Co-op of the Day: 90 Prospect Park West, #3R
This new listing at 90 Prospect Park West has a lot going for it—prewar charm, park views, lots of rooms—but is also has some challenges: railroad-y layout, small bedrooms and no doorman or elevator. The woodwork in the dining room is particularly impressive, though, as is the $825 maintenance, so there are bound to be…
This new listing at 90 Prospect Park West has a lot going for it—prewar charm, park views, lots of rooms—but is also has some challenges: railroad-y layout, small bedrooms and no doorman or elevator. The woodwork in the dining room is particularly impressive, though, as is the $825 maintenance, so there are bound to be plenty of families eager to take a look, despite the asking price of $1,295,000. Where do you think this ends up selling?
90 Prospect Park West, #3R [Brown Harris Stevens] GMAP P*Shark
If anyone feels there apartment/home is too small for their family, I would recommend a tour of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, where you can see how families of 10 or more lived in a one or two bedroom apartment. Fascinating and unimaginable today.
Gemini10:
Everyone thinks houses have stories. But apartments do, too.
My old building was abandoned when I saw it 25 years after we moved away. (Crown Heights hit bottom by the 80’s.) Now it’s been renovated as “affordable” housing and, from what I saw recently from the street, with all its interiors blown out and rebuilt.
Still, looking up to our windows (the French casements stripped away and replaced by aluminum double-hungs), it was easy to project our life into it — and the ghosts of those letter writers. Maybe there are more such letters, wedged behind the sheetrock.
Thanks for the comments, folks. I just love these old apartments and am trying to figure out a way to keep my family in one for as long as my kids are at home. We’re an example, I think, of an interesting phehomenon that rarely gets discussed: PS has this deserved rep as stroller central, but what happens to all those families as the kids age? You don’t see nearly as many 12 year olds in PS as 2 year olds. As a parent of 2 small kids, I know dozens of families in PS with kids 6 and under, and of them I can count exactly 2 who have had the wherewithal to purchase a proper PS house. All the others either go house shopping in WT or the far south slope, or stay in their tiny apartments as long as they can. There just aren’t many options for people trying to plan for life in PS with teenagers…any suggestions?
NOP – your story gave me chills! I wonder what happened to that family..
Re; The apartment
while I think the layout is terrific – is anyone bothered by the fact the kitchen needs to be renovated and I suspect the bathrooms too. I just think 1.3 is steep for this place. I could be wrong of course b/c it’s a real 3 BR/2 bathroom home! one in which a family could likely remain in for decades
Good points, Brokelin. But people’s expectations were lower then, too. Many of the turn of the century’s fine row houses had only one bathroom, although they might have dressing rooms with sinks between the bedrooms. (Earlier ones had out houses in the rear yard or depended on the servants to take out slop bowls to carts that were hired to take away waste.)
For a family of five, including two boys and a girl, our single bathroom seemed plenty. High and deep, with a claw-footed tub so tall we needed a little step ladder to climb in, frosted glass in both door and window, black and white tiles, pedestal marble sink, it must have seemed luxurious to our apartment’s original residents. And just the kind of place fanatical brownstoners would buff to an inch of its life. All handles and door knobs porcelain. All fixtures brass.
And were there any conflicts over use? Not that I recall. But then, having a single bathroom probably led to implicit rules and regulations, not bad for a little kid to learn.
The reason there aren’t a lot of 3 bdrm/2 bath apartments is because the ones in small buildings like this built 100 or more years ago were built with one bath. The way people turned them into 2 was to create that second bathroom. Maybe that’s what you need to consider doing, edmiha. Though it can’t be an easy thing with most coop boards.
Old buildings being converted to condos by developers in recent decades often are made with 2 baths where there’s room – though often they go down to 2 bedrooms when completely reconfigured, getting rid of the two tiny bedrooms in favor of making one larger one and creating more closet space demanded now.
For a real 3 brdrm/2 bath, in an old building, you’d need one of the larger apartment buildings. And the reason there weren’t built with all large apartments is probably the same reason they aren’t built that way today – once you start talking about paying the going rate for a large 3/2 apartment, you could be living in a house for the same expense, and many preferred, and still prefer, a house. Perhaps that will start to change as we move to living more densely, in less space.
How about featuring more 2BR co-ops and houses well under $600K and $750K? And featuring more in less expensive neighborhoods?
E: If it’s a good family, that’s all the “charm” they’ll need — and they’ll remember it, believe me. Also consider: Those nice old three-bedroom apartments were built for families larger than today’s, so it’s likely three, four or more kids shared a single bathroom with their parents.
NOP: yes, I often wonder what we’re doing shoe-horning our family into such a small space for so much money, when we have other options. It’s 2011 after all, not the 1950s, and $86 doesn’t go as far as it once did. But hey, we love the neighborhood–don’t want to live anywhere else–and we don’t have a car and don’t want one, which limits our options. I just hope my kids are able to look back on the experience and see the charm of it all (no letters in the pantry, but our apt has plenty of quirks). Of course it’s equally likely they’ll say, “what the hell were my parents thinking?”