Save the Slope

Brooklyn's Autonomous Zones (and a Temporary Farewell)

2011-02-23T20:25:00.001-08:00

Topic for Research: Brooklyn's Autonomous Zones

We've long been fascinated by Brooklyn's autonomous zones, those regions beyond the edge of the map, where free spirits, eccentrics, squatters, the poor, the marginalized, and the downtrodden migrated beyond the pale of polite society.

The New York Times in 2005 published a fascinating article about these districts, which were self-governing to a large extent. The article carried the following photograph of "shanties" on 4th Avenue, and identified a large autonomous zone along the Gowanus Canal as "Slab City" for the many do-it-yourself shanties to be found there, constructed of slabs of wood salvaged and recycled from the streets.

4th Avenue "Shanties"
Brainerd Collection - Brooklyn Public Library/Brooklyn Collection

Brooklyn Eagle, October 27, 1889, p. 7

Slab City is of course also the name of a present day Temporary Autonomous Zone in southern California that was featured in the 2007 film "Into the Wild".

The December, 2006 "Civic News," a publication of the Park Slope Civic Council, reprinted an August, 1967 reminiscence by Norman Litchfield, great-grandnephew of Edwin C. Litchfield, who built Litchfield Villa in Prospect Park. Norman Litchfield, who was born in 1881, recalled the trip by rail to Coney Island, departing from the old terminal on the west side of 5th Avenue, at 27th Street. The train passed through another of these autonomous zones, beyond the city limits on the other side of Greenwood Cemetery (emphasis added):

Then a roar from the conductor, "All aboard," and with a jerk, the train started out of the depot. But, not so fast; we were still inside the city limits and the train tracks were laid on the city streets. Pedestrians and horses must be guarded from the dangers of the steam monster, and so a man mounted on a horse rode ahead waving a red flag and the engine bell rang continually, not disturbing many people, however, for on one side they were all dead and on the other side mostly missing; in this outlying part of the city, houses were few and far between. Soon we came to the "City Line," a hilly section, gaunt and barren, near enough to the city for its dwellers to enjoy urban advantages, chiefly saloons, and yet more or less outside the pale of law and free from most inhibitions. Shanty town it was, inhabited by Irish "lately come-overs" and their goats.

On this note, it is time to say good-bye to our few faithful readers. We have been tasked by the Landmarks Preservation Commission to undertake some more formal research into the proposed South Slope extension, and we will have to abandon this blog for now. We will continue to update the photo archive comments, and our other online resources, and may occasionally post new material here, but alas not with the same frequency. We hope to restart the blog later, perhaps after the phase 1 extension is designated. Many thanks for reading!

Finding Aid: Guide to Resources

2011-02-15T18:00:00.000-08:00

With the apparent demise of link shortener bk.ly, some of our links are stale, so it seems a good time to update our Finding Aid, a guide to online resources concerning the Park Slope Historic District Extension.

(1) The Photo Archive: photographs of every street in Park Slope, winter 2008-2009. See the photo comments for historic information about the buildings.

(2) Park Slope Real Estate News: these are New Building/Alteration permits transcribed from the Brooklyn Eagle, American Architect and Building News, Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide, and other periodicals. Divided into:
(2a) Streets
(2b) Avenues
The same information is also compiled in the Photo Archive comments.

(3) Department of Buildings files: organized by block/lot number, photographs of Dept. of Buildings files for some properties in the study areas: link

(4) Save the Slope blog: rants and ruminations about Park Slope history.

Lost Park Slope: Tilyou Penthouse, 35 PPW

2011-02-12T22:26:00.000-08:00

In an earlier "Lost Park Slope" post, we visited the George C. Tilyou residence that once stood at 35 Prospect Park West. We established that George Tilyou died in 1914, and that his widow Mary sold the house to developers, who erected the present Emery Roth-designed apartment house in 1929. Mary Tilyou occupied the penthouse apartment until her death, aged 103, in the 1950s.

The Museum of the City of New York's online image collection includes many photographs of the interior of Mary Tilyou's penthouse apartment, a few of which appear below.

The scale of the rooms suggest an extremely spacious apartment:

Although there are at least three penthouse apartments now, it is possible that they were subdivided from a single colossal penthouse once occupied by Mary Tilyou.

The rest of the photographs of the penthouse apartment can be viewed here.

Thomas Bennett for Louis Bonert in 3rd Street

2011-02-09T20:38:00.000-08:00

Long ago we identified prolific Park Slope builder Louis Bonert as the developer of much of 3rd Street between 6th and 7th Avenues.

More recently we identified Pohlman and Patrick as the architects for 8 westermost of these apartment houses, 4 on each side of the street, toward 6th Avenue. Pohlman and Patrick's buildings were erected in 1903, and can be identified by the flat, foliate entablature surmounting the entrance:

458 3rd Street
Pohlman and Patrick, architects - 1903
Louis Bonert, builder

458 3rd Street - entrance detail

Bonert apparently felt he had found a winning formula with these spacious, 8-family, 38'-wide apartment houses, because he built seven more of them one year later, in 1904, just uphill from the first group. For reasons unknown, however, he chose to employ for the later group another prolific Brooklyn architect, Thomas Bennett, with whom he had collaborated on some other apartments in 3rd Street a few years earlier:

"Projected Buildings," RERBG v. 73, no. 1882 (April 9, 1904): p. 847.
-639- 3rd st, n s, 293 e 6th av, three 4-sty brk tenements, 38.3x68, 8 families, steam heat; total cost, $45,000; L Bonert, 6th av and 3rd st; ar't, T Bennett, 3rd av and 52d st.

The 1904 buildings are nearly identical to the earlier group, and are distinguished mainly by a peaked entablature surmounting the doorway. The 1904 group also has one less window illuminating the central staircase:

461 3rd Street
Thomas Bennett, architect - 1904
Louis Bonert, builder

461 3rd Street - entrance detail

The similarity between the buildings from two different architects is remarkable. Bonert certainly seems to have maintained no loyalty to a particular architect from one development to the next.

Blizzard of 1888

2011-02-06T15:15:00.000-08:00

In 1888 Brooklyn was hit by a blizzard of historic proportions.

The photograph below, from the Brooklyn Public Library's Brooklyn Collection, documents conditions on the street, in a scene that looks familiar to winter-weary borough residents today:

Blizzard of 1888 - Breading G. Way, photographer
Brooklyn Public Library Brooklyn Collection

What particularly caught our eye in this photograph, however, was the row of two-story wood frame houses behind the mounds of snow. With intact cornices, stoops, entrance hoods, window frames, and clapboard siding, these houses can be really charming. (Some brokers have even detected a "cult" of wood-frame lovers!)

Park Slope still has stretches of these wood-frame houses, mostly in the South Slope, mostly heavily modified. Many of these are actually among the older houses in Park Slope, predating as they do the "fire limits" that mandated brick construction. Many of these wood-frame rows also appear on the 1880 Bromley Brooklyn Atlas, further certifying their antiquity:

15th Street, 6th to 7th Avenues - north side

A few owners have lavished restorative attention on these wood-frame houses, returning them to an approximation of their original appearance:

313 15th Street

We suspect that the Landmarks Preservation Commission would have a hard time designating most of these wood-frame rows today. But we'd be willing to bet that over time, more and more of these wood-frame rows will see sympathetic restorations and will more closely resemble their original appearance.

Pohlman & Patrick for Louis Bonert in 3rd Street

2011-02-02T20:08:00.000-08:00

3rd Street between 6th and 7th Avenues is one of the grandest blocks in Park Slope. The extra-wide street and the uniform white apartment houses marching uphill lend a dignity and majesty to this block.

Way back in our retrospective of the work of Louis Bonert, one of the most prolific builders in Park Slope, we reviewed evidence for his role as builder of much of this block. However, only recently have we uncovered evidence, from the Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide, that the architectural firm of Pohlman and Patrick designed at least 8 apartment houses for Bonert in this block in 1903.

The RERBG evidence suggests that Pohlman and Patrick designed four of the 8-family apartment houses on each side of 3rd Street, toward the 6th Avenue end of the block.

North side:

"Projected Buildings," RERBG v. 71, no. 1835 (May 16, 1903): p. 1020. -803- 3rd st, n s, 107.9 e 6th av, four 4-sty brk tenements, 38.3x68, 8 families, steam heat; total cost, $60,000; L Bonert, 319 6th av; ar'ts, Pohlman & Patrick, 1235 3rd av.

437-449 3rd Street
Pohlman and Patrick, architects - 1903
Louis Bonert, builder

South side:

"Projected Buildings," RERBG v. 71, no. 1834 (May 9, 1903): p. 972. -774- 3rd st, s s, 106.9 e 6th av, four 4-sty brk tenements, 38.3x68, 8 families, steam heat; total cost, $60,000; L Bonert, 319 6th av; ar'ts, Pohlman & Patrick, 1235 5th av.

450-462 3rd Street
Pohlman and Patrick, architects - 1903
Louis Bonert, builder

The apartment houses are generously sized. The 38' width allows the individual apartments, 2 per floor, to be 19' wide, which is as wide as many Park Slope row houses.

450 3rd Street - entrance detail

Further uphill, on both sides of the street, stand some nearly identical apartment houses, also erected by builder Louis Bonert. Interestingly, Bonert chose a different architect for these other apartment buildings, as we shall soon see.

Brooklyn's Vast Outdoor "Pot Plantations"

2011-01-31T19:20:00.000-08:00

We've all heard tales of the occasional lone marijuana plant found growing on a median strip or leftover patch of ground here in Brooklyn, and presumably there are indoor medicinal grow operations keeping a low profile here and there about the borough.

All images: Brooklyn Public Library Brooklynology blog

But we never knew until now that Brooklyn was home to vast outdoor "pot plantations" in the early 1950s, growing in plain sight, with plants "as tall as Christmas trees," if the latest Brooklynology blog post at the Brooklyn Public Library can be believed.

Apparently, in the summer of 1951 alone, 17,200 pounds of the stuff was dug up and eradicated here in Brooklyn (41,000 pounds across the entire city). There was so much pot growing all over the place that special crews of sanitation workers had to be dispatched to uproot the demon weed, groves of which grew in "lush impudence" according to the Brooklyn Eagle, from which these pictures were taken.

One "marijuana plantation" in a Butler Street vacant lot yielded about 100 pounds of the plant. The cited location, at 82 Butler Street, is in the "West Slope" on the other side of the Gowanus Canal. We will be visiting soon to see if any traces are still to be found -- strictly for research purposes, of course.

In the meantime, don't miss the BPL's meticulously researched article on this fascinating subject.

L Bonert & T Bennett in 3rd Street

2011-01-30T15:58:00.000-08:00

Here's another new finding gleaned from the Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide. The RERBG issue of April 6, 1901 carries news of plans filed by prolific Park Slope builder Louis Bonert for four 4-story, 8-family "tenements" (i.e. multi-family housing), on the south side of 3rd Street between 5th & 6th Avenues. Bonert's architect here is Thomas Bennett, who designed a great many Park Slope apartment houses from around this same time:

"Projected Buildings," RERBG v. 67, no. 1725 (April 6, 1901): p. 634. -468- 3rd st, s s, 247.8 e 5th av, four 4-sty brk tenements, 32.2x90, 8 families; cost, $72,000; L Bonert, 6th av and 3rd st; ar't, T Bennett, 198 53rd st.

The first of the row, all of which still stand in virtually unchanged condition, is shown below:

392 3rd Street - erected 1901
Louis Bonert, builder
Thomas Bennett, architect

Louis Bonert is of course well-known to long-time readers of this blog; we suspect he built more housing in Park Slope than any other developer. We had a hunch these buildings were erected by Bonert, although we never had any concrete evidence before now. In part our suspicion was based on the unusual tripartite windows on the first floor; other examples from Bonert's buildings are found directly across the street.

392 3rd Street - window detail

392 3rd Street - cornice detail

[William Musgrave] Calder Place, Brooklyn

2011-01-28T19:17:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the Here's Park Slope blog for calling our attention to the half-block long Calder Place, one of those odd streets created when the Prospect Expressway was bulldozed through the South South Slope in the mid-20th century:

According to Here's Park Slope's research, the street is named for William Musgrave Calder, a prolific Park Slope builder to whom we have devoted a good deal of space on this blog.

It's not much of a street, and indeed except for the scorched-earth tactics of Robert Moses, Mr. Calder might not have a street named after him at all today. We prefer to remember him by the many buildings he erected in Park Slope.

No Comment Department

2011-01-24T19:52:00.000-08:00

...a broker with Awaye Realty in Carroll Gardens, said that with each new building the avenue’s popularity had grown. “They’re hard to get started, it’s hard to sell to the first people,” he said. “But all of a sudden, once people see other people living there, it’s pop-pop-pop, like popcorn.” -NY Times profile of the "new 4th Avenue"

4th Avenue demolition

Actually, "other people" have been living in 4th Avenue all along.

They were there before the new towers went up. They were there until their homes were demolished to make way for the new residents.

