House of the Day: 160 Maple Street
Since when is Citi Habitats in the Brooklyn brownstone game? We’re not sure, but they can hold their heads high with this listing in Prospect Lefferts Gardens. This bay-front limestone two blocks from the park from under a million bucks is the kind of listing that makes PLG one of the few interesting plays left…
Since when is Citi Habitats in the Brooklyn brownstone game? We’re not sure, but they can hold their heads high with this listing in Prospect Lefferts Gardens. This bay-front limestone two blocks from the park from under a million bucks is the kind of listing that makes PLG one of the few interesting plays left out there in the market. If you can look beyond some of the chintzy interior decoration, you’ll see original parquet floors in perfect shape, pristine wood paneling and some lovely plaster moldings. The kitchen may not be a keeper, but it’s certainly is in move-in condition from a functional standpoint. Sidestepping the same old PLG neighborhood debate, we’ll be interested to hear how locals think this place stacks up to the rest of the nabe.
160 Maple Street [Citi Habitats] GMAP P*Shark
I don’t see this as a Lefferts issue, but more of a living in a townhouse issue. So, you’re a family with two kids and a million dollars to spend. You want to live in NYC, so what do you buy?
Whoops–I’m “B” 06:26
VERY well said Anon. 6:10!
Many of us DO feel overly entitled.
In my own three story house, the extra floor also doesn’t translate into extra bedrooms. However there ARE three story townhouses with two floors of bedrooms. Examples of these houses can be found on Midwood I in Lefferts Manor–there are three story brick colonial revival houses and Renaissance-revival limestones (like the one that went for $1.4 million last Summer) that have two bedroom floors. I always thought these houses were more practical then traditional three story houses like mine .
At risk of beating a dead horse (and I am among those who LOVE these houses), I don’t think the bedroom issue is about entitlement, or whether it is possible to raise children in a small, shared bedroom (of course it is!), but whether it is a consideration if you are paying $1 million for a home, which seems a very different issue. (That said, I am suprised they have had any trouble getting $950+ plus for this house.)
Anon 4:55, you are indeed right, and I stand corrected. I’d forgotten about that.
Bob, you are an invaluable source of knowlege. I have seen houses such as you cite in your first paragraph, we looked at a couple in Harlem once, but they had real cellars underneath. I guess we have to allow for exceptions to all rules.
CrownHeightsProud wrote “the basement part of the EB house is certainly usable for many things, but is not legal for use as a separate apartment”.
Generally true, but the unique thing about Lefferts Manor is it’s single-family covenant. Because of this (and R-2 zoning) a separate apartment, for better or worse, is NOT an option, even in a four story house.
To confuse things even more, I believe that at least one of the Parkside Ave English basement houses HAVE had that space legally converted to a separate apartment (Parkside Ave is in PLG, but not LM). That space (which I consider to be a true EB) is entirely above grade.
It’s like deja vu all over again and again and again.
I’m outta here
I own a three story townhouse, and the extra story does not really translate into more bedrooms. Unless you put a bedroom on the parlor floor (yuck) or on the garden level (too far away from the kids) you still only have one bedroom floor -unless ypou own a four story townhouse. That being said, to say that the only acceptable townhouse for a family is a four story one is ridiculous! Most families I know who own townhouses put the kids together in the big bedroom (mine is 20′ wide). I have had homes in the suburbs and NYC, and kids sharing bedrooms is quite the norm. Remember Leave it to Beaver? Are we getting overly entitled, or what?
I always thought that houses with an English basement were ones like these on Parkside Ave. in PLG:
http://tinyurl.com/hqgnq
These houses do NOT have a stoop with an entrance under it. The main entrance is into a reception room in the front of the ground floor “English basement.” The furnace, etc. is in the rear–there is no cellar underneath.
The 105 Benjamin Driesler-designed two story houses on Maple Street, and every other Lefferts Manor block, just west of Rogers Ave. are lovely houses IMO, but the lowest level is a plain basement, AFAIK not originally intended as living space. Since there are windows, these basements (unlike the windowless cellar in my own Midwood street three-story) can be made into attractive usable living space but calling them “English basements” is IMO RE puffery. True English basements are a rather unusual feature in Brooklyn (and Manhattan) row houses where (unlike London) high stoops–a throwback to our city’s Dutch architectural heritage, predominate.
As to the question of the utility of the small hall bedrooms, this is a problem with most 20 ft. (or narrower) row houses. In my own case, we used the one with a connecting door to our own front bedroom as a nursery and moved our son to a larger rear bedroom when he got older. By the time he was a teenager, a second floor of bedrooms would have been VERY welcome–I’d imagine this is even more the case with families having more then one child–it must be great to give your kid(s) a whole floor. OTOH most NYC families raise their children in apartments considerably smaller than even a the smallest two story row house.