Real Estate

Rare and Historic Temple-Fronted Greek Revival in Wallabout Wants $4.499 Million

This Greek Revival home at 136 Clinton Avenue in Wallabout is a piece of Brooklyn history. Built by the Lefferts family and dating back to 1835, it’s the last Greek temple-fronted house left in the borough.

Clinton Hill Brooklyn Architecture 136 Clinton Avenue

Photo by Young Gotham

by Chris Erikson

09/19/2016 3 minute 0

Dubbed the Lefferts-Laidlaw House, this Greek Revival home at 136 Clinton Avenue in Wallabout is a piece of Brooklyn history. Built by the Lefferts family and dating back to 1835 — when this area was a suburban retreat for the well-to-do — it’s the last Greek temple-fronted house left in the borough, with its four restored fluted Corinthian columns.

How’s that for curb appeal?

If you’re expecting the same historic splendor within, however, you’ll be disappointed. It’s been renovated, and while it’s perfectly nice, it’s no treasure trove of early 19th-century detail.

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Originally two separate structures, merged by the addition of a single-story wing, it’s a freestanding clapboard house, which sits on a giant lot, measuring 52 by 120 feet. It’s a two-story number, with an open-plan living space with a center kitchen on the first floor.

There are also a pair of bedrooms there; the master suite, with a deck and a clawfoot-tubbed bathroom, takes up the whole of the second floor. There are a handful of fireplaces — one, a simple marble number, looks to be original — and several skylights.

A preservationist with deep pockets could have a field day making a restoration/re-creation project out of this one. Or take it as is, and it looks to be a turnkey.

Listed by Ideal broker Eric Serras, the place is showing at an open house this Sunday, from 3 p.m to 5 p.m. The ask is $4.499 million. What do you make of the place?

[Listing: 136 Clinton Avenue | Broker: Ideal Properties] GMAP