Pohlman & Patrick in 7th Avenue

2011-01-21T20:41:00.000-08:00

The architectural firm of Pohlman & Patrick became quite active in Park Slope around the turn of the last century.

According to the Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide, in 1903 the firm designed the group of three mixed-use (flats over stores) buildings on the southwest corner of 7th Avenue and 5th Street for builder Alexander G. Calder:

254-258 7th Avenue
Pohlman & Patrick, architects - 1903
Alexander G. Calder, builder

"Projected Buildings," RERBG v. 71, no. 1830 (April 11, 1903): p. 752.
-527- 7th av, w s, 21 s 5th st, two 3-sty brk stores and dwellings, 19.6x55, 2 families; total cost, $10,000; A Calder, 420 8th st; ar'ts, same as last [Pohlman & Patrick, 1235 3rd av].

"Projected Buildings," RERBG v. 71, no. 1833 (May 2, 1903): p. IX.
-679- 7th av, s w cor 5th st, 4-sty brk stores and dwelling, 21x71, 3 families, steam heat; cost, $25,000; A G Calder, 420 3rd av; ar'ts, Pohlman and Patrick, 1235 3d av.

Calder apparently carved off the rear 20 feet of his 7th Avenue lots, in order to squeeze in an extra lot behind them, facing 5th Street. On this lot Calder built a 4-story, 4-family apartment house, also designed by Pohlman & Patrick, also in 1903:

468 5th Street (left)
Pohlman & Patrick, architects - 1903
Alexander G. Calder, builder

"Projected Buildings," RERBG v. 71, no. 1833 (May 2, 1903): p. IX.
-697- 5th st, s s, 83.3 w 7th av, 4-sty brk tenement, 20x71, steam heat; cost, $9,000; A G Calder, 420 8th st; ar'ts, Pohlman & Patrick, 1235 3d av.

The Neoclassical apartment building from 1903 creates an arresting contrast to the much earlier (circa 1870s) Italianate brownstone row houses beside it in 5th Street.

Once, Paumanok!

2011-01-19T20:49:00.000-08:00

We're going off-topic with this post, since it has nothing to do either with historic preservation or with Park Slope. But, if one spends enough time in the Brooklyn Eagle, that telescope into the past, one finds some really cool stuff...

Like this 1855 advertisement for the self-published first edition of "Leaves of Grass":

Brooklyn Eagle, June 29, 1855, p. 3

A few weeks later, the Eagle published a review of this "extraordinary book":

Brooklyn Eagle, September 15, 1855, p. 2

We have a dim recollection of our American Lit professor saying that Whitman wrote anonymous (and approving) reviews of his own book. It's hard to tell because of the florid 19th-century style, but one can almost imagine that these could be Whitman's own words:

One could certainly do worse than to "loafe" a while amongst Whitman's Leaves of Grass.

Lost Park Slope: Gen. Christensen House

2011-01-17T20:30:00.000-08:00

Like us, blogger IMBY has also been poking around in Columbia University's online Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide.

IMBY recently discovered an interesting RERBG article about Park Slope's 8th Avenue from 1912. The article features several photographs, including a view looking north from President Street before the tall apartment buildings were constructed on the west side of that block:

8th Avenue, view north from President Street, 1912
Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide, May 18, 1912, p. 1

The buildings on the east side of 8th Avenue (right side in the photo above) are unchanged to the present day. But the buildings on the west side have been replaced by tall apartment buildings.

The RERBG article indicates that the house at the northwest corner of 8th Avenue and President Street, visible to the left in the photograph above, was originally the residence of Civil War General C. T. Christensen.

An idea of General Christensen's prominence can be gleaned from a New York Times article of 1903, noting both his 5oth wedding anniversary and the marriage of Violet, one of his daughters. The article notes that General Christensen "was for many years identified prominently with the military, social, and business life of Brooklyn. He was a long time President of the Brooklyn Trust Company, and prior to that he was connected with the banking house of Drexel, Morgan, & Co.":

New York Times, March 20, 1903, p. 9

It seems that Gen. and Mrs. Christensen were blessed with many daughters. An 1889 article from the Brooklyn Eagle recounts the presentation of the Misses Laura and Hope Christensen "as candidates for the favors of society" at their home on the corner of 8th Avenue and President Street:

Brooklyn Eagle, January 31, 1889, p. 5 ("Two Fair Debutantes")

Below is a view of the corner today. The Park Slope Historic District's Designation Report states that the apartment house on the northwest corner of President Street and 8th Avenue was constructed in 1928, so General Christensen's house must have been pulled down not long before then:

8th Avenue and President Street, west side
Park Slope Historic District

Many of the tall apartment houses in 8th Avenue are similar "second growth" buildings, erected on soft development sites originally occupied by large mansions with spacious gardens.

Can Preservation Maintain Affordable Housing?

2011-01-15T21:22:00.000-08:00

At last week's Park Slope Civic Council meeting, discussion turned to 4th Avenue's new development, and more specifically to what have come to be recognized as the missed opportunities therein.

Trustees and guests expressed the by now familiar observations about blank walls, driveways, and ventilation grates that annihilate the pedestrian experience, the lack of street-level commercial space, and the general hostility of the new buildings to street life.

Photo: brownstoner.com

Along with the above points, one of the PSCC Trustees made the astute observation that the new buildings in 4th Avenue were built on the rubble of earlier, older buildings that once stood on the same sites... and that all of the earlier housing was undoubtedly more affordable than what replaced it.

4th Avenue demolition

Pohlman & Patrick in President Street

2011-01-12T19:42:00.001-08:00

The American Architect and Building News yields the architects' names for Louis Bonert's 1902 row of four 3-story, 6-family apartment houses on the south side of President Street between 6th and 7th Avenues:

"Building Intelligence; Houses; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 76, no. 1394 (Sept. 13, 1902): p. xii.

– "President St., near 7^th Ave., 4 three-st’y brick dwells., 31' 9" x 83' 6"; $44,000; own., Louis Bonnert [sic - Bonert], 319 Sixth Ave., arch., Pohlman & Patrick, 322 Fifty-third St."

782-788 President Street
Louis Bonert, builder
Pohlman & Patrick, architects - 1902

We visited this row two years ago during our lengthy review of the great many Park Slope buildings constructed by prolific builder and local resident Louis Bonert.

At that time, however, we had not yet identified the architects of the row. It can now be credited to the firm of Pohlman and Patrick.

782 President Street
Louis Bonert, builder
Pohlman & Patrick, architects - 1902

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

2011-01-09T20:05:00.000-08:00

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.

A Complete Blockfront in 8th Avenue

2011-01-06T20:55:00.000-08:00

Yesterday's post introduced the architectural firm of Pohlman & Patrick and cited evidence associating three apartment houses at the northwest corner of 9th Street and 8th Avenue with the firm.

The buildings are visually associated with the other two buildings on the same side of 8th Avenue, all the way to 8th Street. But we had no evidence positively associating the rest of the block with owner John Wilson or architects Pohlman or Patrick.

Until now.

Tonight's research in the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide yields plans filed in 1904 by the same owner, John Wilson, and Henry Pohlman, architect, for two more very similar apartment houses, completing the blockfront from 9th Street to 8th Street:

"Projected Buildings," RERBG v. 73, no. 1878 (March 12, 1904): p. 602.
-306- 8th av, w s, 32.3 s 8th st, 4-sty brk tenement, 27.6x83, 8 families, steam heat; cost, $20,000; John Wilson, 456 14th st; ar't, H Pohlman, 6005 5th av.
-307- 8th av, s w cor 8th st, similar tenement, 22.9x88.1; cost, $25,000; ow'r and ar't, same as last.

808-804 8th Avenue
John Wilson, owner
Henry Pohlman, architect - 1904

Interestingly, Henry Pohlman is cited as the only architect. Perhaps his partnership in the firm of Pohlman & Patrick had been dissolved by this time?

Introducing Pohlman & Patrick, Architects

2011-01-05T18:56:00.000-08:00

We've been scanning the Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide of late, concentrating in the very early 1900s. The online Brooklyn Eagle ends at 1902, and the American Architect and Building News listings grow sparse around this same time. But the RERBG is yielding many interesting "hits" for Park Slope.

For example, we are running into a number of apartment buildings from the firm of Pohlman and Patrick, whose name also appears in the Prospect Heights Historic District Designation Report:

We thought the name "Pohlman" sounded familiar, so we checked Park Slope's Designation Report, and indeed in 1903 Henry Pohlman designed what we consider to be some of Park Slope's finest apartment houses, at Garfield Place and 8th Avenue:

"Serine" Apartments
Henry Pohlman, architect - 1903
Park Slope Historic District

Park Slope's Designation Report says these buildings exemplify "the ubiquitous eight-family apartment house":

Also in 1903, Pohlman designed the similar apartment houses on the northwest corner of 9th Street and 8th Avenue in "the popular turn of the century neo-Italian Renaissance style":

820 8th Avenue
Pohlman & Patrick, architects - 1903
John Wilson, owner

"The Real Estate Market: New Buildings," The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Apr. 29, 1903): p. 18.

– "EIGHTH AVENUE, west side, 32 ½' from Ninth Street, two four story brick tenements, 27 ½' x 58', for eight families each, tin roof, cost $40,000, John Wilson, owner; Pohlman & Patrick, architects."

"Projected Buildings," RERBG v. 71, no. 1832 (April 25, 1903): p. 852.
-635- 8th av, n w cor 9th st, 4-sty brk flats, 26.3x88.1, 9 families, steam heat; cost, $25,000; J Wilson, 456 14th st; ar'ts, Pohlman & Patrick, 1235 3rd av.

"Projected Buildings," RERBG v. 71, no. 1833 (May 2, 1903): p. IX.
-683- 8th av, w s, 32.3 s [sic-n?] 9th st, two 4-sty brk tenements, &c, 27.6x84, 8 families, steam heat; total cost, $40,000; John Wilson, 456 14th st; ar'ts, Pohlman & Patrick, 1235 3d av.

"Lorraine" Apartments
Pohlman & Patrick, architects - 1903
John Wilson, owner

820 8th Avenue also boasts some attractive "basket-style" fire escapes on the 9th Street facade:

We will be seeing more from the firm of Pohlman and Patrick shortly.

MCNY's Special Collections

2011-01-02T19:03:00.000-08:00

The Museum of the City of New York's recent launch of its online collection of historic photographs of New York City received considerable notice in the local blogosphere.

We scanned through the entire collection, or what was online about two weeks ago, and found almost no images from Park Slope, which was disappointing. We'll feature some of the few highlights in upcoming posts.

Some of the photographs offer rather alarming contrasts with the present.

Consider the following view of the west side of 4th Avenue, between Butler and Douglass Streets. The photograph was taken in 1936 by Berenice Abbott:

4th Avenue, west side, btwn Butler & Douglass Streets
Berenice Abbott, photographer - 1936
Museum of the City of New York collection

The MCNY photo caption reads:

Abandoned old-law tenements at 154 Fourth Avenue between Butler and Douglass Streets.

Below is the same view from Google Street View; we believe a new "luxury" condominium tower is now rising on the same site:

Same location, Google Street View, 2010

Assemblywoman Joan Millman Supports the H. D. Extension

2010-12-24T20:14:00.000-08:00

New York State Assemblywoman Joan L. Millman's Report to the People arrived in our mailbox the other day, and we were pleased to see her Statement of Support for the Park Slope Historic District Extension (reprinted below; many thanks Joan!).

We've always appreciated that the Assemblywoman insists on being called not Assemblymember, or Assemblyperson, but Assemblywoman!

EXPANSION OF THE PARK SLOPE HISTORIC DISTRICT

On October 26th, I submitted testimony to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) in support of expanding the Park Slope Historic District. The original historic district was created in 1973 and includes most of the brownstone blocks on Eighth Avenue and Prospect Park West from Sterling Place to 15th Street and Seventh Avenue from Sterling Place to 4th Street as well as some additional blocks in the northern part of Park Slope. The proposal would expand the district to include eight square blocks between Seventh and 14th Streets and between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. It also would include buildings on both sides of Seventh Avenue between Seventh and 14th Streets.

Park Slope is one of Brooklyn’s most prized and best preserved neighborhoods. It has achieved that status because of the community’s active involvement in protecting its unique 19th century charm. Historic designation has been an important factor in the preservation of Park Slope’s character since the early 1970s, but the initial designation covered only a quarter of what the American Planning Association has declared to be one of America’s ten greatest neighborhoods.

In recent years, many Park Slope buildings with similar quality have been demolished or inappropriately altered. Designation of a larger historic district will ensure that Park Slope retains the historical and architectural character that makes it one of the finest 19th century neighborhoods in the nation.

Back in June, some 200 South Slope building owners attended a meeting sponsored by the LPC. LPC staff answered questions on the permitting process, the type of exterior changes that can be made without a permit, and the steps involved with the landmarking process. Currently, LPC staff is researching the condition of 600 buildings within the expansion area. They will then create a designation report which will take six to eight months to complete. Action by the LPC is expected before the end of 2011.

