Living in a Cobble Hill Townhouse/Time Capsule
Talk about old-school. According to the cover story in this weekend’s City section, the house at 312 Clinton Street in Cobble Hill has been in the same family for five generations, and it’s filled with mementos (“collections of bottled fainting remedies, thigh-high men’s socks, and mint-green sales slips for coal”) and obsolete appliances, like an…
Talk about old-school. According to the cover story in this weekend’s City section, the house at 312 Clinton Street in Cobble Hill has been in the same family for five generations, and it’s filled with mementos (“collections of bottled fainting remedies, thigh-high men’s socks, and mint-green sales slips for coal”) and obsolete appliances, like an Easy brand washing machine built around 1940. The house was purchased in 1866 by the great-great-great-grandmother of its current resident, Nora Geraghty. Geraghty says the house’s collection of antiques and lack of some modern amenities have occasionally made her feel like she couldn’t “live a modern, normal life,” but that the way it connects her to her family’s past ultimately justifies the clutter and lack of some mod cons. The way I feel about my great-great-grandmother, says Geraghty, my great-great-grandchildren will feel about me, unless New York is gone by the time they’re born. Because in a thousand years, this place will never be sold. Are there readers who have been living in the same house as their ancestors and can relate to Geraghty’s reluctance to change her property?
The Ghosts of Clinton Street [NY Times]
Photo of 312 Clinton by Kate Leonova for Property Shark.
1:10 because we love to buy old brownstones and gut them of any detail and turn them into marvels of minimalist style juxtaposed in a federalist setting.
EUROPE will be worthless once AY is built!
Well, the British owned Argentina then right?
They called it “The Argentine”.
Its been all downhill since.
Yes, our beef is so much better than yours as well.
However, I understand Victorian gardeners, perhaps those in Park Slope, grew Pampas grass as an ornamental plant.
WHY ARE YOU READING BROWNSTONER IN THE FIRST PLACE?
Why is it that some numbskull is always questioning why someone else is reading brownstoner?
Get a clue. One does not have to pass some kind of ideological test to log on.
11:51 could be from Argentina.
They are really snooty and anti-American there too.
Argentina would be much nicer if it were more like Park Slope.
To all the people who’ve posted about how most–if not all–old things should be thrown away or modernized: WHY ARE YOU READING BROWNSTONER IN THE FIRST PLACE?
Europe would be so much nicer if it were like Park Slope.
Well everyone has divined that I’m from Europe apparently… Must be some complex. There are other continents/countries in the world.
I don’t wish to specifically divulge it because its too easy to attack. But if you think that the popular notion of a America abroad isn’t based on (1) American movies and (2) the American president, then you are naive. Its exported pop culture from a culture, especially one with the cultural hegemony that the US has, that provides most people with the basis for an opinion. Of course the exported pop culture also provides us with the concept that Americans have a great sense of humor.