Bed Stuy Renaissance Revival Limestone Has Beaucoup Details, Asks $1.25 Million
Here’s what we can tell you about this Renaissance Revival limestone at 535 Decatur Street in Bed Stuy: It’s a two-story, two-family home with some fetching original details on the parlor level. There’s plenty we can’t tell you, as the listing offers few details, no floorplan and photos that depict only a fraction of the…
Here’s what we can tell you about this Renaissance Revival limestone at 535 Decatur Street in Bed Stuy: It’s a two-story, two-family home with some fetching original details on the parlor level. There’s plenty we can’t tell you, as the listing offers few details, no floorplan and photos that depict only a fraction of the property.
That would be the front parlor and the entryway, which are documented from numerous angles, showcasing the aforementioned detail: fireplace mantels and mirrors, tin ceilings, original floors, plaster detailing, carved woodwork, wainscoting.
What’s in the rest of the 2,475-square-foot house is left to the imagination. It seems safe to guess that some work is needed, quite likely a lot of it. There are plenty of reasons to believe condition is rough — eyeball the front cornice, for example, or the condition of the floors.
The house — which has been under the same ownership since 1987, according to PropertyShark — has a garden floor, but the listing calls it a two-story, so unless that’s in error it must house the basement.
The ask is $1.25 million, which is perhaps a stretch if the place needs the serious work we’re imagining it does. But like we said, there’s a lot we don’t know.
What do you think of what you see?
[Listing: 535 Decatur Street | Broker: Elliot Nicks] GMAP
Related Stories
Strict Victorian Restoration in Bed Stuy
Big Brick Carroll Gardens Building With Side Garden Wants $3.595 Million
Elegant Clinton Hill Italianate With Ornate Ceilings, Updated Kitchen Asks $3,999,999
Hopefully this pricepoint will protect the irreplaceable interior details from the idiotic flippers who think they aren’t attractive to buyers. Conversely, one hopes a buyer who dislikes these historic details will do the right thing and simply buy elsewhere.
The old city records called these houses two-story. The ‘garden level’ was / is called a basement (I know, this topic has been dredged up countless times on this board, but now even the reporters don’t grasp it?) and below it was / is the cellar. In the 19th century, even middle class homeowners had household help, and so, except for coming down to the basement-level front dining room for meals, which were prepared by a “girl”, they dwelled almost exclusively on the two-stories above.
I see the famous, if overused, link to the “strict” Victorian interior NYTimes article has been tagged onto this. I happen to know that that house is right across the street from the subject house of this post. It’s a great, tree-lined block in a great district, with easy access to transit, unlike much of western BedStuy. And do Bushwickers really see these fine old blocks of masonry structures as “rough around the edges”? Lacking the sleekness of vinyl siding, perhaps.