House of the Day Brooklyn Heights

Brooklyn Heights Greek Revival With Mantels, Plasterwork Asks $9.2 Million

This brick row house retains elegant period details, and a top-floor unit has columns reportedly salvaged from the S.S. Normandie.

parlor with ceiling mantel, plastwerwork, black marble mantel

Photo via Corcoran

by Susan De Vries

05/07/2026 0

Divided up into apartments since the 1940s, this Brooklyn Heights row house still retains some 19th century details and has a quirky top floor apartment that includes some items reportedly salvaged from the S.S. Normandie. On the block-long Monroe Place within the Brooklyn Heights Historic District, the five-story Greek Revival has a lower duplex and three floor-through units above.

The circa 1840s brick dwelling at 12 Monroe Place was still a single-family in the early 20th century, when it was occupied by two sisters and their servants. Grace and Louise Newman, whose family founded the Brooklyn dry goods store T.A. & L. F Newman, moved into 12 Monroe Place by 1910. The family shop was founded in the early 19th century and survived until formally dissolved in 1953. Grace and Louise shared the house until their deaths in 1925 and 1937 respectively. At the time of Louise’s death, she was the owner of the family business. After her passing, the Downtown Brooklyn store moved to Montague Street at the corner of Clinton Avenue.

Certificates of occupancy and i-cards show the house was converted into a five-family building in the 1940s and then a four-family in the 1960s. In 1958, it was purchased by the late Martin and Rona Schneider. Martin Schneider was an advocate and activist for the neighborhood, joining in the early efforts to preserve it, including fights against Robert Moses and the push for designation of the historic district. The journalist produced a short documentary on Brooklyn and authored the volume Battling for Brooklyn Heights.

The owner’s duplex includes the parlor and garden levels, with the kitchen at the rear of the parlor floor and bedrooms on the garden level. The three rental units, one of which is currently rented, have one bedroom and one bath each. According to the listing, the top floor unit has finds salvaged from the S.S. Normandie. The 1930s ocean liner caught fire in the Hudson River in 1942 when it was being converted for wartime use. The ship was scrapped and items salvaged from the wreckage. Doors rescued from the liner can also be found in the neighborhood, installed at Our Lady of Lebanon Church on Remsen Street circa 1947.

In the duplex of 12 Monroe Place, the front parlor still has some Greek Revival era nods with ear moldings, a pilaster framed doorway, and a black marble mantel. The crown molding appears ornamented with a popular Greek Revival detail, the anthemion. The ceiling has delicate plasterwork and a ceiling medallion.

Some of those details are repeated in the adjoining dining room. Here the original rear wall window openings appear to have been left in place and converted to doors, providing access to the kitchen in a two-story rear wing. Only a glimpse of the kitchen is shown, but it appears to have white cabinets and access to the rear yard.

Downstairs, the garden level has two bedrooms and a full bath reachable via its own exterior entrance. At the rear of the floor is a family room, full bath, and office space, according to the floor plan. Laundry and storage, including a cedar closet, are in the cellar.

The listing shows images of two of the rental units, and both appear in move-in condition. One has an updated kitchen with slab-front blue cabinets and white subway tile on the walls.

The living room of the top floor unit sports a porthole window and a wood columns — some of the elements reportedly from the S.S. Normandie. The apartment also has the benefit of its own outdoor space with a terrace roomy enough for outdoor dining and lounging.

The rear yard is accessible via the parlor and garden levels. Enclosed on two sides by brick walls, the garden has planting beds, a bit of lawn, and a pathway leading to a stone patio at the rear.

Corcoran’s Jeff R. Gallo, Behzad Amiri, and Dan Chen have the listing, and the house is priced at $9.2 million. Worth the ask?

[Listing: 12 Monroe Place | Broker: Corcoran] GMAP