Union Street "Automobile Stable"

2010-12-22T19:11:00.000-08:00

We've been scanning some numbers of the Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide, trying to fill in the gaps in our documentary history of Park Slope architecture. The following listing from late 1900 caught our eye, both for its Park Slope location, and for its use of a term we'd not seen before:

"Projected Buildings," RERBG v. 66, no. 1705 (November 17, 1900): p. 691.
-1663- Union st, n s, 192.4 e 6th av, 2-sty automobile stable, 40x70, gravel roof; cost, $3,750; F & G Schwartz, 112 Berkeley pl; ar't, P B Marryatt, 17 St Marks pl.

At the dawn of the automobile age, to call a building an "automobile stable" must have seemed quite natural. What else would one call it?

At any rate, as usual, we checked our photo archive for the building, and indeed this "automobile stable" appears still to exist, largely unchanged since original construction:

811 Union Street
F & G Schwartz, owners
P B Maryatt, architect - 1900

The owners who built it lived at 112 Berkeley Place, which is located directly behind this building; they could have walked through the rear garden to access their "automobile stable." You can see 112 Berkeley Place highlighted on the screen shot below; 811 Union St. is the wide (40x70) building at bottom center:

The 1897 Lain's Brooklyn Directory lists Gustave Schwartz residing at 112 Berkeley Place; no occupation is given.

Preservation and Affordability

2010-12-19T19:47:00.000-08:00

Sigh.... here we go again... according to a letter in this week's Brooklyn Paper, "the extension of the Park Slope landmark district will contribute significantly to the exclusion of future new middle class homeowners, helping make Park Slope a less diverse neighborhood, economically."

The writer continues:

"I would like to have a neighborhood where newly arrived, middle-class neighbors can imagine moving, working to raise their children, and paying their mortgage — like me. The real irony is, in the South Slope that is what we have without landmarking."

Actually, we hate to break it to you, but the irony is, the South Slope is not a neighborhood where "newly-arrived middle class families" can move in and raise their families. Even without landmarking.

Let's do a price check... just the other day, Brownstoner listed the results of a public auction that included 482 7th Street, a 3-family, brownstone-faced building on the south side of 7th Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues. The building is in the proposed first phase extension of the historic district, and part of a block we have discussed before on this blog (it is identical to the house, 2 doors away, shown below):

486 7th Street

The auction price of this "affordable to the middle-class" house in the South Slope? Get ready for the "real irony":

$1,600,000.

And this building isn't in the historic district.

We preservationists are often accused of being "delusional," of wanting to walk around in a fantasy land of fake-old lampposts etc. (Except, we invite anyone to find any appeal for fake-old lampposts on this blog... you will search in vain.)

But the idea that a $1,600,000 house is affordable to anyone in the "middle class" seems totally delusional to us.

Perhaps the battle to keep the South Slope "affordable" has nothing to do with landmarking, and has already been lost, years ago? Could there perhaps be larger economic forces at work?

Meanwhile, in the "lower Slope", west of 5th Avenue, one finds housing that still might be slightly "affordable" to the "middle class". Often it is in older, walk-up "flat houses" or small apartment buildings from the late 19th century. Unfortunately this older housing is increasingly being ripped out and replaced by "luxury" condo developments.

Case in point: the following groups of buildings stand across the street from each other in Sackett Street between 4th and 5th Avenues. If you were looking to rent an apartment, in which building do you think you'd find a more reasonable rent? Which group of buildings is historic, and which is a new development?

Sackett Street, between 4th and 5th Avenues, south side

Sackett Street, between 4th & 5th Avenues, north side

The new development even has off-street parking for residents in the rear, with a "convenient drive-thru" passageway protected by an automatic gate, quite like the automatic garage door openers one finds in the suburbs.

Which buildings look more "affordable" to you?

1960 Park Slope

2010-12-16T18:15:00.000-08:00

We finally had a chance to review the exhaustive New York Times coverage of the 1960 Park Slope airplane disaster. A lot of great old photographs accompany the articles; the Here's Park Slope blog has a comprehensive then-and-now portfolio. What strikes us is how little the neighborhood has actually changed in the 50 years since the tragedy, thanks in part to the creation of the Park Slope Historic District.

While the buildings are largely the same, the photograph below reflects some of the other changes that the Slope has undergone in the last 50 years. The picture below shows the intersection of 7th Avenue and Park Place, the subject of one of our "Lost Park Slope" posts from a while back:

7th Avenue and Park Place, 1960
New York Times photograph

The building on the right is the truncated remnant of the Doherty Building at Flatbush and 7th; the B67 bus stop is right there. On the left stands #10 7th Avenue, one of the earliest houses in Park Slope, and one of a row of simple Italianate dwellings built circa 1865.

If you look closely, you can make out the sign for a business named "Paradise" on the ground floor of #10 7th Ave. What do you want to bet that the "Paradise" was one of the many saloons that once lined the avenue?

Perhaps the most poignant photograph, for us, shows 126 Sterling Place after part of the doomed jet had sliced through its cornice:

126 Sterling Place - 1960
New York Times photograph

The brick wall was repaired, but the cornice was never restored. 126 Sterling Place, one of a row of three identical apartment houses, is on the left in the photograph below.

126-122-118 Sterling Place

We have no knowledge regarding who designed or built these apartment houses, or when. Perhaps our ongoing research in the Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide will someday yield substantive information about them.

Acme Hall's Architect

2010-12-13T19:48:00.000-08:00

The history of Acme Hall, on the northwest corner of 9th Street and 7th Avenue, is well known by now, having been recounted on the old Gowanus Lounge and Here's Park Slope blogs.

It is well established from these previous accounts that Acme Hall was built in 1889-1890 by Charles Nickenig, who also built the adjoining mixed-use (flats over stores) row extending to 8th Street.

Acme Hall
Charles Nickenig, Owner/Builder
J. G. Glover, architect - 1889

However, we've never before seen the name of Acme Hall's architect. Perhaps someone has posted it elsewhere, but we're not aware that he has been identified, until now. According to the Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide, the architect is J. G. Glover:

"Buildings Projected - Kings County," RERBG v. 44, no. 1116 (August 3, 1889): p. 1094.
- 1693 - 7th av, n w cor 9th st, one four-story brick club house, 38.6x71, tin roof, iron cornice; cost, $30,000; Chas. Nickenig, 368 11th st; ar't, J. G. Glover.

J. G. (John Graham) Glover's name is familiar to us; he was the architect of C. B. Sheldon's great Verona apartment building at 7th Avenue and President Street. Glover's name also appears frequently in various historic district Designation Reports.

OMG! RERBG!

2010-12-10T22:38:00.000-08:00

When we started out researching Park Slope buildings, we relied on the Brooklyn Eagle's real estate listings, because that's all we knew about. We'd already photographed all the buildings in Park Slope, so we started matching building descriptions from the Eagle to the photos in our photo archive. But our Eagle research was just random, hit or miss.

Meanwhile our friend Darrin, an independent architectural historian, discovered our project, and announced that he had many original issues of the American Architect and Building News. Darrin systematically scanned through all his copies, culling out and carefully transcribing all the Park Slope "hits" and forwarding them to us. Darrin's work helped immeasurably to unearth the history of a great many Park Slope buildings.

Still later, Darrin told us about the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide, and how it is considered the ultimate authority by architectural historians, since it carried basically everything filed at the Dept. of Buildings for both Manhattan and Brooklyn. We hunted around online for the RERBG, but never found more than a few issues here and there. It is available on microfilm at the New York Public Library, but since we are corporate wage slaves by day, the only time we have to work on this project is late at night.

Just a few days ago, however, we found what is apparently the entire run of the RERBG online, in the digital collections of the Columbia University Library! How cool is that?

At any rate we have already begun scanning for some of the gaps in Darrin's AABN listings. We'll post some of our new RERBG-based discoveries in a bit.

One of these days, we may go ahead and mount a complete scan of the entire RERBG. If anyone out there wants to collectivize this effort and help out in your spare time, let us know. Good vision, abundant time and patience, and careful attention to detail are essential!

Splatter House Row

2010-12-07T16:19:00.000-08:00

"Splatter House" is what we've always called artist Mark Ravitz's residence on the west side of 7th Avenue between 2nd and 3rd Streets:

200 7th Avenue, circa 2003

The building is actually part of a row of 5. According to the American Architect and Building News, the mixed-use (flats over stores) row was built in 1890 by owner George H. McGill of Gravesend, and was designed by architect Henry Vollweiler:

"Building Intelligence; Houses; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 28, no. 747 (Apr. 19, 1890): p. xv.

– "Seventh Ave., s w cor. Second St., four-st’y brick dwell., tin roof; cost, $10,000; owner, George H. McGill, Gravesend Neck Road; architect, Henry Vollweller, 14 Elm St."

– "Seventh Ave., w s, 20' s Second St., 4 four-st’y brick dwells., tin roofs; cost, $8,000 each; owner, George H. McGill, Gravesend Neck Road; architect, Henry Vollweller, 14 Elm St."

194-202 7th Avenue
George H. McGill, owner
Henry Vollweiler, architect - 1890

Not much is known about architect Henry Vollweiler. His name appears in one of Christopher Gray's "Streetscapes" columns, in connection with the Stewart Woodford house at 869 President Street in Park Slope; Vollweiler in 1929 redesigned the original Henry Ogden Avery interiors of the 1885 Woodford house.

Mr. Ravitz, the subject of a profile in the current issue of Borough President Markowitz's "Brooklyn Newspaper", maintains a website featuring photographs of his work, including the many "Drip" installations on his building's facade.

photo: markravitzartanddesign.com

We've always enjoyed the "Splatter House" installations. They make the world a bit more fun!

Readers' Questions: Lost Park Slope

2010-12-04T19:25:00.000-08:00

Faithful reader "LGR" commented a while back on our "Lost Park Slope" post about the John H. Hanan residence that formerly stood at 118 8th Avenue, corner Carroll Street:

John H. Hanan residence - 118 8th Avenue
C. P. H. Gilbert, architect - ca. 1890
Demolished ca. 1935

"LGR" asks:

If you look at the earlier image of the residence, the row houses just visible are actually not where they should be, if you actually take a look on Carroll Street. Rather, these look very suspiciously like the two houses on the south side of President Street, right off of Eighth Avenue. So, what's going on? Is the original photo reversed? (though I note the mansion is also cited in Merlis in the location given here). I mean, something is amiss.

Here's a closer view of the adjacent Carroll Street house, peeking out from behind the Hanan mansion:

Good question, LGR! What's going on, indeed? Because that house is certainly not there today. Or is it? LGR suggests that what we see in the photo above might actually be one of these houses in President Street, south side, just below 8th Avenue, and that perhaps the old photo above is reversed:

878-876 President Street
Park Slope Historic District
Albert E. White, architect - 1889

An interesting theory! We had noticed the anomaly when we found the photo of the Hanan residence, but just assumed it had been knocked down and incorporated into the footprint of the current apartment building that occupies the corner lot.

But then we checked the DOITT block/lot map, and saw immediately that the current apartment tower's lot had not expanded beyond the original 100' depth on Carroll Street. We have added the rear lot line in green, in the screen shot below:

So what's going on? Here's a recent photo of the adjacent 799 Carroll Street building:

799 Carroll Street - Park Slope Historic District
Albert E. White, architect - 1889
1918 redesign by George Chappell

Actually, the answer is "hiding in plain sight", in the Park Slope Historic District's 1973 Designation Report:

No. 799 Carroll Street was built in 1889 and designed by Brooklyn architect Albert E. White for James C. Jewett. White also designed Nos. 876 and 878 President Street. Originally, it may have resembled the President Street houses, but in 1918 the house was altered to its present neo-Federal appearance by architect George Chappell of Manhattan who had a long and distinguished career in the history of Brooklyn architecture...

So in fact, the old photograph of the Hanan mansion does not lie. That is indeed 799 Carroll Street peeking out from behind the mansion, as it appeared prior to its 1918 remodeling! It looks quite like its President Street companions.

[Sorry for the delayed response, LGR... We don't actually "own" this blog, so we don't receive notifications when someone comments. We should really start a new blog one of these days.]

Updated 7-Dec-2010: The Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide, March 22, 1890, states of the Hanan mansion that "the billiard room will be in the tower, circular in form, and with a height of 20 feet."

Day's Avena, 6th Avenue & 9th Street

2010-12-02T20:53:00.000-08:00

Okay, folks, we have some winners to announce regarding the mysterious public hall at 9th Street and 6th Avenue.

Day's Avena Hall, 9th Street & 6th Avenue, s w corner

We knew from our last post that the building was constructed in 1892 as a public hall by Edward P. Day, to plans by architect Walter H. C. Hornum. What we didn't know was the name of the building.

