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Work appears to have started up again at the landmarked Susan Elkins house at 1375 Dean Street, the oldest house in Crown Heights North. The man in the photo above appears to be bringing in construction supplies, and the tipster who sent us the photo said he saw permits posted on the house.

The Crown Heights North Association reported the owner, a developer, for “demo by neglect” a few months ago, according to another source. “They had left gaping holes in the roof, which could be seen by people living in the building next door,” she said. “Landmarks was going to get on their butts. They bought the house [several] years ago, and had promised that they were renovating it for apartments, and planned to restore the facade to its 1939 condition, as per the tax photo. They were honored to have such an historic building, blah, blah. Since it’s an individual landmark, they would have to restore it anyway. They did some initial demo and shoring up, and then nothing for years.” Real Properties Group closed on the house in 2011 for $194,000, according to PropertyShark.

A permit that was filed in 1998 by the previous owner and approved in 1999 before the house was landmarked in 2006 was just issued Aug. 16. The scope of work is “minor partition work, repair fire damage, remove and replace all defective windows, remove defective chimney at roof and cap off, scrape and paint, replace all broken doors, repair and paint all cracks at walls, floors and ceilings, new exit signs and lights.” Another proposal, filed in 2011, to change the building type from “other” to a one-, two- or three-family, was disapproved in May of this year. We could not find any document filed with Landmarks to get approval for the work described above. Real Properties Group was reportedly issued a stop work order in 2011 for working without a permit.

Scofflaw Construction at Crown Heights Landmark [Brownstoner]
CHNA Seeks to Purchase Historic Elkins House [Brownstoner] GMAP DOB


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