In 1890, This "Gothic, Romanesque, French Renaissance" Home Captivated Park Slope

Designed by none other than Brooklyn’s great Montrose Morris, the palatial home at the corner of Montgomery Place and Prospect Park West was considered “one of the finest specimens of household architecture in the city” before it was even finished.

The home of businessman and future Park Commissioner Jacob G. Dettmar, the elaborately decorated building was soon featured in a story in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

Seen from the street, the home was striking.

The exterior presents a most pleasing picture to the eye and is one calculated to challenge admiration from all beholders. The house is three stories in height up to the eaves, a fourth floor being contained under the high tiled roof. The corner portion on Ninth Avenue and Montgomery place consists of a round tower like structure, which rises from the ground and ends in a sharp cone shaped roof of brown Spanish tile.

The main hall was a mind-blowingly elaborate wood lover’s dream.

This hallway is a marvel of beauty and furnishes one of the best examples of the wood finisher’s art to be seen in this country. Everything is oak, and everywhere is seen the most marvelous carving in that favorite rich wood. The wainscotings and side walls are in small, square panels, highly burnished, while the ceiling is composed of a maze of panels carved to represent basket work…

The double front parlor was so white, it needed a “wealth” of gold leaf to “relieve” the look.

A more beautiful pair of parlors than these would be difficult to conceive. Everything in this room is white. The wood work is painted and finished and rubbed down in ivory white, with a polish which fairly glitters. …The ceilings are to be covered with fine frescoes and the intense white of the wood work is to be relieved with a wealth of gold leaf.

The upper floors were no less ornate.

Here the woodwork is of a different character in each room, cypress, hazel, white holly, sycamore and red cherry being used for the doors and joiner work. The ceilings will all have marine decorations, and will represent water, with fish and sea shells.

But did Dettmer’s gorgeous home make him a target for thievery?

In February of 1896, a thief broke into the home and took off with $4,000 worth of diamonds and other jewelry. In reporting the theft, the New York Times made sure to remind readers that “Jacob G. Dettmer owns one of the finest homes in the city.” It’s doubtful the missing goods were ever recovered.

Alas, this gorgeous home is no more. The Dettmers sold it in 1919, and by late 1928 it was torn down and replaced by a 15-story Park Avenue-style apartment building designed by Emery Roth — architect of the St. George Hotel and a number of other luxury apartments in the city.

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