Sharp-eyed commenter John Casson found the following Brooklyn Eagle citation that yields the name "Arvena" for this building; the Eagle notes that the word derives from a Greek term for "place of assemblage." Congratulations and thanks for this great find, John!:

Brooklyn Eagle, October 16, 1892, p. 2 ("A New Amusement Hall")

Meanwhile, independently from John's work, we happened across a further clue while researching Columbia Hall. Apparently a "Professor J. O. E. Small" conducted dancing classes at both Columbia Hall and at Day's building, on alternate evenings. However, "Professor" Small's advertisement refers to Day's building as "Day's Avena," dropping the 'r':

Apparently "Day's Avena" is the name that came into common usage. The Eagle lists all the usual fraternal and sororal associations meeting at "Day's Avena" (not "Arvena") in the final decade of the 19th century.

So, congratulations are also due to Professor J. O. E. Small, dancing instructor, for his role in helping to resolve the mystery of "Day's Avena:"

Day's Avena Hall
Edward P. Day, owner
Walter H. C. Hornum, architect - 1892

At least now we know what the building was called. Yet another mystery regarding this building arises: what are those symbols inside the pediment on the 6th Avenue facade? Are they Masonic? There is some Eagle evidence that Edward P. Day was a Mason. Is that the letter 'C', and if so what if anything does it mean? Inquiring minds want to know!:

Detail - Day's Avena

Mystery at 9th St. & 6th Ave.

2010-11-28T17:24:00.000-08:00

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:

Columbia Hall

2010-11-26T08:12:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Here's Park Slope and the Fading Ad Blog for identifying 725 Union Street as the former Columbia Hall. The building still carries its name in faded paint at the top of a side wall:

Columbia Hall - 1891
John D. Muller, owner

Union Street, north side, view west from 5th Avenue

photo: Fading Ad Blog

According to the American Architect and Building News, the hall was built in 1891:

"Building Intelligence; Stores; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 33, no. 812 (Jul. 18, 1891): p. xix.
– "Union St., n s, 69' w Fifth Ave., four-st’y brick store and lodge rooms, tin roof; cost, $13,500; owner, John D. Muller, Fifth Ave. and Union St."

The sheer variety of activities held in this hall is astounding, and reflects what seems to have been a far more social time predating movies, television, and the Internet. The Brooklyn Eagle lists countless dinners, meetings, musicales, lectures, recitations, and sporting events held by the many fraternal and sororal associations of the day:

Apparently the hall included bowling lanes.

"Wheelmen" = bicycle enthusiasts

I.O.R.M. = "Improved Order of Red Men"

Much more recently, the building that was Columbia Hall was until recently the home and studio of visionary artists Alex and Allyson Grey. The artists have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of art as spiritual practice, and are planning to construct the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors at their new home upstate. We ourselves once attended Full Moon parties at 725 Union Street, perhaps the only building in Park Slope that can claim to be the site of the founding of a new religion that has attracted thousands of followers worldwide.

These days, one is likely to encounter Alex Grey's distinctive imagery on one's LSD:

LSD blotter, with unauthorized image by Alex Grey

5th Avenue Neergaard Pharmacy

2010-11-21T20:30:00.000-08:00

Updated: Commenter Francis says below that the peripatetic 5th Avenue Neergaard occupied several other locations before settling into its current spot in 1915. Thanks, Francis!

The Winter, 2011 issue of Borough President Markowitz's "Brooklyn Newspaper" arrived the other day, bringing with it an interesting article about the 5th Avenue Neergaard Pharmacy:

Neergaard Pharmacy
454 5th Avenue
Est. 1888

In a city that never sleeps, Brooklyn’s got the place that’s been awake the longest. The Neergaard Pharmacy on 5th Ave. in Park Slope opened its doors in 1888, when Brooklyn was still its own city. Founded by a Danish immigrant named Julius de Neergaard, the store remained in the de Neergaard family through three generations, until the Tomassetti family purchased it in 1987. Since 1901, Neergaard has been open 24 hours a day, seven days a week—except for a few days during World War I.

Today, Neergaard is the oldest independently owned pharmacy in Brooklyn, and one of the oldest in the City— and one of the few pharmacies that are open 24 hours a day. “Doctors know they can send patients here at all hours,” store manager Tom Sutherland said. Neergaard is also uniquely set up to serve Brooklyn’s growing senior population, and even includes a surgical shop that sells everything from walkers to wheelchairs (Neergaard also operates a 7th Ave. location that is not open 24 hours).

From the crash of a United Airlines jet in Park Slope in 1960 (a Neergaard employee is visible in the photo The New York Times ran the next day), to the attacks of September 11, 2001 (Brooklynites who walked home from Manhattan queued up for masks and other supplies), Neergaard has been there through the city’s most perilous times.

“We endured through the Great Depression and two world wars and we’ve always kept up with the times,” Sutherland said. “Park Slope is still the place to be.”

Neergaard Pharmacy, 454 5th Ave. Open 24 hours every day; (718) 768-0600; or visit www.neergaardpharmacies.com

The 5th Avenue Neergaard Pharmacy actually occupies two adjacent brownstone-front buildings, part of a row of 5 very old buildings on that block. All we know about them is that they appear on the 1880 Bromley Brooklyn Atlas, so they must have been standing by that time.

5th Avenue, 9th to 10th Streets, west side - circa 1870s

Further uphill, at 234 8th Avenue in the Park Slope Historic District, stands another building with a connection to the pharmacological Neergaard family:

234 8th Avenue - Park Slope Historic District
Charles F. Neergaard Residence
Aymar Embury, architect - 1913

Regarding 234 8th Avenue, the Park Slope Historic District's Designation Report tells us:

It was built in 1913 and designed by the well-known architect Aymar Embury, 132 Madison Ave., New York, as a private residence for Charles F. Neergaard. His grandfather, John W. Neergaard, was a founder of the New York College of Pharmacy.

Flatbush Pavilion, 1981

2010-11-19T21:58:00.000-08:00

Many thanks to faithful reader "LGR," who brings our attention to a 1981 photograph of the Flatbush Pavilion (a.k.a. Cinema Plaza):

Flatbush Pavilion Theater - 1981
photo: American Classic Images

It is instructive to note the condition of the marquee in 1981, above, compared to the recent views below. All the detailing seems to have been shaved off:

Flatbush Pavilion Theater - 2008

Flatbush Pavilion Theater - now
photo: Google Street View

"LGR" also asks: "Does anyone happen to know where on Flatbush the mezzanine exit from the subway actually let? I simply cannot recall from my hazy youth, but it must have been around here."

Our understanding is that the mezzanine exit was through the closed door with the ornate surround, between Antonio's Pizzeria and American Apparel, shown below. The Park Slope Civic Council has been exploring the possibility of reopening this closed entrance to the 7th Avenue station:

Former entrance - 7th Avenue station
photo: Google Street View

Note that in the 1981 photograph at the top, the door seems still to have been in use. Also note that the classic Antonio's Pizzeria sign seems to be unchanged since 1981!

The StationReporter description for the 7th Avenue station notes that there is an emergency exit at the extreme southern end of the southbound platform. Thus one would expect to find an unmarked door, somewhere on the west side of Flatbush, to the south of the current station entrance. A possible candidate might be the white door with no knob, below:

Emergency exit door?
photo: Google Street View

7th Avenue - Single & Double Flats Over Stores

2010-11-17T20:04:00.000-08:00

370 - 382 7th Avenue (row of 5 buildings) - 1887
J. Brown, owner
Charles G. Jones, architect
William Brown, builder

382 7th Avenue

382 7th Avenue - detail

Cover, building plans, 370 - 382 7th Avenue

Detail, building plans - 370 - 382 7th Avenue

The description above reads: "Stores on First Floor and three families over in single houses and six in double"

A "single house" refers to a small apartment house with one residence per floor. A "double house" has two apartments per floor.

Brooklyn Eagle, April 16, 1887, p. 1 ("More Permits")

In Case You Missed It: Flatbush Pavilion

2010-11-14T17:41:00.001-08:00

In case you missed it... a note about the Flatbush Pavilion, from an article in today's Times about conversions of old theaters to other uses.

Note that in an earlier post, we incorrectly confused the Flatbush Pavilion with the nearby Plaza Theater, whose entrance was around the corner on Park Place. Commenter LGR pointed out our error at that time; you were right and we were wrong!

Flatbush Pavilion, 1912

Flatbush Pavilion
Park Slope, Brooklyn

ORIGINAL Built in 1912 by John Bunny, a silent-film star who was called Film’s First King of Comedy, it was known as the Bunny Theater until it closed in 1929. After a series of reincarnations — it has been called the Plaza Theater and the Plaza Twin — the Flatbush Pavilion opened in 2001 and ended its run as one of the oldest surviving movie theaters in the city when it closed in 2004.

REMAKE The old lobby’s floor has been redone in glossy blue epoxy and the tin ceiling has been restored, but where the screen once stood there is a stage, populated by mannequins clad in American Apparel leotards and leggings. The former projection booth is now a sound studio for the brand’s Internet radio station, Viva Radio, which has encouraged the rearranging of the letters on the marquee to create poems, jokes or advertisements.

Paul Auster on Disappearing Park Slope

2010-11-07T22:21:00.000-08:00

photo: Brownstoner

In case you missed it... from an interview with author Paul Auster published in this week's L Magazine:

What are some of your favorite spots in Park Slope? Bookstores? Coffee Shops? Bars?

We have two bookstores left in Park Slope. We used to have more. Right now we have the Barnes and Noble that's been there for about, I don't know how many years—ten years? Twelve years? And then the Community Bookstore, which is an essential part of the neighborhood. And I know they're hanging by the skin of their teeth. But they're still there and I don't think they're gonna go out of business 'cause I think they have many loyal customers who prefer to shop there, because people know how important it is to keep an independent store here.

Bars? There used to be Snooky's! I used to like to go there. But that's gone... A lot of old people, you know, the real old-time Park Slope drunks used to hang out in Snooky's. I always had a fondness for that place... And then, for a number of years, there was this terrific little restaurant called the Second Street Cafe, and I used to go there for lunch often, and that too has closed down. So, it's a bit sad that places are disappearing.

Postscript: Public Hearing

2010-11-02T21:01:00.000-07:00

We like to complain, like many others, about the "unresponsive" Landmarks Preservation Commission; we like to complain that "they" should have done more to protect Park Slope in the 37 years since our original Historic District was created.

But the fact is, the LPC is not going to come into a community that is not organized and that may not be wholeheartedly behind the landmarking effort. They have too much to do, and too many neighborhoods who are fully organized, to waste time.

So in contrast to the standard complaint that "they" should have paid more attention to Park Slope in the past, we had the distinct impression, during the recent Public Hearing, that the LPC has been waiting all this time for "us" finally to get organized and to meet them halfway!

Reportback: Public Hearing

2010-11-01T20:56:00.000-07:00

The city's Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing last week for the proposed Park Slope Historic District Extension.

We were scheduled for around 1pm, but the Commission was running about two hours late. By the time the Park Slope agenda item was heard, many of our supporters had had to leave, but around 25 people or so remained. All but one spoke in favor of the extension. The one exception was a property owner who cited "philosophical, sociological, and aesthetic" reasons for his opposition.

Both Council Members Brad Lander and Steve Levin were present and expressed strong support for the extension. Marty Markowitz was on hand earlier in the day, wearing one of our "Park Slope Historic District: Expand It!" buttons, but had had to leave, so his representative expressed the Borough President's support. Representatives of Joan Millman, Jim Brennan, and Velmanette Montgomery delivered supporting remarks.

Bob Levine, co-chair of Brooklyn Community Board 6, testified that his committee had held its own public hearing and had voted to support the extension.

The big surprise, to this attendee, was when the chair of the Park Slope Chamber of Commerce/7th Avenue Merchants rose to state that his group also supported the extension!

At the end of the hearing, LPC Chair Robert Tierney waved a big stack of additional letters from those who had expressed their support in writing. We've heard that the written support included letters from both New York Methodist Hospital and the Fifth Avenue Committee!

The Park Slope Civic Council offers heartfelt thanks to everyone took the time to speak out or to write in support of the extension. It is really great to see the neighborhood pulling as one for this cause.

Basically nothing was decided by the LPC at this time. It was just a public hearing. We understand that the building research has not even begun yet, so actual designation is still a long way off.

Remembering Bob Makla

2010-10-27T20:18:00.000-07:00

Vale of Cashmere, Prospect Park
photo: forgotten-ny.com

News has arrived that one of Park Slope's "Elder Statesmen", Robert Makla, is no longer with us.

We used to run into Bob at various civic events around town, and gradually came to know a bit about him. Apparently he was a great advocate of the city's parks and we think he founded, or co-founded, an organization called the Greensward Foundation that published books and maps about the city's parks.

One of our earliest memories of Bob is of him staffing the Greensward Foundation table at the old "New York is Book Country" street fair, which was suspended after the 9/11 attack and never resumed. We recall buying a really lovely map of Prospect Park from Bob and we think the map was published by his organization.

