Pining for the Joseph Steele House
Maybe it’s near where you live and you pass by all the time or maybe it’s in a neighborhood you get to less frequently, but it’s a house that you have an emotional attachment to even though you’ve never set foot inside. For us, that house is the Joseph Steele House on the southeast corner…
Maybe it’s near where you live and you pass by all the time or maybe it’s in a neighborhood you get to less frequently, but it’s a house that you have an emotional attachment to even though you’ve never set foot inside. For us, that house is the Joseph Steele House on the southeast corner of Lafayette and Vanderbilt. Whenever we walk by (which is frequently) we’re always hoping we’ll get to see something we haven’t before: Maybe the garden door will be open a crack and we’ll catch a glimpse of what the back stair look like. Or maybe a light will be on in the dining room and we’ll get to see if there are moldings on the ceiling. And, of course, there are the fantasies of someday living there. We’re not the only one with a certain affection for this place. Here’s what the AIA Guide has to say about the 1850 charmer:
An extraordinary relic from the days when these precincts were farm country. Greek Revival, with elegant narrow clapboards, a bracketed cornice with eyebrow windows, and a widow’s walk with a view of the harbor in those open, early days. It wears its age well, with dignity.
Indeed. For those of you coming to the Clinton Hill House Tour this weekend, make sure to and gaze at this beauty for a few moments. Do any readers have particular houses that they’ve formed similar attachments to?
Mine is the stand alone georgian on the corner of 8th Ave and 3rd St. in Park Slope. you once featured it here. It seems like a nice family lives there. The garden is well tended. I want to be invited in for homemade coffee cake and fresh brewed coffee, piping hot. No one could ever be unhappy living in a house like that, right..?
love this house too… there use to be (still is?) a sign on it saying something like, “don’t try to steal my house, we don’t want to sell”. !!
Me too, I covet the brick house on the corner of 3rd Street and 8th Ave. The current owners take such beautiful care of it, however, something I could never afford to do. It has copper gutters. Lovely.
I.too. love the house. I feel transported back in time everytime I walk by.
It is definitely a widow’s walk. Many old homes in Edgartown, Ma (Martha’s Vineyard) and Nantucket have them. It seems like such a landlocked place to have one now, but back in the day there must have been a sweeping vista to the river.
Donatella:
Are you referring to the house on Washington — if so, that is owned by Pratt. They bought it from a couple about 5 years ago to use it for fundraising. I guess they need some money to get it going. They had someone come in and raze the yard after buying it and then have not touched it.
Over the past 18 years, I’ve seen the house get repainted (always the same yellow, with white trim) several times.
Lots of work!
Actually this cupola does seem unusally large and tall. Perhaps it is a lookout as well as a lantern.
Also I would bet that no dishwasher has ever seen the inside of this house.
I always smile when I walk by the big blue second empire building (now a music school) on 9th Street between fourth and fifth avenues.