Real Estate

Floor-Through With Parquet, Moldings in Chateauesque Crown Heights House Asks $2,400

This one-bedroom rental on the top floor of a townhouse in the Crown Heights Historic District II appears well kept and retains its historic details.

Photo via The Corcoran Group

by Stephen Zacks

11/07/2019 4 minute 0

This one-bedroom rental on the top floor of a townhouse in the Crown Heights Historic District II appears well kept and retains its historic details such as bordered parquet floors, moldings and original doors.

A third-floor walkup, it belongs to a circa 1899 building at 298 New York Avenue described in the designation report as Chateauesque. Rarely seen in Brooklyn, the style borrowed Gothic and Renaissance details from 16th century French chateaus and was popularized by Richard Morris Hunt, the first American to study at the École des Beaux-Arts.

The facade of the home is tan brick and limestone, with an awkward asymmetrical composition of the parlor-level entry and window enframements. A pronounced dormer juts from the mansard roof, enclosing two double-paned windows with three transoms.

The rental is behind the dormer, and inside two former bedroom suites have been converted into a floor-through apartment. The layout consists of two large rooms fore and aft connected by an interior hallway (the former passthrough). Off the hallway are the kitchen and several closets. To the side in the rear of the unit is a bathroom.

The front room’s front wall under the mansard roof is charmingly slanted and the dormer window is deeply set in an arched frame. Otherwise the ceilings appear high throughout the unit. The rear room has paneling under its two windows in addition to the aforementioned parquet and moldings.

The walls are painted a slightly darker shade of white (bone white) than the cornices and ceilings, which nicely sets off the high ceilings and the warm color of the wood floors. The bathroom door, if it has only one, appears to be through the back room. The bathroom has a pedestal sink, mid-20th-century bathtub with sliding glass doors on a metal frame, and somewhat drab mix and match tan and white tiles, but it all looks to be in good enough condition.

The kitchen also is fairly standard, with basic cabinets but a couple of skylights, two doors and enough room for a prep table.

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The two-family home is one of a row of six at 286-298 New York Avenue built by Frederick L. Hine and Carrie Hine. The Hines get a mention in Brownstoner columnist Suzanne Spellen’s story on female developers. This townhouse was among the 135 homes they developed in the area as a husband-and-wife architect-developer team, though they had some problems that landed them in court with unpaid contractors.

Apartment 2 was asking $1,800 in 2016 and $2,000 a year later, according to previous listings. Three years on, now it’s listed for $2,400 a month. The real estate agent is Tariq Hakeem of Corcoran. Does it appeal?

[Listing: 298 New York Avenue, 2 | Broker: Corcoran] GMAP