Real Estate

Crown Heights Wood Palace Asking Under $2 Million and More Open Houses to See This Weekend

Our picks for open houses to see this week include a modernized circa 1860s wood-frame that is one of the oldest houses in the Stuyvesant Heights Historic District and a three-family in Gravesend with an unusual turret that resembles a minaret.

Photo by Anton Brookes, H5 Photography, courtesy of The Corcoran Group

by Stephen Zacks

07/26/2019 5 minute 0

Our open house picks for this weekend include a home in the Crown Heights Historic District bursting with original details, a single-family townhouse in Greenpoint with a marble mantel and modern updates, a modernized circa 1860s wood-frame that is one of the oldest houses in the Stuyvesant Heights Historic District, and a three-family in Gravesend with an unusual turret that resembles a minaret. They range in price from $1.995 million for the one in Prospect Heights, which has central air along with all of the woodwork, to $1.34 million for the unusual brick house in Gravesend. The last one is showing on Monday.

Starting with the place in the Crown Heights Historic District, 819 Prospect Place has a distinctive exterior with neo-Classical columns supporting a balustrade, atop which is a three-sided window bay projecting from the brick facade, which also sports ornamental pillars. It reflects the extensive woodwork to be found inside, including built-in benches, mantels, wainscoting, door and window frames, built-in bookcases and a wine cabinet. The fireplaces have brightly glazed tiles, and there are three sets of stairs. It’s on the market for $1.995 million, but there may be a catch: PropertyShark lists it as a two-family, although it has three kitchens (one in the below grade basement), and you have to walk through the parlor of the first unit to get to the upper duplex.

In Greenpoint at 569 Humboldt Street, a petite single-family circa 1850s wood-frame Italianate mixes original details and updates. It all looks very livable as is but some owners may want to upgrade the circa-1980s bathroom, replace the composite facade and restore its missing details and cornice, and check into the steel bracing mounted on an adjacent property. We see an original marble mantel and new flooring in the two-story townhouse, unless we are deceived by the not very realistically virtually staged photos. It’s listed for $1.699 million.

Then, at 47 Chauncey Street, we have a circa 1867-1870 single-family wood-frame house with a porch that is one of the three oldest in the Stuyvesant Heights Historic District. It was a gutted shell when it was last on the market, and although it has been saved it retains little original detail. The interior has been renovated in a mostly incongruous modern style, with an open floor plan, a plethora of downlights, blond wood floors, and a gas fireplace that doubles as a divider in the great room. The windows and parts of the staircase may be original, but mantels that were present when the house was last on the market don’t seem to have survived, at least going by what’s shown in the listing. It’s asking $1.599 million.

Finally, at 3 Parkway Court in Gravesend, there’s an early 20th century brick house with an unusual corner turret that resembles a minaret and multi-colored clay roof tile. The building has three units, each with its own entrance. It also has a driveway shared with a handful of other houses and a wide interior garage. The photos show a good amount of original detail and everything appears to be in good condition, despite some mid-20th-century paneling on one wall of a dining room and in the basement unit. This one is on the market for $1.35 million.