Why this Blog Exists

To make the case for expanding the Park Slope Historic District

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Louis Bonert: 8th Avenue Apartments, 1910

A New York Times search on "Bonnert", a common misspelling of Park Slope builder Louis Bonert's surname, yields a new "hit" from 1910:


As noted in the article, after focusing exclusively on apartment houses, Louis Bonert broke into single-family home construction in the first decade of the last century. And he did so in a characteristically big way: according to the Park Slope Historic District designation report, Bonert developed the entire south side of First Street between 8th Avenue and Prospect Park West:

1st Street, 8th/PPW, south side - Park Slope Historic District

2nd Street, 8th/PPW, north side - Park Slope Historic District

These houses are perhaps some of the most luxurious, desirable, and costly residences in Park Slope today.

The article notes that about the same time, Bonert constructed an entire block of buildings on 8th Avenue, between 4th & 5th Streets:

404-420 8th Avenue - unprotected

We've followed the progression of Bonert's apartment houses through 4-family to 8-family configurations. We haven't counted the doorbells yet, but we suspect these 8th Avenue apartments must be 16-family buildings; they are truly colossal in scale.

Bonert's 4-family "single flat" apartment houses were usually about 20 feet in width. His "double flat" buildings (two apartments per floor) began at 30 feet in width, and progressed through 36 to 46 foot configurations. These buildings in 8th Avenue are a full 50 feet wide, and very deep as well:

420 8th Avenue - unprotected

After spending weeks with Mr. Bonert on the blog, we've quite nearly reached the end of the line. As far as we know right now, these were the final buildings constructed by Louis Bonert in Park Slope. It remains only to relate what little else we know about him in the next post.

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