House of the Day: 316 Cumberland Street
316 Cumberland Street has a huge parlor floor to die for, with intricate plaster ceilings and an extension that houses the modern kitchen. The house has also been upgraded recently with all new systems and windows as well. It’s being used as a one-family but the ground-floor can easily be converted to a rentable apartment….
316 Cumberland Street has a huge parlor floor to die for, with intricate plaster ceilings and an extension that houses the modern kitchen. The house has also been upgraded recently with all new systems and windows as well. It’s being used as a one-family but the ground-floor can easily be converted to a rentable apartment. All this sounds great but it will be interesting to see if it can pull off a price that’s similar to some of the nicer homes currently on the market in Park Slope. How do you think the price of $2,295,000 will fly?
316 Cumberland Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
sam –
I’ve walked from Grimaldi’s down to the ice cream place by the east river, then over to the promenade, then all the way down to Montague and then along Montague all the way to court street, then back up to the high street A/C. Also I’ve walked along Henry for much of it’s length. Also I took the Brooklyn Heights house tour in 2007. I haven’t covered every inch of the neighborhood, but I don’t feel I’m making completely uninformed statements either.
I really do like Brooklyn Heights – it’s a lovely neighborhood with amazing rowhouses and pre-war buildings. I liked Montague and Henry streets and could understand the appeal of living near them. Like I said: it’s one of my favorite neighborhoods. It’s just a little quiet for my taste.
cw, Brooklyn is a big place amd not all of us know every neighborhood. I admit for instance that i know very little about Williamsburg (other than Peter Luger’s and a really good old fashioned “gentlemen’s hattery” nearby). You should visit Brooklyn Heights with an open mind, go to the promenade walk down Montague to Henry and then to Atlantic. There really are many amenities. Not as many stores as Park Slope of course because Brooklyn heights is about a quarter or less the size of Park Slope.
The interior decoration is so unusual and consistent I would guess the owners did it. Or they hired a very unusual interior designer.
by western, I mean eastern 😛
sam –
The times I’ve visited Brooklyn Heights I’ve been mostly confronted by long blocks of houses with little or no amenities except for in the strip right alongside the park area on the western edge. Perhaps I just didn’t explore enough side streets.
I have friends who live in BH and they readily admit that it doesn’t offer the same amount of stores, restaurants, and bars as, for example, Park Slope or Smith St.
I completely agree with CW’s assessment of BH. It’s not a top destination for young people to live. That seems fairly clear.
The bar situation in BH is terrible, the restaurant scene is subpar, and the stores (majority of which are chains) are either on Montague or Henry, so yes…there are parts of the neighborhood which are not in fact a close walk to those things.
I wouldn’t say anything about it being too snooty or anything like that…the reason I don’t care for it (to live) are because of the reasons CW mentions.
It’s beautiful to look at, that’s for sure.
I used to live in brooklyn Heights and all the things you list: groceries, laundries, hardware stores, bars, restaurants are within easy walking distance of all parts of the neighborhood, which is rather compact. In addition all the restaurants and amenities of Manhattan are a quick subway or cab ride away. I think you can say the Heights is over-expensive or too snooty or too white, those are all legit points, but to say that it somehow lacks neighborhood amenities is just factually incorrect.
cw it is annoying, but can you imagine paying 50 thousand a year for 2 kids and then college. To me that sounds like real financial stress. I would be bald in no time.
sam –
BH’s transportation is overrated. Sure, it’s one stop to Manhattan … but it’s one stop to the financial district. Who the hell wants to go there? 🙂
Plus large chunks of BH are actually a sizeable walk from any subway entrances.
Additionally, the other things I value extremely highly in a neighborhood are access to a wide variety of restaurants/bars, and easy access to groceries, laundries, hardware stores, and similar. Brooklyn Heights is lacking in those areas – or at least, the areas of Brooklyn Heights I’ve been to.
All that said, I don’t hate Brooklyn Heights. It’s in my top six neighborhoods in Brooklyn I’d want to live in. It just comes in sixth. 🙂