House of the Day: Antebellum Glory
Our heart skipped a beat when we saw this listing. We have no idea how it escaped our notice at the end of last week–it must have been added after we did our Open House picks. Anyway, it’s not often you see one of these old mid-19th century frame houses on the market. The listing…
Our heart skipped a beat when we saw this listing. We have no idea how it escaped our notice at the end of last week–it must have been added after we did our Open House picks. Anyway, it’s not often you see one of these old mid-19th century frame houses on the market. The listing says Clinton Hill but doesn’t give a street (Argghh!), but we suspect it’s probably Eastern Fort Greene, somewhere like Clermont. At first glance we thought the asking price of $1.75 million looked low but then realized we might be letting our excitement over the house’s special exterior architecture get the best of us, so we looked at the rest of the interior shots. Nothing special shown but certainly not bad. And as partial as everyone knows we are to the area, this still looks like a great deal to us compared to something like yesterday’s dinky $2.15 million offering in Park Slope. Just no comparison really. We’ll be interested to see if everyone thinks we’re overly enthusiastic on this one, though we suspect the market will bear us out. Accuse us of boosterism if you must, but we bet this’ll be another 41 Monroe with multiple bids over the ask.
Clinton Hill Antebellum [Location Location Location]
the houses like this i have seen don’t have an attic. the top floor sits under the roof with no separate space. and there is brick between the buildings next door.
crownstoner is right… I should clarify. What I meant to say is that in the case of a brick or brownstone, the manifestations of structural damage in the masonry shell >>interior frame >> lath walls can be clearly detected in the buildings interior and exterior by a practiced eye (types of plaster cracks, specific things out of plane, specific things out of plumb…)When it comes to termite damage however, the resultant structural problems may not yet have manifested themselves. In the case of our house, we had major t. damage in the wood frame of our basement floor and walls (yes, you read that correctly…below-grade wood joists) that was not “presenting” although very little wood was actually left. This required lots of expensive, intrusive work, but nowhere near as much as would have been required if our house’s primary structure had been wood. Termites don’t seem to get much press in NYC, but Greenpoint had an infestation several years ago which makes me think that it must be an issue in the rest of Brooklyn too. Unless the little buggers just really prefer toxic postindustrial soils.
Wood Frame houses are a fireman’s nightmare. Rows or attatched wood frame houses like this have a “cockloft”. This means the “attic” crawl space between the top floor ceiling and roof (about 2 feet high) are all attatched. Which means there is nothing separating the houses in there. In a brick construction that area has bricks that seperate the houses. What happens in a fire is once it gets in the cockloft it races both directions and invades all the houses next to it very very quickly. That is why you see those fires in Jersey City and Newark spreading so quickly all the time. When one house burns 4 or 5 others also burn.
This house is 295 Cumberland. It’s 20 x 35–ie, SMALL. Charming, no doubt. But very expensive per square foot (though with tons of allowable building room in back). Don’t let your heart get you into debt. Bstoner, this is charming and on a nnice block, but it is NOT a deal.
frame houses with porches were common between myrtle and park ave. there is a new yorker article about walt whitman’s house built around 1850 which is on ryerson st. they are timber frame with brick fill and front porch. the article said they were “mechanics houses”, meaning blue collar and i think a lot of craftsmen lived in them, working in the navy yard and also for people on clinton and washington aves.
Geez, JC, good memory! We’d completely forgotten…
Clearly, I read your blog way way too much, Browstoner! Isn’t this the same exact house you posted a pic of on March 7th of this year? There was talk of the exact address back then too.
http://brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2005/03/monday_morning_1.html
No wonder your heart skipped a beat…
In an earthquake it will be the frame houses that are left standing.
In response to Naomi’ remarks regarding frame houses…”With a brick or brownstone, its much easier to see what you are getting structurally”
Not true. Your brick or brownstone has wood beams, joists, lathe and framing that can be susceptible to the same issues that a frame house can, as well as masonry issues that are difficult to detect unless you have a skilled mason, or engineer with you during your inspection. The bottom line is that any old house that has had years to settle, and has not had the best of upkeep requires a thorough investigation.
The only reason to be partial against frame houses is fire, which is why frame rowhouse construction stopped in the late nineteenth early twentieth century.