House of the Day: 1375 Dean Street
Calling all history buffs! After narrowly escaping destruction when LPC designated it an individual landmark in record time last October, the Civil War-era woodframe house at 1375 Dean Street is in need of some serious love. Recognized by LPC as “one of last vestiges of the suburban past in the northwestern section of Brooklyn’s Crown…
Calling all history buffs! After narrowly escaping destruction when LPC designated it an individual landmark in record time last October, the Civil War-era woodframe house at 1375 Dean Street is in need of some serious love. Recognized by LPC as “one of last vestiges of the suburban past in the northwestern section of Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood,” the George B. and Susan Elkins House, as it is known, is back on the market for $875,000 $799,000, a year after the stymied developer paid $800,000 for it. There aren’t enough interior photos to get a good enough feel to comment accurately on the $875,000 asking price, but we suspect this is going to have to be a labor of love not of profit anyway. The one-family wood-frame house is 40 feet wide and sits on a lot that’s 50-by-114 feet. There’s some original detail left (“The house has retained many of its historic features and characteristics, and remains a unique surviving example of a type of house that is believed to have all but vanished from northwestern Crown Heights,” according to LPC) and what a great front porch and yard combo this could be! Not only is the house an individual landmark, but it’s within the Crown Heights North Historic District boundaries, so whoever buys this place will have to work closely with the Landmarks Preservation Commission on the exterior. Maybe Adrian Grenier‘s looking for another project.
1375 Dean Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
Landmark Status for Elkins House [LPC]
Photo by Gregg Snodgrass for PropertyShark
Wow, you guys are scaring me. Trust me when I tell you the “theft” was not the work of the developer. It was horrible and sad.
Anyway, the Open House is this Saturday, November 3rd from 11am-12pm. Come in peace and bring a flashlight! – Lois
Honestly, you people need to visit the neighborhood. It’s hardly unsafe. This house deserves to see another day and there are TONS of people renovating their homes in crown heights. There are at least 8 in our 5 block radius. Sorry but Crown Heights is a great neighborhood.
Hey Montrose Morris
Take yo foot out yo ass.
7:37, so what are you trying to say? If you are intimating that the seller sold off the detail, what purpose would that serve, as it would lessen the price? He still isn’t going to be able to tear it down, so why would he do that? The broker, Lois, who has as much right to write here as anyone, has no motive to tell us there was detail, and now it’s gone, because that doesn’t make good business sense. As per the history of looting artifacts from historic homes in poorer neighborhoods, I have no problem believing that someone who knew exactly what they were doing, broke in and took those items that had the best chance of easy sale and resale. Some salvage companies don’t check too closely on the provenance of their receivables, and don’t care if they were obtained by shady means.
Furthermore, I am insulted by the implication that a house that’s modern inside and period outside could not exist in Crown Heights. There are plenty of people here who have the taste and the means to do whatever they want. Taste and style certainly is not comfined to geographic boundaries. That’s just a ridiculous statement. Also, if someone wanted to buy and restore this house, and was committed to the time and cost that this would entail, having to replace a couple of mantlepieces and bannisters is really not a big deal.
Hey Lois,
Keep off the blog.
🙂
Excellent point 7:37.
Vandals do not steal baninsters. They break stuff and spray paint walls.
Something smells fishy.
Nobody will buy this house without some period interior details and the seller must know this.
Who wants an expensive small historic house that looks old on the outside and modern on the inside in Crown Heights? In Greenwich Village sure, but Crown Heights?
only problem with land marking is everything in america becomes instant history. when would people stop and think, should we save everything?
to me land marks is almost the same as made up instant traditions and instant collectibles.
if we preserved everything that has someone famous that slept there or just a old house. we wont have any change at all too stagnant.
Hello, we’re talking about one double lot here, not vast swaths of land being denied the chance for development. Not only that, on this double lot sits the oldest house in Crown Heights, which is obviously worth preserving, if for no other reason than that. On top of that, the original owner is an important, and rather colorful character in the history of the area, and if we save houses because someone slept there once, we can save a house because this family lived and worked from a farm house that overlooked fields. The house survived the initial development of the area, the good times, the bad times, and survived a fire, the crack epidemic, and a bulldozer. It deserves to stand proud, and deserves to be restored.
Whenever landmarking is brought up, people all of a sudden start hollering for affordable housing. No one is denying the need for housing, but since this is a landmarked district, at best, you could put up a six or eight unit building on this lot. That hardly solves the problem. If you want affordable housing in that area, I suggest we pressure the city to renovate and put back on the tax roles at least six multi-unit buildings that are abandoned and boarded up right around the corner on Kingston Ave. We don’t need to tear down our history to put up craptactular POS buildings when we haven’t even attempted to explore revitalizing what is already here.