This Weekend: Houses in PLG, Gardens in FG, CH, PH
The 37th Annual Prospect Lefferts Gardens House and Garden Tour goes down on Sunday from 12 to 5 and, as usual, this is looking like a can’t-miss event. Among the many turn-of-the-century brownstone and limestone houses on the tour, we think the former rooming house that has undergone a DIY period restoration by its owners…
The 37th Annual Prospect Lefferts Gardens House and Garden Tour goes down on Sunday from 12 to 5 and, as usual, this is looking like a can’t-miss event. Among the many turn-of-the-century brownstone and limestone houses on the tour, we think the former rooming house that has undergone a DIY period restoration by its owners sounds particularly fascinating. At the other end of the spectrum, a 1906 home whose interior was destroyed by a fire in the 1970s provides an example of a more modern take on the townhouse. To buy tix in advance follow the link below or stop in at K-Dog & Dunebuggy or Easy Access Real Estate.
Sunday is also the day for the Brownstone Brooklyn Garden District Garden Walk through Fort Greene, Clinton Hill and Prospect Heights. There are 17 (!) gardens on the tour this year. Highlights include a pair of storied gardens that fall in the Atlantic Yards footprint and may not be around much longer as well as a triple-lot garden with cascades and ponds. Tickets are $15 in advance at Tillie’s and the Forest Floor and are $20 on Sunday at Tillie’s, the Forest Floor and the BAM Triangle Garden. The tour runs from 11-5 and shuttle buses will be running.
37th Annual House & Garden Tour [LeffertsManor.org]
Brownstone Brooklyn Garden District Garden Walk [phndc.org]
Disagree totally 10:13. We went on the tour too, and saw only smiles. We had a great time. Yours is a strange comment to me.
The only people who seemed distant or distracted were a couple of the homeowners. Maybe they overheard some cattiness earlier in the day. Like we see here! I didn’t overhear anything like that myself, but I’ve heard tell it happens.
Yeah we saw that, 10:24, everyone addressed it already, the fact that you’re attempting to make people believe the only neighborhood in all of NYC that has crime is PLG. I guess you missed the news about the murders in Bed-Stuy, Midwood, Carroll Gardens and Fort Greene the last few weeks and months. Or is May 27th the only day this year you picked up a newspaper? They do print one every day you know.
Did anyone else catch this in the May 27 New York Times:
“…outside 105 Winthrop Street in Prospect Lefferts Gardens in Brooklyn, a group of men surrounded a 30-year-old man and stabbed him several times, the police said. The victim, whose name was not released, was also taken to Kings County Hospital Center in critical condition, they said.”
I didn’t think there was a problem the houses. I didn’t see anything I’d write home about, but I didn’t see anything I’d be embarrassed about, either.
However, I do agree with 8:04 that there was a strange ‘atmosphere’ surrounding this event. ‘Dour’ seems like to strong of a word to describe it. I thought people seemed distracted, as though there hearts were somewhere else.
Was there a game on or something?
Whoops–make that “on spec”
I don’t agree with Anon.9:07’s”middle of the road” comment(no surprise to people who’ve read my many posts about PLG–I DO have an ax to grind here) and actually thought this was one of our best HTs and much of the restoration/renovation was VERY high quality.(I can’t compare it to last year’s though–I didn’t get out of my own home, which was on tour).
However, the term might “middle of the road” might well apply to our neighborhood. With the exception of a handful of houses like the Todd mansions on Maple Street, houses here are not as grand as the largest individually designed Brownstones in the Heights, Park Slope’s “gold coast”, or the mansions in “the Hill.” Those houses were built for the extremely wealthy.
Houses in Lefferts Manor and other PLG blocks were intended for the substantial upper middle class of the turn of the last century and were often built on spes, in large groups. They are, on the other hand, generally more elaborate than “ordinary ” brownstones in many other areas (for example the two houses in which I rented apartments in the South Slope–no offense intended).
For me, this is one of the attractions of my neighborhood–yrmv
I agree that something was a little “off” at this year’s PLG house tour. The selection of homes struck me as, while certainly not bad, fairly middle-of-the-road, and this can have a more dramatic effect on people’s frame of mind than it should when those people have inflated hopes. So, the problem may not be with the tour itself so much as the pumped up expectations that people bring to the table.
Oh, I forgot–the Clarkson Ave. house was also a surprise. Although I was in this house on aprevious PLG HT about 25 years ago, I had forgotten that these houses were virtually identical to the 4 story houses on Midwood Street which are my favorites. Obviously done by the same builder.
IMO Mr B.s pre-tour assessment,based on the written description, was spot on.
His picks for most interesting houses were”the former rooming house that has undergone a DIY period restoration by its owners sounds particularly fascinating.[and] At the other end of the spectrum, a 1906 home whose interior was destroyed by a fire in the 1970s provides an example of a more modern take on the townhouse.
The former was no surprise to me as I’ve known the owners and the house for many years. The latter WAS a surprise–I don’t usually care for modern renovations,but this one was stunning.