MacDonough Street: The Grand Tour
[nggallery id=”41448″ template=galleryview] We heard that about 40 people attended Christopher Gray’s one-hour walking tour of MacDonough Street in Stuyvesant Heights yesterday morning. If you missed it, you can still retrace his footsteps via his Streetscapes piece in the New York Times. Gray leads us down the four-block stretch from “1860s villa-style mansions to 1890s…
[nggallery id=”41448″ template=galleryview]
We heard that about 40 people attended Christopher Gray’s one-hour walking tour of MacDonough Street in Stuyvesant Heights yesterday morning. If you missed it, you can still retrace his footsteps via his Streetscapes piece in the New York Times. Gray leads us down the four-block stretch from “1860s villa-style mansions to 1890s mass-produced brownstones.” Architecturally speaking, he writes, “The two groups from Nos. 323 to 333 are nothing special, except that excavation work at 329 caused the Department of Buildings to order it and No. 331 demolished in January, alarming neighborhood groups.” (As our own Montrose Morris wrote a couple of weeks ago, the homeowners, the community, the Landmarks Conservancy, and the HDC came together to do some emergency stabilization work to save the buildings. They may not be the prettiest facades on the block, but they are real people’s homes.) Gray also points out his favorites: “No. 160, with deeply weathered oak doors and mottled plant growth on the stonework, shows why the Restoration Hardware school of repro-history can be so unsatisfying — you cannot buy real age.”
An Architectural Encyclopedia [NY Times]
MacDonough St. Houses Report [Brownstoner]
Update on MacDonough Street [Brownstoner]
Salvation on MacDonough Street? [Brownstoner]
Stay of Execution on MacDonough Street [Brownstoner]
MacDonough Street Update [Brownstoner]
Wall Collapse, Vacate Order for Bed Stuy Houses [Brownstoner]
Kara! Only “40 people”? Jeepers, looked more like 400 to me. But at any rate anything over five for a walking tour is too many, to my way of thinking. And, may I note, the original notice read “take a walk”; this got changed in editing to “give a walking tour.” As I said at opening, I don’t know enough about MacDonough – or anywhere in Kings County – to “give a tour.”
Montrose, thank you for your kind remarks, but from what I read I bet it would be a lot more interesting to meet you than vice-versa. And, yeah, Piotr, he da bomb! They like him at the Times – I hope he is independently wealthy.
DaveinBedStuy, I think that was Reno Dakota, to whom I owe thanks for giving me a leg up in that exotic, foreign country … Brooklyn.
Minard, thank you. I am looking for a street more than 50% permastone or the equivalent, so I can write about this interesting phenomenon – and I am not kidding. Currently in first place is Decatur east of Stuyvesant. Reno Dakota (still not really sure that is his name), Annice Alt and others and I had a hilarious walk down that block afterwards, simultaneously touching and side-splitting. (Once I started a column with “Can a block be … hilarious?” but an un-hilarious editor killed it.) And, Minard, what a compliment – but I did this one on an impulse, I walked down the block and I said “wow, gotta bring people here.” Of course, as it happens, most of them had been there before. And, off-topic, why isn’t there a “Parfitt” on this list? I mean, Lafever and Morris were good, but – to paraphrase Henry Hope Reed regarding York & Sawyer vs. McKim, Mead & White – they were certainly no Parfitt Brothers! .
Mopar, I didn’t notice a post indicating you thought the article was “odd” but … chances are you’re right.
SJB, sorry I missed you (please do tell Kara it was a couple of thousand people). Unfortunately I told Morgan Munsey that the purple was provably a Landmarks violation (it was buff in the 1985 tax photo) and he is going to go after it, so I suspect someone has to start a “Save the Purple” movement.
Christopher Streetscapes@NYTimes.
I did go on the tour and it was so enjoyable. Mr. Gray stated many times that he is not a preservationist but rather a historian – hence that is why he enjoys the
“purple house” on McDonough Street!
I used to play a decent acoustic folk guitar, Minard. The concert is on!
Some of the photographs were really good. Some of the best the Times has ever shown, IMHO. Well done, Piotr Redlinski.
Oh, the Tent Ladies. That was very interesting.
I take back what I said over the weekend about the review being odd. It made more sense with the slideshow, which I hadn’t seen because I read it on my personal information communication device.
ironic to me reading the article and seeing pics. As we had just walked down that block weekend earlier for 1st time.
Perhaps if Mr. Gray is reading this, he may be persuaded to do an encore performance, with a little more advance notice.
I would attend, as I’m sure many fans from Brownstoner. Just think Chris: Montrose Morris, Minard Lafever, Amzi Hill, and other notable dead architects all reunited for your tour. That even beats having the Who play at halftime!
Sorry I missed it too- I relied on my usual source for info and she failed me 😉
But am very happy the Landmarks conservancy steeped up. McDonough is a magnificent St. One of my favorites to walk down. It’s like being transported to another time and place. If nothing else proves the worth of preservation, this certainly should.
No Dave, I was not able to attend the tour. My comments were based on the Sunday RE article and his slide show on the Times website.