Save the Slope: 4th to 5th Avenues: Hidden in Plain Sight

A few people disparage the Lower Slope blocks between 4th and 5th Avenues as containing no buildings of historic value. Indeed, many of these blocks contain generic warehouses or have been ripped up for new, "luxury" condo development.

But a closer look at these blocks rewards the visitor with many delightful rows of mid- to late-19th-c. dwellings retaining a great deal of historic character and "sense of place". These are not the stolid, brownstone-faced single-family rowhouses of the Upper Slope. Below 5th Avenue, brownstone was used more sparingly, and the dwellings are a mix of single- and multi-family housing, most likely built for workers at the nearby industrial Gowanus Canal district.

We have posted earlier about how far "back from the brink" the 3rd Street block has come.

The question of whether these blocks could ever be included in the Park Slope Historic District is basically moot, since it will be twenty or thirty years (if ever) before the historic district even begins to approach these blocks. But we feel that a more complete, more holistic Park Slope Historic District should certainly contain Lower Slope blocks of brick-faced, multi-family housing, along with the brownstone single-family houses of the Upper Slope.