Carroll Street, N S, 6th to 7th Aves

We continue to obtain significant new discoveries from the recently-uncovered (to us) Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide at Columbia University.

We've focused mainly on the very late 1890s, and into the 1900s, since that's when the Brooklyn listings from the American Architect & Building News trail off. Also the online Brooklyn Eagle comes to an abrupt halt at the end of 1902.

One such find is the long row of eight 8-family apartment houses on the north side of Carroll Street between 6th and 7th Avenues. According to the RERBG, the row was constructed in 1898 by owner/architect/builder Jeremiah J. Gilligan:

703-719 Carroll Street
Jeremiah J. Gilligan, owner/architect/builder - 1898

"New Buildings," RERBG v. 61, no. 1568 (April 2, 1898): p. 636.
-527- Carroll st, n s, 230 w 7th av, eight 4-sty brk flats, 27x66, 8 families; total cost, $80,000; ow'r, ar't and b'r, John[sic] J. Gilligan, 188 Park pl.

This iconic Park Slope streetscape ends in a church steeple regardless of whether viewed from the east, as above, toward St. Francis Xavier Church, or from the west, as below, toward the Old First Dutch Reformed Church. The block is equally beautiful in either direction!


The buildings are highly similar, with minor variations from one to another, and highlight the growing preponderance of small apartment houses in Park Slope in the closing years of the 19th century.

709 Carroll Street

Note that the RERBG lists the developer as "John J. Gilligan", whereas a similarly named "Jeremiah J. Gilligan" is cited in the Landmarks Preservation Commission's Prospect Heights Historic District Designation Report:

We think these are one and the same person; the RERBG listing cites John J. Gilligan's address as "188 Park Place", which matches the 1897 Lain's Brooklyn Directory address for Jeremiah Gilligan:

GILLIGAN  Jeremiah  bldr.     188  Park pl

So we suspect a typographical or transcription error in the RERBG listing above.