Later Bob would show up at the occasional Park Slope Civic Council meeting, and entertain the Trustees with tales of the old days in Park Slope. We ultimately learned that Bob had served as President of the Park Slope Civic Council during the crucial years of the late 1950s-early 1960s, and some credit him with revitalizing the moribund South Brooklyn Board of Trade by renaming it the Park Slope Civic Council and commencing the annual House Tour during his tenure.

Still later, we took our own children to the occasional Prospect Park clean-up organized by Bob and the Greensward Foundation. We recall Bob paid particular attention to the Vale of Cashmere. Bob recounted how the pools were featured in the film "Sophie's Choice." Our girls didn't pay much attention, but they had a good time falling into the mud at the pool's edge. One of our family's shoes is probably still embedded in the mud there to this day.

CB6 District Manager Craig Hammerman on Robert Makla: Always dressed to the nines, with his signature bowtie and suspenders, Robert Makla was a familiar attendee, avid supporter and eager participant at Brooklyn CB6 general meetings. He often started off by reminding us that he was born at NY Methodist Hospital, and with the exception of serving our country oversees in the armed forces, spent his whole life living in Park Slope.

Bob’s message was often simple, and eloquently delivered. To paraphrase…Parks are special places, where people of all races, incomes and interests mix. They reconnect people to nature. They feed the soul serving as inspiration to artists and dreamers, poets and planners. They provide a source of jobs, particularly maintenance jobs, which are harder and harder to come by. Jobs, he often said, were the key to restoring a sense of pride and productivity to the least fortunate among us. And, once park space is gone, it is not so easily replaced. It is therefore the job of every citizen to defend, preserve and care for the wonderful green and open spaces throughout our City. Of course, his favorite spot was his beloved Prospect Park, the crown jewel of all of New York City’s parks.

Bob’s presence was electric, his words were stirring, and he will be sorely missed. I, for one, will especially miss his periodic call to conscience, which always seemed perfectly timed to fit into the Community Board’s 3-minute speaking limit at general meetings.

Liberty Row

2010-10-22T19:03:00.000-07:00

In June, 1887, the American Architect & Building News, a trade periodical that later evolved into today's American Architect, carried news of a quartet of buildings to be erected on the west side of 7th Avenue, 21 feet north of 10th Street:

"Building Intelligence; Houses; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 21, no. 599 (Jun. 18, 1887): p. xiii.

– "Seventh Ave., w s, 21' 6" n Tenth St., 4 four-st’y brick and brown-stone stores and dwells., tin roofs; cost, each $8,000; owner, Chas. Nickenig, 368 Eleventh St.; architect, W. H. Wirth."

A few weeks later, the same publication listed plans for the building to occupy the corner lot itself. The builder and architect are the same as in the earlier listing above:

"Building Intelligence; Tenement-Houses; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 22, no. 601 (Jul. 2, 1887): p. xii.

– "Seventh Ave., n w cor. Tenth St., four-st’y brick store and tenement, tin roof; cost, $10,000; owner, Charles Nickenig, 368 Eleventh St.; architect, W. H. Wirth."

Given these listings, one might reasonably expect to find a group of five related structures occupying adjacent lots on the northwest corner of 10th Street and 7th Avenue in Park Slope. And indeed there are five such buildings standing there today:

7th Avenue & 10th Street - n w corner
William H. Wirth, architect
Charles Nickenig, builder - 1887

It is a fine row of 5 mixed-use (flats over stores) buildings, still nearly unchanged since they were built in 1887. The original commercial space on the corner building's ground floor has been converted to residential use. This kind of conversion was opposed by the ROSAS organization, since it tended slowly to kill off a commercial street.

The corner building features one of those marvelous cantilevered corner window bays projecting into the center of the intersection, and is crowned by the name "Liberty". One suspects the building is named for the Statue of Liberty, which can be glimpsed on its harbor perch from many South Slope blocks. The Statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886, not many months before plans for these buildings were filed.

Both the builder, Charles Nickenig, and the architect, William H. Wirth, are by now quite familiar to readers of this blog. Among other buildings, Nickenig built Acme Hall at the corner of 9th Street, and Nickenig and Wirth collaborated on Acme's Hall's neighbors between 9th & 8th Streets.

The row features highly distinctive brick and terra cotta work including small brick arches where one would normally expect to find a wooden or pressed metal cornice. Separating each building is a column of rusticated brownstone blocks.

CB6 Landmarks/Land Use Committee Hearing - Brooklyn Paper

2010-10-16T07:37:00.000-07:00

In case you missed it...

The Landmarks/Land Use Committee of Brooklyn Community Board 6 held a public hearing Thursday evening.

The public hearing addressed the proposed Park Slope Historic District extension.

LPC Executive Director Kate Daly spoke briefly and answered questions about the extension.

Park Slope Civic Council representatives, property owners in the proposed extension, and other members of the public spoke in favor of the proposal.

No one spoke against the proposal.

The Landmarks/Land Use Committee voted to recommend that CB6 support the proposal.

The Brooklyn Paper wrote a fairly accurate article about the hearing, reproduced below (with our clarifications at the bottom):

457 12th Street
Brooklyn Paper photo

Slope historic district expansion moves ahead
By Gary Buiso

Community leaders threw out the welcome mat for the extension of Park Slope’s historic district on Thursday night, arguing that its protections are worth any inconvenience experienced by property owners.

The Landmarks/Land Use Committee of Community Board 6 unanimously approved the first phase of the Landmark Preservation Commission’s initiative, an area that includes about 500 buildings across eight square blocks in the South Slope.

The three-phase proposal, if approved, would make the neighborhood home to the largest historic district in the city — but the long-anticipated extension won’t be happening any time in the immediate future.

Landmarks said it is so busy creating districts across the city that it will not even be voting on Park Slope’s district for at least a year.

“There is no set time line,” explained Kate Daly, the executive director of the commission. “But the commission understands the importance of this to the community.”

The extant historic district was created in 1973, and includes most of the brownstone blocks on Eighth Avenue and Prospect Park West, and additional blocks in Northern Park Slope.

The first phase expands to the south by including blocks between Seventh and Eight avenues, from Seventh Street through 14th Street, and areas adjacent to Bartel Pritchard Square.

The measure drew unequivocal praise from those who spoke at the committee’s hearing, held on a damp night inside the Old First Reformed Church on Carroll Street.

“This is about preserving the connections people have to the community,” said Peter Bray, chairman of the Park Slope Civic Council’s Historic District Expansion Committee.

“When I walk down the streets of Park Slope, I want to know that I walking near the same buildings that three generations of my family walked before me,” he added.

The civic group began working on an extension proposal in 2007, fearing the threat of new, architecturally inappropriate development.

Historic districts block such development, and also require property owners to win approval from Landmarks for virtually all exterior alterations — which often tacks on extra cost and layers of bureaucratic red tape.

And that doesn’t sit well with everyone in the neighborhood.

“If I have to repair my façade, I’m not sure I want to go through jumping through bureaucratic hoops,” said Ninth Street resident Ed Lemansky as he left the church.

But supporters said it would be worth it.

“I am willing to bear whatever additional regulatory burden to maintain the street I love and the village atmosphere,” said 10th Street resident Stephanie Doba.

The agency is currently examining the second phase of the extension, an area that includes buildings in the northern edge of the existing district along Flatbush Avenue. Boundaries have yet to be delineated, Daly said. A third phase is also planned.

In its totality, the three-phase extension could include 4,000 buildings, dwarfing Greenwich Village’s district by over 2,000 structures.

Public hearing on the expansion at the Landmarks Preservation Commission (1 Centre St. in Manhattan) on Oct. 26 at 12:30 pm. The agenda can be found at www.nyc.gov.

Save the Slope sez:

Actually at this time, there have been no discussions at all regarding a "third phase" between the Park Slope Civic Council and the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Indeed we hope there will be a 3rd phase, and a 4th and a 5th and beyond.

For that matter, all we know about a "phase 2" is that LPC is looking at the area. We are still working on phase 1!

Finally, the correct link to the Oct. 26 meeting agenda is here.

A "Cinderella" Story On Berkeley Place

2010-10-12T18:26:00.000-07:00

The following article, by Park Slope Civic Council Trustee & Historic District Expansion Committee member John Casson, appeared in the September, 2010 Civic News. The article recalls the earliest days of preservation in Park Slope with a particular focus on the "Cinderella" program from Brooklyn Union Gas Company:

A "Cinderella" Story on Berkeley Place

This summer, a “For Sale” sign appeared in the front courtyard of 211 Berkeley Place. While the four-story house may look like many other brownstones on the block, it occupies a unique place in the modern history of Park Slope. This house helped launch the turnaround of our neighborhood from one in decline to the vibrant community we know today.

Berkeley Place - 7th/8th Avenues - n s

My wife and I first learned about 211 Berkeley Place (between Seventh and Eighth Avenues) in 1966, when we read about it in The New York Times. The house, which according to the article had been vacant for several years, was purchased for $15,000 by the Brooklyn Union Gas Company. What the article did not mention was that the company made the purchase mainly to help solve its own business problem.

At that time, many gas customers were moving out of the city, often leaving empty buildings behind. As the company couldn’t dig up its pipes and join the exodus to the suburbs, its only hope for growth was to encourage economic development and increased gas consumption in its service area. This led to its decision to show how dilapidated structures could be transformed into up-to-date residential and commercial structures that used a wide range of gas appliances. The brownstone on Berkeley became the first of its “Cinderella Projects.”

439 13th Street -
Brooklyn Union Gas "Cinderella" Sign

At the time Brooklyn Union purchased 211 Berkeley Place, Park Slope seemed to be in an irreversible decline. Fifth Avenue was known not for its restaurants as it is today but for its drug dealers. A bar bereft of customers could be found on almost every block on Seventh Avenue. Many of the original one-family rowhouses that had been converted into rooming houses to serve Navy Yard workers had few tenants. People were beginning to move to the suburbs and increasingly abandon Park Slope.

After acquiring 211 Berkeley Place, the company evicted the resident pigeons and rodents, and transformed the brownstone into two handsome duplex apartments. While taking care to preserve many of the brownstone’s Victorian details, the company installed heating and air-conditioning systems, grills, patio heaters, exterior entrance lights, fireplaces, ovens, and burners — all fueled by gas, of course — in both apartments. The Times article also mentioned that the Park Slope Betterment Committee would be conducting a walking tour of the neighborhood. After taking this tour, my wife and I decided to buy a house in Park Slope.

Evelyn and Everett Ortner, Joe Ferris, and a few other like-minded individuals established the Betterment Committee to preserve their historic neighborhood. They realized that unless people began to purchase, renovate, and move into houses in Park Slope, its decline would be impossible to reverse. In order to attract people to the neighborhood, the committee began to conduct walking tours that not only introduced people to the community but also showed them houses that were for sale, had been recently purchased, or were being renovated. The tours drew attention to Park Slope’s confluence of attractions: handsome historic rowhouses on attractive tree-lined streets; spacious homes that could be purchased and renovated at a reasonable cost; proximity to Brooklyn’s principal cultural attractions; access to several subway lines for a quick and inexpensive commute to Manhattan; a welcoming group of homeowners who were new to the neighborhood; and the opportunity to participate in an enticing adventure.

Even with these advantages, there were many obstacles to renovating a house in Park Slope in the 1960s and 1970s. Our parents and friends thought we were crazy for buying a dilapidated house in a declining neighborhood. Park Slope was redlined, which meant very few financial institutions were willing to provide mortgages and homeowners insurance. Most of the houses were in need of a great deal of work — and few of us realized how difficult renovations would be. We had to deal with lead plumbing and electric wiring that had been installed when Edison was alive. There were layers and layers of lead-based paint, carcinogenic and flammable paint stripping products, and other materials such as joint compound that contained asbestos. Nonetheless, houses priced from $15,000 to $35,000 seemed such a bargain that purchasing and renovating a Park Slope home appeared to be well worth the risk.

In 1974, after extensive research by the Ortners, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission designated about one quarter of Park Slope a historic district. Today, we do not have to deal with neglected houses very often. However, we now find that inappropriate, often shoddily built new buildings and out-of-keeping renovations are appearing in non-landmarked blocks in our community. This is why the Park Slope Civic Council has made expanding the historic district’s boundaries a top priority.

Thanks to the work of the Council’s Historic District Expansion Committee, Phase 1 of this effort — encompassing more than 600 buildings in the South Slope — is currently being considered by the LPC to be included in a larger historic district. The Committee is also about to begin work on Phase 2, which will extend protection to 600 buildings in the North Slope.

And 211 Berkeley Place, after sheltering the same two families for four decades, will soon become the home of a new generation of residents. The Park Slope story continues. — John Casson

More information on the Historic District Expansion Committee is available at www.parkslopeciviccouncil.org/historic-district.

