A Little Love for Prospect Heights
Yesterday The Sun published a wonderful piece on Prospect Heights by Francis Morrone that highlights the neighborhood’s enduring charm and architectural splendors. Morrone notes that Prospect Heights is sure to be named a historic district at some point, and he praises Vanderbilt’s mellow charm, the well-preserved row houses on Prospect Place and St. Mark’s Avenue,…
Yesterday The Sun published a wonderful piece on Prospect Heights by Francis Morrone that highlights the neighborhood’s enduring charm and architectural splendors. Morrone notes that Prospect Heights is sure to be named a historic district at some point, and he praises Vanderbilt’s mellow charm, the well-preserved row houses on Prospect Place and St. Mark’s Avenue, and the industrial grandeur surrounding the rail yards, which includes a structure that’s not long for this world:
A plaintive note: The Ward Bakery, at 800 Pacific Street, clearly visible to the south across the yards, dates from 1911. It’s one of the most beautiful of the city’s early reinforced-concrete factories, sheathed in white brick and white terra-cotta that were meant to convey the utter cleanliness of the bakery’s operations, which involved producing 250,000 loaves of bread a day. The bakery operated (as Pechter Fields) until 1995. At more than a million square feet in floor area, it seems insane that it could not have been saved and adaptively reused in any new development around here. Rather, it is being torn down.
Sound familiar? The whole piece is well worth a read.
Prospect Heights Grandeur [The Sun]
Photo by threecee.
Nostalgic on Park Avenue:
You are too reasonable, humane and grownup to post on this website. You might be more comfortable somewhere else.
Like reading your stuff, though.
that is funny I moved to St. Marks btw Flatbush and Carlton back in 1999 and all my native NY cousins told me to be careful you live in Crown Heights and it is kinda sketchy esp labor day weekend… I corrected them and told them no Prospect Hts and they all got a good laugh. Now I see RE ads that have PH all the way to Franklin. I sold my condo last year for a little more than double and brought a house in Bedford Stuyvesant… oh sorry Stuyvesant Heights…
Brownstoner:
This neighborhood was Crown Heights when I was growing up nearby in the 1950s.
Back then, Crown Heights extended from Fulton Street to Empire Boulevard between Flatbush and Kingston Avenues. And the soon-to-be-landmarked area was one of the “poor” sides of the neighborhood.
It’s all in the branding, of course, that’s tied to real estate values, and as development from Prospect Heights sweeps over Washinton Avenue, I’m sure real estate agents will start saying Nostrand Avenue is part of Prospect Heights, too.
Of course, not all people will buy the sales pitch. Some of my family members, fourth generation Park Slopers, still don’t know what the other side of Flatbush Avenue is called. “That’s Bedford Stuyvesant, isn’t it?” one asked recently. “No,” I answered, “they call it Prospect Heights now, but it was Crown Heights when we were growing up.” “But it’s still not safe, is it?” she replied.
Old assumptions die hard, so I thought the best thing to do was to take a group of us on a drive on the other side of Flatbush. (So circumscribed is my family’s Park Slope life that they didn’t know how to get to Eastern Parkway!)
The Parkway looked great, and so did many of the sidestreets, especially within the Crown Heights North Historic District, where I was a youngster. Buildings restored. Old houses in good shape. And a wonderful variety of architecture, more varied, in fact, than Park Slope, and more colorful too (probably because the neighborhood’s housing is newer and built during an architecturally eclectic period). Even some of the apartments were as I remembered, right down to the awnings over the sidewalk.
As Crown Heights continues to improve, I hope the residents insist on keeping its name. It would be a fitting tribute to them and their hard work in keeping things up.
What a great visit, after more than 45 years away! Next time I’m going to have to spend hours — on foot.
Nostalgic on Park Avenue
Nice try, 12:36. Stats from 2007 showed nearly every murder in NYC were committed by people who knew the victim. They were not crimes committed by strangers. All the truly scary people are in the suburbs. Case in point, every single school shooting ever, in this country. Total nutjobs in middle America.
Landmarking is mostly concerned with what you can see from the street. That can often include what you can see from across the street, so roof lines, etc can be a factor in alterations. If your backyard can be seen from the street, LPC will also be concerned with what is going on back there too.
“It sure it a Poorman’s PS, and that’s why we can afford to live there.”
Judging by some of the most recent brownstone listings, it is no longer the “poorman’s PS”. It will be interesting to see how those sale prices fare.
I’m so glad that people are paying attention to PH. It sure it a Poorman’s PS, and that’s why we can afford to live there.
Doesn’t the LPC cover backyards too? I never understood why, but I thought I read that here at some point. Do they just over look all the stuff that would never pass the DOB like roof decks and non-permitted extensions or do they narc on people?
Thanks so much Montrose Morris.