question to Montrose Morris or other Bklyn brownstone historian

Yes, that is very common. As no-permits said the corner building is usually on a typical size (100′ deep) lot. The building faces the avenue and usually extends back around 50′. That leaves 50′ of rear yard that is adjacent to the side street – a perfect place for a garage. These backyard buildings are always one story so they don’t block the rear windows on the upper floors of the house.

MDR

in About Brooklyn 10 years and 11 months ago

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NewOwner | 11 years ago

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I have a question for all you armchair historians out there. Is there a reason that most brownstone blocks in Brooklyn have one one-story building, usually a garage, near a corner? When the buildings were first developed, was that a public passageway to the back yards? Or is that a coincidence? Thanks!

SewardWasRight | 11 years ago

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Hey New Owner, I don’t see a LOT of brownstone blocks like this, but I have noticed some. It may be particular to your area, esp. if the area was built up near the dawning of the automobile age (actually, see Montrose’s great and thorough series on that) or some areas where people had personal carriages that they kept “around the corner” in stables. So, I think what you are referring to are garages that were built for carriages and automobiles. Back in the day no one parked their carriage on the street – their vehicles went into these buildings that were used as carriage house/stables. Later on, people did the same with their cars. I remember speaking with a woman who was born in my house (1936) and she said that when she was a little girl NO ONE parked on the streets. She told this to me as though it were taboo to even discuss it! 🙂 So, there are a number of old parking garages on many corners – or near many corners – that have, since their construction, been converted to works spaces or homes – once people started parking on the streets. Re: public passageways, I don’t think there were too many blocks with these – if any – in Brooklyn. Land was so dear that owners/speculators broke up the blocks (after the Brooklyn Street grid was laid out) with the intention of using every bit of space as lots for builders to buy, build houses on, and then sell to potential home-owners. Montrose, can you add (or correct! 🙂 any of this? SWR

no-permits | 11 years ago

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i believe it’s just the way the lots were divided. corner buildings most of the time have the same size lot as its neighbors – but might have garages in place of a backyard.

catboot | 11 years ago

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Good question! Our block has one such building, as do the next 3 blocks west.

Bessie | 11 years ago

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Our corner had stores on 3 corners and a garage on the 4th in the rear portion of each property. The DoB records for our house show that the C of O was changed in the late 1920’s to add the stores (they fit 3 of them in 35′ x 20′) and subdivide the brownstone into apartments.

SewardWasRight | 11 years ago

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Hi Bessie – that’s interesting. In our part of Stuyvesant Heights East the opposite happened. There were originally corner stores on nearly every corner, but over the years – probably in the 1960s/70s, the stores were converted to apartments. You can basically see the old outline of the store and what they did to make an apartment out of it.