35 Prospect Park West

2010-10-08T20:20:00.000-07:00

In case you missed it... the ubiquitous "Montrose Morris" posted a nice set of before-and-after photos on Brownstoner this week, featuring a great shot of the building that once carried the 35 Prospect Park West address:

35 Prospect Park West - then
Photo: New York Public Library

According to the Park Slope Historic District's Designation Report, the building was the residence of George C. Tilyou, who built Steeplechase Park in Coney Island.

Somewhere, probably from our late father-in-law, we heard the story that Tilyou's widow, Mary, sold the building to developers on the condition that she could occupy one of the penthouse apartments for the rest of her days. We have no idea whether this is true or not, but it's a nice story. Do the facts support this tale?

A website gives George Cornelius Tilyou's dates as 1862-1914.

Another website says that the present-day apartment tower was constructed in 1929 by Emery Roth.

35 Prospect Park West - now
Emery Roth, architect - 1929

Yet another website says that Mary E. Tilyou, George's widow, lived in the tower until her death at 103 in the 1950s.

So it certainly seems possible that Mary Tilyou made some kind of an arrangement with Emery Roth!

Reader's Questions: Building Research

2010-10-06T19:17:00.000-07:00

We haven't figured out how to be notified on the rare occasion when someone actually posts a comment to this blog. It's basically just a matter of chance, so if you ask a question and we don't respond in the comments, it's probably because we didn't see it! If you really want to reach us, email us via the Park Slope Civic Council website.

At any rate, we just noticed the following comment from "Christopher" in response to our August post about the west side of 7th Avenue between 10th & 11th Streets:

7th Avenue & 10th Street, n w corner

Impressive! how did your researchers go about finding 1880s building permits? There are some buildings in the area I'd like to do the same with. 145 14th Street is my family's old homestead.

Thanks for reading, Christopher!

The building permits and original documents that we featured in our earlier post are on file at the Brooklyn Department of Buildings. The Park Slope Civic Council has been fortunate to receive a few very small grants that have funded a couple of interns who have actually gone into the DOB stacks, pulled files for some blocks in our "study area", and photographed them. We only have a few of these files online so far, but it is our intention to image more of these documents and to make them available online for future researchers.

145 14th Street is apparently west of 4th Avenue, which is outside our "study area," so unfortuntately we have no information to share about that building.

Someday maybe someone with a huge amount of time and disk space will image the entire Brooklyn DOB files and make them available online.

Emmett Grogan: West Park Sloper

2010-10-02T20:30:00.000-07:00

Readers with long memories may recall our earlier post about bank robber Willie Sutton, part of our occasional "Outlaws & Outsiders" series. We claim Sutton as a "West Park Sloper" because he lived in Dean Street between 3rd & 4th Avenues.

Actually the Sutton case came to our attention by way of yet another West Park Sloper, Emmett Grogan, who grew up on 4th Avenue in the "West Slope" and was an eyewitness to Sutton's capture, as recounted in Grogan's slightly fictionalized autobiobraphy Ringolevio: A Life Played For Keeps.

Grogan is perhaps best remembered these days as a founder of the San Francisco Diggers. As recounted by their website, the Diggers were an "anarchist guerilla street theater group that challenged the emerging Counterculture of the Sixties and whose actions and ideals inspired (and continue to inspire) a generation (of all ages) to create models of Free Association". The Diggers emerged in part from the famed San Francisco Mime Troupe, and reached an early apex during and after the "Summer of Love" by organizing free food and a free store ("It's free because it's yours!") in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury community.

We are thus honored to welcome Emmett Grogan into the pantheon of Greater Park Slope Outlaws & Outsiders. We highly recommend his book Ringolevio to students of Brooklyn and of the 1960s.

It is said that Grogan originated the V-for-victory "peace sign" and the expression "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." Which is a true statement, if you think about it...

Digger poster

Emmett Grogan died in 1978 on the F train, en route to Coney Island, apparently of a heart condition exacerbated by heroin use. So, apparently, Emmett Grogan took his last subway ride through Park Slope.

Bob Dylan's 1978 album Street Legal is dedicated to Emmett Grogan, West Park Sloper:

Grogan's legacy resonates in Brooklyn's contemporary blogosphere. One of the authors/personae of the fascinating blog "Who Walk In Brooklyn" is named "Kenny Wisdom", the protagonist of Grogan's book Ringolevio.

More J. F. Ransom in 10th Street

2010-09-29T14:45:00.000-07:00

The November 15, 1890 Brooklyn Eagle carried notice of plans filed by builder James F. Ransom to erect a row of 5 3-family flat houses in 10th Street, near 8th Avenue:

Brooklyn Eagle, November 15, 1890, p. 2 ("Still Booming")

This is one of those frustrating listings that gives scant details regarding the location... "near" 8th Avenue is not very precise! The listing does however cite much useful information, such as the dimensions (20x56 feet); the fact that the buildings were 3-family apartment houses; there are 5 of them; and the price. The price per house ($55,000 / 5 = $11,000 each) seems quite expensive for Park Slope apartment buildings in those days.

However, with so little to go on, we filed this one away in our "unknown buildings" file, until the next clue arrived, in the form of this listing for the same group from the American Architect and Building News, which usually carried the news a few weeks after the Eagle:

"Building Intelligence; Apartment-Houses; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 30, no. 783 (Dec. 27, 1890): p. xvii.

– "Tenth St., s s, 97' 10" w Eighth Ave., 5 three-st’y brick flats, tin roofs; cost, $7,000 each; owner, J. F. Ransom, 616 Tenth St.; architect, J. D. Reynolds & Son, 363 Fulton St."

This seems to be the same listing, but the price given here ($7,000 x 5 = $35,000) probably indicates a transcription error made by the Brooklyn Eagle reporter a few weeks earlier. $7,000 is a much more likely price for an 1890 Park Slope flat house.

We also learn the architect, "J. D. Reynolds & Son", which we think is another typo for I. D. or Isaac D. Reynolds, prolific Brooklyn architect of the day.

The AABN listing also provides a very precise, yet confusing location: "Tenth St., s s, 97'10" w Eighth Ave". This would place the group exactly in the same location as another set of Ransom buildings, built one year earlier. And that earlier group of 7 small, V-front, 16'-wide rowhouses could never be mistaken for a set of 5 3-story, 3-family, 20'-wide flats. So the AABN location must be wrong.

Where else could the group be?

The distance cited from 8th Avenue (97') is basically the depth of a typical Brooklyn building lot, so let's check across the street, directly behind the lots facing 8th Avenue. Sure enough, on the north side of 10th Street, just off 8th Avenue, stands a group that fits the description:

593-601 10th Street - 1890-1891
James F. Ransom, builder
I. D. Reynolds & Son, architects

They look a bit like rowhouses, but we suspect they were all built as 3-family flat houses (most have 3-bell buzzers to this day). The lots are 20' wide. There are 5 of them.

Therefore, pending the arrival of new information, we are attributing this group to Ransom & Reynolds.

(That makes 3 typos in the space of 2 listings, if anyone's counting... the reporters were working from handwritten documents so the typos are understandable.)

James F. Ransom, 10th Street Builder

2010-09-22T19:12:00.000-07:00

The Brooklyn Eagle of April 27, 1889 carried news of a row of 7 small, two-story-over basement, 16' wide houses to be erected in 10th Street, near 8th Avenue, by builder J. F. Ransom:

Brooklyn Eagle, April 27, 1889, p. 1 ("Within Three")

Just such a row of 7 houses stands today at 606-618 10th Street, on the south side of the block between 7th & 8th Avenues, just below 8th:

616-618 10th Street
James F. Ransom, builder - 1889

J. F. Ransom's name also appears in the Park Slope Historic District Designation Report. It was he who built #22-24 Fiske Place, a pair of neo-Grec apartment houses; and he also built #676-682 10th Street, in the park block, which the Designation Report describes as "perfect examples of the neo-Grec style." The description also fits our subject row of 7 houses below 8th Avenue:

606 10th Street
James F. Ransom, builder - 1889

Our research has uncovered several other groups of buildings associated with J. F. Ransom, whose first name is given as James in at least one citation. The 1897 Lain's Brooklyn Directory lists a James F. Ransom, builder, in residence at 918 8th Avenue, around the corner:

RANSOM Jas. F. bldr. h 918 8th av

"Lock In the Past?"

2010-09-16T21:06:00.000-07:00

The Courier newspaper recently ran a front-page article, reproduced (and corrected) below, about the proposed Park Slope Historic District extension.

The print version was accompanied by photographs of the following buildings from 12th Street, presumably to illustrate the article's contention that "some of [the buildings in the proposed extension] are historic, some not so much."

457 12th Street, between 7th & 8th Avenues, n s

Garage, 12th Street between 7th & 8th Avenues, n s

The fact that not every building in historic districts is equally historic is not at all surprising. Below are some "not so historic" buildings that were included in the original Park Slope Historic District:

543-549 2nd Street - circa 1950
Park Slope Historic District

Buildings such as these are usually said to be "non-contributing," i.e. that they do not contribute to the historic fabric or unique sense of place of the neighborhood. Presumably the Landmarks Preservation Commission would be much more likely to allow changes to (or even demolition of) a "non-contributing" building.

The Courier article, in italics below, contained a number of inaccuracies, for which we offer non-italicized corrections.

Lock In the Past?

The city is moving forward with a controversial plan to add roughly 600 buildings to the Park Slope historic district. The existing 34-block zone, which covers a thin swath between Seventh Avenue and Prospect Park West, is already the largest historic district in the city with 1,975 apartment buildings and houses.

[Actually, the Greenwich Village Historic District has always been larger, according to this press release from the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The Greenwich Village district was created in 1969 with 2,035 buildings, and has been extended twice to its current size of 2,320 buildings.]

But the new proposal — a wider area that would go all the way from Prospect Park West to Fifth Avenue and from Flatbush Avenue to 15th Street — would add 564 more buildings, some of them historic, some not so much.

[Actually, the proposed Park Slope Historic District extension lies mostly between 7th & 15th Streets, and between 7th & 8th Avenues, as shown on this map.]

The boundary was drawn up last year, and presented to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which has scheduled hearings and analysis for sometime this fall, the first step in a months- or years-long process.

[Actually the boundary of the proposed extension was drawn up by the Landmarks Preservation Commission and presented to the community, not the other way round.]

It’s one that the local councilman thinks is worth doing — mostly because the plan would include city loans for landowners who want to renovate their historic buildings, a costly venture. “The original district is 30-plus years old and there’s a lot it doesn’t cover,” Councilman Brad Lander (D–Park Slope) said on Wednesday. “This would be fair for owners — if you apply to do some work on your building, you have the option of getting city help, while keeping the look and feel of the neighborhood.” The commission has no timetable, but the fact that Park Slope got the city’s attention is a huge milestone for the effort to lock in the aesthetic of one of the best-preserved districts of 1800s Greek Revivals in the borough.

[Actually, the Greek Revival style (1830-1850) is nonexistent in Park Slope, which was constructed decades later.]

After all, any new buildings in the proposed district would have to help “create a coherent streetscape [and] a distinct sense of place,” according the commission.

So much for the Courier's overview of the proposed extension. For the perspective of the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission, scroll down to the next post.

LPC Overview of Phase 1 Extension

2010-09-10T22:15:00.000-07:00

Whilst poking about on the LPC's website, we happened upon a 1-page description or "blurb" of the proposed Park Slope Historic District extension. It was apparently written by LPC staffers and distributed internally at the August 10, 2010 hearing when the extension was calendared.

The text is of interest because it sheds light on the LPC's thinking with regard to the extension's significance. We reproduce the LPC text below, enhancing it with our own photographs and captions:

The proposed Park Slope Historic District extension focuses on the blocks between 7th Street and 16th Street, including both sides of Seventh and Eighth Avenues, as well as the west side of Bartell Pritchard Square, adjoining Prospect Park. This phase contains approximately 582 buildings that are located on blocks that border the south and southwest boundaries of the current historic district, designated in 1973. Most of the structures are row houses and apartment buildings that were constructed in the 1880s, following the completion of Prospect Park and the opening of new streetcar routes along the neighborhood’s major avenues. An additional factor in the area’s development was construction of the Ansonia Clock Factory...

Ansonia Clock Factory

...in 1879, which occupied a significant portion of the block bordered by Seventh Avenue, 12th Street, and 13th Street. Now condominium residences, at one time the factory employed a reported 1500 workers. Many buildings in the vicinity were constructed to serve this community, particularly the 4-story buildings along Seventh and Eighth Avenues, which incorporate walk-up apartments and ground-floor commercial space, often designed with distinctive corner entrances and projecting bay windows.

7th Avenue & 12th Street, s w corner
Louis Bonert, owner/builder - 1890

Similar buildings extend along Seventh Avenue, with Acme Hall, at the corner of 9th Street.

Acme Hall - 7th Avenue & 9th Street, n w corner
Charles Nickenig, owner/builder - 1890

Built by developer Charles Nickenig, this large Romanesque Revival style structure originally contained a large ballroom, bowling alleys, and meeting rooms for area organizations. Eleventh Street features two handsome buildings erected for fire protection, a 2-story red brick Italianate structure built in 1883 by the City of Brooklyn and a 3-story tan brick Beaux Arts-style structure built for the New York City Fire Department in 1907.

