spec houses. As you suggested, it’s almost as if the architects or developers of those rows thought, “I like that No. 58. I’m going to stick a copy in my row.†It’s strange to find a single house that may in fact be the original prototype for many copies that followed.
Just re-read your question, and wanted to add this: Gilbert and the rest of the architects on Montgomery, Carroll, Garfield, etc, were often designing for specific buyers, or at least for a well-heeled potential buyer. Many of the designation report entries read, “XX Montgomery St, built for…..”, so these buyers may have even requested certain features, as per any custom house. Most of those homes had interior and exterior bells and whistles that the architects knew they couldn’t put in your average home, and on Montgomery, especially, they all knew that this was going to be THE street, so they were all showing off. The hand cast hardware, the massive solid doors, the profusion of stained glass in very ornate or otherwise expensive patterns, and the architectural details like loggias and upper balconies, all that would not be affordable to the masses, which was the whole point.
What my friend Amzi said. I’m sure developers and builders looked at successful designs in upscale neighborhoods and had their people knock them off the same way designer clothing is knocked off.
Also, a lot of these guys worked with each other at some point in their careers, and ideas and designs rubbed off. For example, Magnus Dahlander and Frederick Langston and Axel Hedman all designed separately, and had very successful careers on their own. But for many years, Langston & Dahlander were partners, and it is very hard to tell where one starts and the other stops, design wise. Dahlander houses often look like Langston houses, and vice versa. Axel Hedman had a very identifiable personal style, but when he partnered for a time with Dahlander, their lines blur, as well.
Some architects, like John L. Young, and many whose names I’ve come across, but can’t remember right now, were design chameleons, and could give you a building “in the style of” (insert architect’s name here). These guys mess up my casual identification of buildings all the time. Young was actually very good, too.
Finally, since there is only so much you can do with an 15-22′ facade, during certain stylistic periods, many of the same details were just in the repertoire of almost everyone, from hack to genius. If a developer wanted to come in under a certain price point, for your average middle class row of houses, you see even the major architects phoning it in, repeating motifs and basic facades over and over, changing up some of the decorative details for variety. The fantastic and varied facades of Montgomery St, and surrounding streets were only affordable by the rich, even then.
There was a lot of coping going on in those days and the same thing happens today… Amzi Hill and I. D. Reynolds have styles that are so similar that even I can’t tell them apart. When you go to suburbia you see similar looking homes all over America. I am sure if you look in the city you can find a C.P.H. Gilbert looking house by someone else on the UWS or UES. I think Montgomery Place was a model block as a standard of good living.