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To make the case for expanding the Park Slope Historic District

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Mystery at 9th St. & 6th Ave.

While we are discussing public meeting halls... does anyone know anything about this building at the southwest corner of 9th Street and 6th Avenue? It certainly looks like it was originally built as a hall, but we're not aware that anyone else has identified it as such.

9th Street & 6th Avenue - s.w. corner
Walter H. C. Hornum, architect - 1892
E. P. Day, owner

According to our research, it was built by one Edwin/Edward P. Day, and indeed it appears to have been a public hall of some kind. The American Architect and Building News lists three separate filings by Mr. Day for this site, all in 1892:

"Building Intelligence; Stores; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 36, no. 852 (Apr. 23, 1892): p. xvii.
– "Sixth Ave., s w cor. Ninth St., four-st’y brick store and lodge-room building, tin roof; cost, $18,000; owner, Edward P. Day, 1280 Third Ave.; architect, Walter C. Horman, 150 East One Hundred and Twenty-fifth St., New York City."

"Building Intelligence; Miscellaneous; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 36, no. 860 (Jun. 18, 1892): p. xxiii.
– "Ninth St., s w cor. Sixth Ave., three-st’y brick public hall, tin or slate roof; cost, $10,000; owner, Edwin P.Day, Third Ave. cor. Fifty-fifth St.; architect, Robert W. Firth, Arbuckle Building."

"Building Intelligence; Miscellaneous; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 37, no. 871 (Sept. 3, 1892): p. 3.
– "Sixth Ave, s w cor. Ninth St., three-st’y brick public hall, tin or slate roof; cost, $10,000 each; owner, Edwin P. Day, Third Ave. and Fifty-fifth St.; architect, Walter H. C. Hornum, 159 East One Hundred and Twenty-fifth St., New York City"

The final variation of the architect's name, Walter H. C. Hornum, is listed in the Hamilton Heights/Sugar Hill Northwest Historic District Designation Report:

Additional information on Hornum is available in the LPC's Mott Haven East Historic District Desgination Report:


2 comments:

Oldparksloper said...

John Casson found the following in the Brooklyn Eagle (November 5, 1899, p. 19):

A NEW AMUSEMENT HALL
Being Built in In South Brooklyn by Edward P. Day

There is now in course of erection on Ninth street and Sixth avenue, an amusement hall, which when finished, will be the best place of its kind in South Brooklyn. The owner is Edward. P. Day, the proprietor of a similar resort in West Brooklyn. It is to be given the name of "Arvena," which is an ancient Greek word meaning "place of assemblage." The structure will be 36 feet wide by 60 feet deep, and the main entrance will be on Ninth street, with another on Sixth avenue. The building material is brick with brown stone trimmings. The top floor will be devoted to the use of lodges, and adjoining it will be a dance hall. The decorations in the building will be elaborate and it will be furnished in exquisite style.

Unknown said...

The cornice on the 6th Avenue side is the Freemason symbol composed of the square and compasses. The letter is a G for geometry which sometimes appears between these tools. The tools are configured in the second, or Fellowcraft, degree. The first degree, Entered Apprentice, and the third, Master Mason, have the tools in slightly different positions, indicating a respective knowledge of modern Freemasonry. Each succeeding level teaches the member to be an upstanding, compassionate, and charitable person. That is the purpose. That is the hope.