Fire Engine Houses, 11th Street
1883 building (left)
1907 building (right)

The blocks that the surround the firehouses, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, contain many handsome examples of late 19th century row house design. Particularly homogeneous groups can be found along both sides of 8th,...

8th Street, 7th-8th Avenues, n s
Charles Long, owner, & J. F. Wood, builder - 1884-1886

...10th...

10th Street, 7th-8th Avenues, n s
M[?]. Doody, owner - 1882

...and 11th Streets.

11th Street, 7th-8th Avenues, n s
James Jack, owner/builder - 1894

Erected by commercial developers during the 1880s, these brick and brownstone houses are mostly well preserved and display simple, mostly classical, details. The south side of 9th Street is more stylistically varied, with Italianate and Queen Anne-style designs of the 1880s.

9th Street, 7th-8th Avenues, s s
E. L. Pierson, owner/builder - 1882

The latest buildings in the extension can be found close to Prospect Park, along 15th Street, where mostly two-family houses and multiple dwellings were erected in the neo-classical style during the first decade of the 20th century.

15th Street, 8th Avenue-Prospect Park West, s s

At Bartell Pritchard Square, the whitish-brick buildings turn the corner and curve, echoing the shape of the traffic circle and the granite columns that McKim, Mead & White added to the park’s southwest entrance in 1906.

Bartell-Pritchard Square, west side

David Atkins: 9th Street Flats

2010-09-08T19:02:00.000-07:00

On the north side of 9th Street between 7th & 8th Avenues stands a row of 9 identical 4-story, 4-family "flat houses" (early apartment buildings). Some of the row are missing their cornices, and some are boarded up and seemingly abandoned:

481-497 9th Street
David Atkin/Atkins, builder - 1893

The Brooklyn Eagle in 1893 published notice of plans by builder David Atkin to erect a row of 9 four-story, 4-family flats in this location, so we suspect this is the very same row, still standing if a bit worse for wear.

Brooklyn Eagle, March 10, 1893, p. 6 ("New Buildings and Real Estate")

The cornices that remain show an interesting scallop-shaped design:

We have associated builder David Atkin (a.k.a. "Atkins") with a few other buildings in the South Slope, most notably the 1889 mixed-use (flats over stores) row at the northwest corner of 15th Street and 7th Avenue. Our research files show both "D. Atkin" and "D. Atkins" operating out of 339 15th Street, a building which he also built in 1889, together with the 7th Avenue row.

Montrose Morris in the North Slope

2010-09-03T21:25:00.000-07:00

Recently the ubiquitous local architectural historian "Montrose Morris" devoted a Brownstoner "House of the Day" column to the marvelous mixed-use apartment houses at 76-82 St. Marks Avenue in the North Slope:

76-82 St. Marks Avenue ("Montauk" and "Lenox" apartments)
Montrose Morris, architect - 1885
William H. Scott, owner

According to "Montrose Morris", the buildings were constructed in 1885, to designs by her namesake, distinguished Brooklyn architect Montrose Morris. It is worth reproducing her remarks on this remarkable set of buildings:

Why chosen: Not many people realize this is an MM building. One could argue that it is his practice run for his masterpiece, the Alhambra, built later in 1889. Lauded in the Eagle as one of the finest apt buildings in Brooklyn at the time, this building once had large apartments, each with a parlor, library, dining room, pantry, kitchen, 3 bedrooms, servants' rooms and two bathrooms. Design-wise, we can see Morris' signature style emerging; the placement of the building to command the street, his use of bays and massing of windows adding space, as well as lots of light. His decorative rooflines and use of various elements such as banded foliate terra-cotta, decorative carvings around the entrances, the bold naming of his buildings, and his mixture of materials to add interest to the building. Lastly, we can see his most pervasive signature element; his use of multiple columns, usually surrounding Romanesque arched windows, slightly recessed here, but soon to form deeply recessed loggias.

We asked "Montrose Morris," whom we revere as a fellow fanatical preservationist, what documentation supports her claim that the buildings were designed by Morris. She pointed us to a Brooklyn Eagle article from May 18, 1885 that seems to describe a set of somewhat similar buildings, in the same location, by Montrose Morris:

Brooklyn Eagle, May 18, 1885, p. 6 ("A Big Building")

We then turned to our Documentary History of the Park Slope Historic District Expansion Study Area to see if we had any other evidence to support the attribution, and indeed, we do.

The same development was recorded by the American Architect & Building News in June, 1885:

"Building Intelligence; Brooklyn," AABN vol. 17, no. 496 (Jun. 27, 1885): p. 311.

– "Flatbush Ave, s e cor. St. Mark’s Ave., seven-st’y brick, Carlisle Stone and terra-cotta apartment-house, Sparham fire-proof cement roofing; cost, $150,000 to $200,000; owner, Wm Scott, 33 Wall St.; architect, M. W. Morris."

The Brooklyn Eagle also noted that the New Building permit for these buildings had been issued in its issue of June 18, 1885:

Brooklyn Eagle, June 18, 1885, p. 4 ("Municipal")

"Montrose Morris" also offered irrefutable evidence that these buildings are by architect Montrose Morris: she says that distinguished architectural historian and Montrose Morris expert Andrew Dolkart says so! That's good enough for "Montrose Morris," and it's good enough for us too!

"Lenox" Apartments - entrance detail
Montrose Morris, architect - 1885

"Smiling Pizza" Row

2010-08-30T18:56:00.000-07:00

According to the American Architect & Building News, the row of six buildings on the northeast corner of 9th Street and 7th Avenue was built in 1881 to designs by prolific Park Slope architect Cevedra B. Sheldon:

"Building Intelligence; Brooklyn," AABN vol. 9, no. 281 (May 14, 1881): p. 239.
– "Seventh Ave., n e cor., Ninth St., 6 three-st’y brownstone tenements; cost, each $7,000; owner and builder, John H. Townsend; architect, C. B. Sheldon."

The corner building contains the famous "Smiling Pizza" shop on the ground floor, familiar to generations of Park Slope residents and 'F' train riders:

439-449 9th Street
Cevedra Blake Sheldon, Architect - 1881
John H. Townsend, owner/builder

The rest of the row are 3-story, 3-family flat houses or "tenements," a term which meant any multi-family housing in those days. The row is brownstone-faced, with neo-Grec incised detailing, fully-enframed windows, and distinctive cornice:

The corner building is taller by one floor than the rest of the row, but has the same cornice:

Apparently the corner building was originally 3 stories tall, like the others; the 4th floor was added in an extensive 1890 remodeling whose architect was Mercein Thomas:

"Building Intelligence; Alterations; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 28, no. 756 (Jun. 21, 1890): p. xiv.

– "Seventh Ave., n e cor. Ninth St., three-st’y brick dwell, tin roof, raised one-st’y, one-st’y extension added for a store and altered internally; cost, $10,000; owner, James McLaren, foot of Court St.; architect, Mercien Thomas, 16 Court St."

"Streetscapes" Visits the Carleton Club

2010-08-23T20:40:00.000-07:00

In a recent column entitled "Social Clubs, Long Gone, Left Their Meeting Places Behind," noted NY Times "Streetscapes" columnist Christopher Gray visits four former social clubs in Brooklyn, including Park Slope's Carleton (a.k.a. Carlton) Club, on 6th Avenue just off Flatbush Avenue:

Carleton Club
Mercein Thomas, architect
1889-90

Regarding the Carleton Club, Mr. Gray tells us:

Three of the four were built within two years of one another. So competitive were the Brooklyn clubs that the Carlton (a k a Carleton) put up a headquarters in 1890 at Sixth and St. Marks Avenues in Park Slope simply because of rumors that another club was organizing to build nearby.

The Carlton had been dry, but after an 1889 meeting at which the membership voted, 38 to 11, to serve beer and wine, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that it had “stepped to the front rank of Brooklyn clubs at a strike.”

This momentously fermentative change was thus in effect for the opening of the clubhouse, attended by 1,500 guests, including the mayors of Brooklyn and Manhattan. The club served a 10-course dinner, and members lent paintings by Jervis McIntee, George Inness and Eastman Johnson for the event. The Carlton was apparently designed by Mercein Thomas, and it is a mild, even modest, essay that could just as easily be a small apartment house, which indeed it has become.

In a lengthy article on March 9, 1890, the Brooklyn Eagle published a detailed review of the new club building and its facilities:

Brooklyn Eagle, March 9, 1890, p. 17 ("For the Carleton Club")

The review of the opening gala had appeared a few weeks earlier, on February 19, 1890.

Despite its auspicious beginnings, the Carleton Club apparently lasted only a few years. In 1907 the building became the home of the Cathedral Club of Brooklyn, a Roman Catholic social club. A long-time resident of Park Slope informs us that the Cathedral Club was established because Catholics were not allowed to join the nearby Montauk Club. [UPDATE: this story is apparently apocryphal... see comments below; thanks to "LGR".] According to the Cathedral Club's website, the group owned the building until 1974, when the building was sold and converted to its current residential use.

Phase 1 Expansion Map

2010-08-18T21:35:00.000-07:00

Somehow Brownstoner managed to obtain a map of the calendared first phase of the Park Slope Historic District expansion. Unclear how they got it; we have been unable to locate it on the LPC's website. Excerpt shown below; click here for the full version.

7th Street is at the top; 16th Street at the bottom; 7th Avenue is at the left. The existing historic district, designated in 1973, is outlined in blue. The proposed expansion, comprising over 500 buildings, is outlined in red:

Significantly, the LPC decided to include the entire west side of Bartel-Pritchard Square (actually a circle, at lower right), because of the way that side creates a kind of special "gateway" into 15th Street.

Lost Park Slope: John H. Hanan Residence

2010-08-10T19:05:00.000-07:00

Our recent "Lost Park Slope" featured the Romanesque Revival residence of John H. Hanan, a wealthy shoe manufacturer in Brooklyn. The residence was designed in 1890 by C. P. H. Gilbert and stood at the northwest corner of 8th Avenue and Carroll Street until the mid-1930s.

John H. Hanan Residence - 118 8th Avenue
C. P. H. Gilbert, architect - 1890
Demolished circa 1935

Architectural historian Christopher Gray discussed this house in a 2003 "Streetscapes" column devoted to C. P. H. Gilbert:

Another element crept into Gilbert's work about this time -- the lacy forms, decorated gables and lighter stone, often limestone, of late French Gothic. One of the first was a mansion for the shoe dealer John Hanan at Carroll Street and Eighth Avenue in Park Slope, around 1890. The Hanan house, demolished in the 1930's, still had the heavy, rock-faced stone common to the Romanesque revival of the 1880's, but period photographs indicate that the masonry was of a much lighter cast than the usual brownstone and, more significantly, was detailed with delicate French Gothic detail in limestone at the doorway and roof line.

John Henry Hanan was the "son" of the firm of Hanan & Son shoes, a highly successful shoe manufacturer here in Brooklyn started by his father, James. The firm built a shoe factory in Brooklyn that still stands in the DUMBO Historic District:

Hanan & Son Shoe Factory
54 Bridge Street, DUMBO Historic District

According to the DUMBO Historic District's Designation Report:

Hanan & Son. Shoe manufacturer with a major complex on Bridge Street between Water and Front Streets erected between 1893 and 1905. Hanan, with 1,131 employees in 1913,was, by far, the largest shoe manufacturer in Brooklyn...

...Hanan initially announced construction of a seven-story structure; he actually built a five-story factory. Even before purchasing the DUMBO property, James Hanan was a resident of Brooklyn, living in a large mansion at 45 Eighth Avenue (demolished) in Park Slope. James Hanan (1819-1897) was born in Ireland and learned the shoe trade from his father. In 1849 he moved to America and in 1854 established a small shoemaking business in New York City. In about 1865, his son, John Henry Hanan (1849-1920), entered his father’s firm, and in 1882 the company became Hanan & Son. The Hanan Company was among the first to stamp the firm’s name on every shoe, a daring idea at a time when most people still sought shoes handmade by the dealer. The firm was successful and in 1888 Hanan began opening retail stores to sell the factory’s product directly to consumers.

1884 advert from Puck

The mansion stood until about 1935, when it was demolished to make way for the present structure, an 11-story apartment building begun in 1936:

118 8th Avenue - 1936
Park Slope Historic District

LPC Press Release on Park Slope Calendaring

2010-08-10T15:09:00.000-07:00

The Landmarks Preservation Commission also issued a press release regarding today's calendaring action (excerpts below; full release here). The press release states contradictory figures for the size of the proposed extension, at one point indicating 582 buildings, and at another point, 564 buildings. We're not sure which is correct. At any rate, thank you, LPC! And congratulations to Staten Island on your new landmarks.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2010
No. 10-09

LANDMARKS PRESERVATION COMMISSION CONSIDERS NINE STATEN ISLAND SITES AND 582 PARK SLOPE BUILDINGS

Staten Island Armory and Episcopal Become Landmarks, and Six Structures on the SI Advance Towards Designation, As an Expansion of the Park Slope Historic District Gets Under Way

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission today unanimously designated Christ Church, its rectory and parish house in New Brighton and the Headquarters Troop, 51st Cavalry Brigade Armory in Castleton Corners as individual New York City Landmarks. The Commission also agreed to formally consider on a plan to enlarge Brooklyn’s Park Slope Historic District by 582 buildings, and held public hearings on proposals to designate seven sites on Staten Island as individual landmarks...

