Brooklyn Heights: Twentieth Century Fox

After undergoing eight distinctive architectural trends in the nineteenth century, the Heights returned to its roots during the Colonial Revival by adopting a style reminiscent of early Federalist architecture. Beginning in 1890 into the 1940s, this revival was similar to past imitation styles such as the Greek, Gothic, and Romanesque Revival with the distinct exception of being the only revival whose source was rooted in a style belonging to America. Perhaps it was a sense of a nationalism that surged through New York at the time that drew architects to design in a manner reminiscent of Federalist architecture or just what happened to be trendy at the time. Regardless, it is clear that the start of Colonial Revival can be traced to a tour conducted by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead, Bigelow, and White that examined Georgian houses of New England in 1877.

A four-story house located at 109 Willow Street was designed by John Petit in 1905 and is a classic example of the Colonial Revival style. With a front wall piece of Flemish-bond brickwork with dark headers and stone lintels nearly identical to the ones adorning Federal houses down the block, this Colonial Revival could pass for Federal style if not for distinct out of scale features such as large, over powering columns on each side of the front door a main cornice that exemplifies the height of this four-story building.
–CUNY Honors Website

BH 20th Century Architecture [CUNY Honors]