Real Estate

Grand Park Slope 'Artistic' Home With Inglenook, Conservatory on Park Block Asks $4.75 Million

The brownstone also has a splendid dining room with coffered ceilings, an elaborate built-in china cabinet, and a columned and mirrored mantel with an onyx fireplace surround.

by Stephen Zacks

03/20/2019 4 minute 0

If you’re looking for a design feature to flaunt your extremely recherché aesthetic tastes to friends and colleagues, look no further than the inglenook in this grand brownstone designed by fin de siècle Brooklyn architect Benjamin Driesler. Warm domestic gathering spaces centered around fireplaces, inglenooks became the rage in the late 19th and early 20th century just as, ironically, central heating was becoming widespread and the fireplace as necessary heat source was waning, but perhaps it’s time to bring back the inglenook as a reaction to increasing depersonalization and the decline in face-to-face interaction. This one is carved into the third floor landing of 598 2nd Street in Park Slope and is embellished with a tiered and hooded Arts and Crafts mantel and fretwork screen, topped with garlanded trim, a detail that appears throughout this exceptionally well-preserved circa 1903 home in the historic district.

It’s part of an eclectic row of 26 on 2nd Street, all designed by Driesler in a variety of styles including Renaissance Revival, Gothic Revival, and in the case of No. 598, Romanesque Revival, so-identified for features like its rusticated round-arched fourth floor window with keystone. A 1903 ad for the row when it was built referred to the inglenook as a “Turkish corner” and said the “homes for the most exacting persons” had many “artistic features.”

The designation report identifies the builder as William H. Reynolds of the First Construction Company, noting the alternating rounded and three-sided bays, and neo-Classical cornices made of sheetmetal. This one has a rounded bay ornamented by foliate friezes with crests, and the windows have pilasters with unusual capitals. The upper two floors are built of orange brick.

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Other unusually grand features include a conservatory and a splendid dining room with coffered ceilings, an elaborate built-in china cabinet, and a columned and mirrored mantel with an onyx fireplace surround. Elsewhere are more mantels with classical columns and carved wreaths, pier mirrors and brightly colored stained glass.

When the house was last on the market, the kitchen had been updated with a new Victorian style encaustic tile floor, but the photos indicate that it has been replaced with herringbone-patterned tile. A bathroom shown in a previous listing was immaculate, and remains so in the current photos. The passthrough sink and closet areas are still intact, according to the floor plan.

A few other highlights include a terrace, deck and mechanical upgrades, including central air. A legal two-family, is in use as a one-family and has altogether six bedroom and three bathrooms.

Located half a block from Prospect Park, the house last traded hands in 2015 for $4.45 million, according to ACRIS. Now it’s looking for $4.75 million. Lesley Semmelhack and Amanda McAvena are handling the listing for Corcoran. Is the price right?

[Listing: 598 2nd Street | Broker: Corcoran] GMAP