303 Park Pl: If You Don't Like Old Houses, Don't Buy One!
You’d think that people who have no appreciation for older architecture could find a house that’s already missing its original details when it comes time for them to buy something. Instead, some people (like the new owners of 303 Park Place) buy a gorgeous historic home and proceed to strip it to the bone. Here’s…
You’d think that people who have no appreciation for older architecture could find a house that’s already missing its original details when it comes time for them to buy something. Instead, some people (like the new owners of 303 Park Place) buy a gorgeous historic home and proceed to strip it to the bone. Here’s what the Craigslist ad (which expired over the weekend) said:
Due to remodeling of a 100-year old Prospect Heights 1-family brownstone, we are offering selected antique Victorian architectural items. This is a one-time chance to improve your home with gorgeous authentic details that are seldom on the market. Items include Victorian oak fireplace mantels, redwood staircase complete with 3 stair runs, curving railings, balusters, Tiffany-style stained glass window panels, Victorian solid gingerbread entrance doors, antique tin ceiling tiles, ornate glass ceiling chandeliers, hinges and doorknobs and more.
Can any neighbors let us know what the couple plans to do with this place? Ugh.
House of the Day: 303 Park Place [Brownstoner] GMAP P*Shark
Victorian Antique Architectural Items [Craigslist]
Mr.B, I agree with you 110%. I have no problem with a stripped down modern loft look if there is no detail left, but that’s like buying an expensive, richly decorated cake and then scraping off all of the icing. The owner of this house paid a premium for all of the intact detail, why not work with it, or then find a place that is a blank slate?
It is possible to decorate or renovate in a minimalist style and still keep some of the elements of the original home. This mixture of the old and new is fresh, and interesting. People with really ancient homes in Paris, Rome, London, and all over Europe, do it all the time, to great success. Too bad they don’t look over there for inspiration. Magazines are everywhere.
What a shame. The only redeeming thing is that they are selling the details, instead of dumping it. That’s enough to call off the mob, but they still get a hearty “boo!” from me.
Preservationista
Rehab, when you are ready to sell, let me know. I’d like to buy your house – so I can gut it.
Thanks!
Hey Mr. Brownstoner, maybe the owners of the house would like to chat with you about their reasons for stripping the details.
How about posting YOUR address so they can find you?
I can’t help myself so I’m going to say it again (you’re making me do it Mr. B. because of your unbelievable hubris – much like the time you thought the developers were sending you death threats) –
You have demonstrated by showing a) your person in public and b) the interior of your house and choices you’ve made, that you are in absolutely no position to discuss anyone elses choice of interior/exterior design or personal style. If I bought your brownstone, I would have to rip all the disgusting choices that you have made out of the place – like those revolting Mr. Slim a/c units and covers for them that you are so proud of as well as your “beautifully” conceived areas for displayng your “vinyl” collection – yetch!
I personally like detail and kept lots of it in my house while trying to modernize around it but I would never have the guts to say to anyone “why would you buy and old house and…”
Next time I’m leaving you a dead squirrel…
Craigslist post has been removed.
It’s easy and (apparently) fun for a lot of posters who don’t care about historic buildings to have a little wank-off moment on this thread, but why anybody should think it’s funny that an ever-scarcer piece of the city’s history is being pissed away is, well, fucked up.
I love modern and old, I appreciate that some people find Victoriana oppressive, I know it’s difficult and expensive to rehab an old place (believe me, I know) and I agree that people should be able to decorate how they want.
But detail-rich houses are an incredibly scarce resource, irreplaceable, and getting scarcer by the minute. Like, THIS minute, above.
Meanwhile, houses that would be infinitely easier to take modern are available anyplace you want them, simpler, straighter, more efficient, better insulated, and much less expensive. Go get ’em.
Read the headline again.
But this makes no sense. At any point in time, there are many houses on the market that are already stripped of detail, AND are generally discounted relative to others because of that. Why not just buy one of those, where 1/2 the work is already done for you, than proceed to completely strip another house?
While I don’t really understand paying the premium for the period details only to remove them, I believe homeowners should do what works for them. Perhaps they like the contrast of an old building with a modern look and feel inside. Maybe they are filling their house with sand and making an interior beach. Maybe they think those details are cursed by a ghost that lives under the stairs.
Its their house – they should do what makes them happy. I don’t expect anyone to live in a shrine to the past.
z — @1.65M for a 3 story 2353 ft home(closing on 9/17 *after* the subprime mess hit) that’s $701/sq. foot; valuing the larger 4 story homes on Park and Sterling at at $2.8M and higher