The Original 135 Willow Street
In case you didn’t make it through all the comments on yesterday’s Co-ops of the Day post about 135 Willow Street, NorthHeights posted a link to a Bernice Abbott photo of the houses that stood on the site before the 112-unit building was constructed in the 1950s. No blogs back then! GMAP
A couple more thoughts since no one is posting today. The design for the new 222 Columbia Heights was approved by the Landmarks Commission in 1982, this incredible site had stood vacant for almost forty years. The house was designed as the residence of a developer -Bruce Eichner perhaps? and was very controversial because it featured a private garage,
At first everyone called it the “tootsie roll building” for obvious reasons. Had the original house survived to 1965 it would of course have been protected from demolition by the landmarks law.
One of the houses torn down in the northern part of Columbia Heights in the late forties/early fifties for the expressway was the home were the Roeblings lived and where the yonger Roebling, incapacitated by the bends, supervised the construction with the aid of a telescope. It is amazing to think that in the 1950’s no one cared a bit about any of this remarkable history and the house was torn down like any old worthless slum dwelling.
the original 222 Columbia Heights (designed by architect Richard Upjohn) burned down shortly after WWII. This was just before the City demolished the northern blocks of Columbia Heights to make way for the construction of the Expressway. Middagh Street used to run all the way to the waterfront -Abbott took pictures of this vanished block as well. Too bad the street does not connect to the docks any more as it would have made an ideal entry to the future Brooklyn Bridge park, which I fear will be somewhat isolated from the neighborhood.
Berenice.
(You get it wrong every time!)
Thanks zee-bee. I decided to not be so lazy and search the site here for the original thread. I ordered a print from them months ago and never received anything…
I googled 220 Willow to see and compare the new building to the Cornell mansion, but unfortunately it’s covered by a tarp — guess it was being renovated. I’ll have to check it out come spring.
Wasder, it’s the city records department – the city took property photos in the 1930s-40s for tax purposes.
Check out http://www.nyc.gov/html/records/html/taxphotos/home.shtml
no prob =p thanks for the links
Who knows the name of the agency where you can buy old photos of your house? I remember there was a thread a few months back about it but I can’t remember where to go.
YngRntr, thank you for the correction! I misspoke. Clearly the building that is there now is not a renovation of the Cornell mansion. While the structure is, in my opinion, fairly attractive as far as “new” structures go, it still doesn’t come close to the charm of the Cornell mansion. Thanks again.