House of the Day Prospect Park South

Estate-Condition Prospect Park South Colonial Revival Asks $1.95 Million

While restoration will be needed, photos show intriguing details such as pilasters, dormer windows, stained glass, and wainscoting.

brooklyn - collage showing a standalone house with dormers and an interior filled with books

Photos via Compass

by Susan De Vries

06/25/2025 0

A buyer will need to take a leap of faith, and have a fair bit of cash, to consider this Prospect Park South dwelling. The Colonial Revival standalone is being sold as is, including all the contents, and to a cash-only buyer. Looking beyond the clutter in the handful of listing photos shows a few intriguing details that might lure an old house lover, including a mantel, stained glass windows, moldings, and wainscoting.

When it was shiny and new in 1901, the wood frame dwelling at 202 Marlborough Road was pitched as the “handsomest appointed residence” in Prospect Park South with 12 rooms and “all improvements.” Plans for the house were filed in 1899 by Dean Alvord, the developer behind the transformation of former Flatbush farmland into a new neighborhood with tree-lined streets and substantial residences.

No. 202 was one of the speculative buildings that Alvord constructed to showcase his vision for his neighborhood. While he worked extensively with architect John J. Petit, the work of other architects is represented in the neighborhood. In this case, the firm of Child & de Goll was behind the design. The Manhattan-based firm, made up of Edward S. Child and Guyon de Goll, were proponents of the Colonial Revival style and published a book of plans focused on it in 1894. After their partnership dissolved in 1901, Child continued to publish updated editions of “Colonial Houses for Modern Homes.”

Ads for the early Child & de Goll editions pitched their plans as appealing to “admirers of the grand old houses,” but updated for modern living. The romanticized and sanitized take on early American life included large homes with sweeping porches, dormers, columns, fanlights, and other details as seen in the sketches and photographs that accompanied their numerous ads.

The house, identifiable by the three dormers in its roofline, can be seen in this circa 1907 photo of the neighborhood. Photo by Geo. R. Lawrence Co. via Library of Congress

This Prospect Park South house is a bit more modest than some of the grand mansions those ads featured, but some of the same details can be seen, including the triple dormers on the front facade, a columned porch, pilasters, and lunette and fanlight windows. Some appear in a circa 1907 bird’s-eye view photograph of the neighborhood that includes 202 Marlborough.

The house was purchased from Alvord by Anna I. Carlin in the spring of 1900, but was listed for sale again in October of 1901. In 1906 it finally sold to the Canadian-born Alfred J. S. Holton. An architect himself, he joined Clinton & Russell in the 1890s, a firm that would make a name designing office buildings and grand apartment buildings in Manhattan.

Holton eventually became a senior partner in the renamed Clinton, Russell, Holton, & George. In the early 1930s, the outfit designed the striking Art Deco style tower at 70 Pine Street, formerly known as the Cities Service Building, and an individual landmark.

During his early years at 202 Marlborough the household of the unmarried Holton included his widowed mother, two sisters, and servants. Holton remained in residence until his death in 1936.

With so few listing photos, it is hard to see if Holton might have made some interior updates that survive. The listing does note that the house, which hasn’t been on the market in decades, has its original floor plan and three fireplaces. There are also eight bedrooms and two bathrooms.

The listing doesn’t hedge on the fact that it will be a significant project for a buyer and that it isn’t a “project for the faint of heart.”

Alexandra Reddish of Compass has the listing, and the house is priced at $1.95 million. What do you think?

[Listing: 202 Marlborough Road | Broker: Compass] GMAP