The proposed Park Slope Historic District Extension would encompass 564 rowhouses and apartment buildings, mostly constructed in the 1880s, on both sides of 7th and 8th avenues between 7th and 15th streets and the west side of Bartell Pritchard Square, adjoining Prospect Park. The existing Park Slope Historic District, designated in 1973, consists of 1,975 buildings and is the third largest historic district in the City. A date for a public hearing was not immediately announced...

Joint Press Release from CMs Lander & Levin

2010-08-10T14:24:00.000-07:00

Today the Landmarks Preservation Commission took the first formal step in the process of expanding the Park Slope Historic District by "calendaring" a public hearing on the proposed expansion. The boundaries of the historic district have not changed since the original district was designated on July 17, 1973.

Council Members Brad Lander (39th district) and Stephen Levin (33rd district), who represent Park Slope in City Hall, issued the following joint press release today to mark this important step. Thanks guys!

August 10, 2010

Thanks to the hard work of Park Slope residents, the Park Slope Civic Council, and local elected officials, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission voted earlier today to put a public hearing on the calendar (date to be determined) to seriously consider the expansion of the Park Slope Historic District. The proposed expansion would add the blocks between Seventh and Eight Avenues, from Seventh Street through 14th Street , as well as areas adjacent to Bartel Pritchard Square (the full proposed boundaries are available on the LPC website).

Park Slope’s City Councilmember Brad Lander chairs the City Council’s Land Use Subcommittee on Landmarks. Both he and City Councilmember Steve Levin (33rd district, which also includes Park Slope) were thrilled about the decision and will notify the community as soon as they know the date of the hearing.

The current Park Slope Historic District was created in the 1970s, and includes most of the brownstone blocks on Eighth Avenue and Prospect Park West, and additional blocks in Northern Park Slope.

Area residents, led by the Park Slope Civic Council, began organizing for this expansion in the spring of 2007, out of concern that too much new development was undermining the distinctive architectural character of the community, and placing treasured buildings at risk. The Civic Council organized a postcard campaign and several public meetings, in which hundreds of residents expressed their support. The LPC then conducted field surveys, and held their own public meeting in the community in June, which was attended by several hundred local residents.

Peter Bray, the Chair of the Park Slope Civic Council’s Historic District Committee, which was the organizing force behind this expansion, said “the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s action is an important step towards the Park Slope Civic Council’s goal of preserving Park Slope and particularly its character that attracts people to live, work and shop here. We value this character precisely because it is not like everywhere else. Park Slope is blessed with history, great architecture, and a human scale. Without landmarking, Park Slope is vulnerable to the cookie-cutter development that has made other city neighborhoods unrecognizable to their residents. We are looking forward to working with the Commission and our elected officials on future expansion phases beyond this South Slope expansion.”

Councilmembers Brad Lander and Stephen Levin who represent Park Slope, thanked the Landmarks Preservation Commission for their hours of field work and the Park Slope Civic Council for organizing the expansion effort.

Councilmember Lander said, “Park Slope is a truly great neighborhood, and expanding the historic district will help make sure it stays that way. I thank the Landmarks Preservation Commission for voting to calendar a public hearing on the expansion, and commend the Park Slope Civic Council for their hard work and effective organizing over the past several years. While a historic district asks for a little bit more of building owners, it helps make sure the neighborhood retains the architectural character that helps make it a great place. I look forward to supporting this and future efforts to strengthen preservation in Park Slope.” Lander chairs the City Council’s Land Use Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Siting, and Maritime Uses, which would ultimately hear and vote on the expansion, if it is approved by the LPC after the public hearing.

Councilmember Levin said, “I have been working closely with the Landmarks Preservation Commission, Councilmember Lander, and the Park Slope Civic Council to expand the Landmark Historic District in Park Slope. The expansion of the Historic District, as the PSCC has demonstrated, will be beneficial for both residents and retailers in the proposed area. The Historic District will protect the very core of what makes Park Slope a great place to live, visit, shop in, and enjoy. Landmark designations also help to increase property value for homeowners in the area. Not only has the PSCC been mindful of all parties that would potentially be effected by landmarking, they have shown the willingness to cooperate and compromise with those groups in the future. I have always supported small businesses and understood that they could potentially have to take on a large burden when their property (whether rented or owned) is designated as a landmark. The PSCC has demonstrated awareness of those burdens and has expressed the desire and readiness to incorporate flexibility within landmarking regulations for small business.”

The Landmarks Preservation Commission will now move forward to set a date for the public hearing on the expansion. After the hearing, the LPC will vote on whether to approve the expansion. If approved by the LPC, the expansion would then be considered by the City Planning Commission and the City Council.

The Armory: "A Testament to Middle-Class Fears"

2010-08-08T17:02:00.000-07:00

A recent NY Times article about a forthcoming book by historian Michael A. Bellesiles brought to mind an aspect of the city's armories such as our own 14th Regiment Armory here in Park Slope:

14th Regiment Armory, Park Slope
National/State Historic Register Designation Report, 1994

No one seems certain what to do with these dinosaurs from the 19th c. Current uses and proposals range from homeless shelters to recreational spaces to urban malls. They are often festooned with commemorative markers dedicated to those who served their country in foreign wars or the American Civil War.

But it should not be forgotten that the most important original function of these behemoths was to intimidate and control the local population. Built in response to domestic social unrest in the late 19th c., a time when huge numbers of immigrants were pouring into the country, bringing along such "foreign" ideas as socialism and anarchism, armories served as a kind of "Department of Homeland Security" of their day.

From the NY Times article:

NEW HAVEN - On this hot summer day, Michael A. Bellesiles is sitting outside the abandoned red brick armory here. It is, he said, a much friendlier building than the one that occupied this spot in 1877. In the middle of what was then a working-class neighborhood northwest of Yale, the old Gothic armory, made of stone with no windows on the first floor, was meant to withstand the American precursor of a Molotov cocktail, he explained: "It was a testament to middle-class fears."

The year 1877, when record peacetime bloodshed led to a new wave of armory construction, is the subject of Mr. Bellesiles's new book. There was a shocking rise in urban homicide and other crimes, a bitter national railroad strike and the forced relocation of the Great Plains Indians, as well as violent unrest over immigrants and the post-slavery status of blacks. To Mr. Bellesiles, the year is the point when class conflict replaced race as the most pressing social and political issue. -Patricia Cohen, NY Times

14th Regiment Armory, Park Slope - postcard
Brooklyn Public Library - Brooklyn Collection

The role of armories as a function of domestic social control is also supported by their entry in the Encyclopedia of New York City, where we read:

A great number of armories were built by the nineteenth century, largely in response to events that took place in New York City after the Civil War and to the fears of social unrest that they provoked among the middle and upper classes; these included increasing numbers of foreign immigrants (many of them unskilled laborers from eastern and southern Europe), the draft riots of 1863, the panic of 1873 and the ensuing six-year depression, and the Tompkins Square Riot of 1874. -Pamela W. Hawkes, "Armories" entry

Armories were supposed to look intimidating, and they do. In the 19th c. they must have seemed impregnable in the way of a medieval castle, and they feature fortress-like features such as towers, a portcullis, and crenellation. In short their appearance was both functional, housing the State Militia troops ever ready to suppress domestic disturbances, and symbolic, representing the awesome, compulsory power of the State over the individual.

The 14th Regiment of New York's State Militia, for whom Park Slope's armory was built, saw service in the American Civil War, the Spanish-American War, and in World War I. In addition, the regiment was called out during the Brooklyn motormen's strike of 1895 (a topic for future research).

Lost Park Slope

2010-08-06T09:24:00.000-07:00

Okay folks, time for another round of "Lost Park Slope."

Can anyone tell us anything about this building that once stood in Park Slope - where it was, who lived in it, who designed it and when, etc?:

7th Avenue, 10th to 11th Streets, West Side

2010-08-03T22:32:00.001-07:00

By request, we turn our attention now to the west side of 7th Avenue between 10th & 11th Streets in the South Slope.

To the casual observer, the entire blockfront might appear to have been built as a single unit. Each building is of brick, brownstone-faced, 3 stories, flats over stores, 3 bays, flat front, with identical neo-Grec detailing around the windows:

350-358 7th Avenue (sw corner 10th Street)

(Our photos are from 2008-2009 and show the late, much lamented Tea Lounge!)

360-368 7th Avenue (nw corner 11th Street)

On closer inspection, certain subtle differences appear. The side facade of 350 7th Avenue, at the 10th Street end, is plainer than the side facade of 368 7th Avenue, at the 11th Street end, which features decorative sawtooth brick patterns and a slightly projecting chimney stack:

350 7th Avenue (sw corner 10th Street)

368 7th Avenue (nw corner 11th Street)

An even closer view of the corner buildings highlights the identical facade detailing of the window frames, but also reveals differences between the cornices:

350 7th Avenue - detail

368 7th Avenue - detail

So what do you think? Same builder/owner/architect, or not? It is indeed puzzling. Compounding the confusion is the fact that we have not yet found any supporting attributions in our usual sources (Brooklyn Eagle, American Architect & Building News, etc).

However, our researchers have actually pulled the Dept. of Buildings files for this stretch of 7th Avenue, so we do have findings at least for some of the row.

Regarding 350 7th Avenue, at the sw corner of 10th Street, the building files yield a surprise: the original permit, dated September 3, 1885, was for a row of two buildings at the northeast corner of the intersection, diagonally across the street! But pencilled in at the top of the permit, with a date of Sept. 12, are the words:

It is now proposed to erect the below buildings on the S.W. cor 7th Ave + 10th St - To front on 7th Ave Also to build 3 houses Two to be 20 ft. front Approved David Acker Depty Comm

Building permit, 350-354 7th Avenue
September 3, 1885
Revised September 12, 1885

Apparently the plans were changed at the last minute, to build a row of 3 buildings on the SW corner of the intersection, instead of a row of 2 on the NE corner. (One can see that the letters "N.E." in the original plan, above, are struck out.)

The next page of the permit reveals the names, quite familiar to us by now, of those responsible at least for this row of 3:

350-354 7th Avenue - 1885 building permit, showing:
C. Nickenig, owner
R. Dixon, architect
L. Bonert, builder

Charles Nickenig of course built Acme Hall and other 7th Avenue buildings; Robert Dixon was a prolific Park Slope builder; and Louis Bonert would go on to develop a vast amount of Park Slope property including some of the finest houses within the current historic district.

The plans also contain the original architect's drawing with R. Dixon's name stamped in the corner; the rendering shows the commercial space with two floors above, and the cellar floor below ground level with thick foundation walls:

350-354 7th Avenue, rendering
R. Dixon, architect, 1885

Our researcher also found DOB files for 368 7th Avenue, at the northwest corner of 11th Street, the building at the other end of the row. The plans, dated October 19, 1886, are for a single building, with Bonert now listed as owner as well as builder. The architect for 368 7th Avenue is listed as Frederick E. Lockwood:

368 7th Avenue - building permit dated Oct. 19, 1886

368 7th Avenue - building permit
Owner - Louis Bonert
Architect - Frederick E. Lockwood
Mason/Carpenter - Louis Bonert

No other original building files for this blockfront were found by our researcher. So what is one to make of this confusing situation? A row of highly similar buildings; plans extant only for the end buildings; different architects; Louis Bonert a constant in both.

Below is what our researcher, a professionally trained preservationist, has to say about the row, beyond what is revealed by the building files above:

All buildings in this block share distinct architectural elements including building height, brownstone facing, a unique wood cornice, and machined window entablature so while it is not reflected in the Buildings Department records these buildings were built within a short span of time. Records for the corner buildings, lots 41 and 50, show different owners, architects, and builders, but the same key elements, and were built in 1885 and 1886 respectively, providing a timeline for construction of the infill buildings.

1887 Mixed-Use Row in 7th Avenue

2010-07-30T22:34:00.000-07:00

On the southwest corner of 7th Avenue and 7th Street stands a fine row of five 4-story, brownstone-faced, mixed-use (flats over stores) buildings that are in near-original condition. According to our research, plans for the row were submitted by the firm of Cozzens and Brown in late 1887. The architect was Isaac D. Reynolds:

294-302 7th Avenue
Cozzens and Brown, owners/builders
Isaac D. Reynolds, architect - 1887

Citations from both the Brooklyn Eagle and American Architect & Building News support the attribution. Note the typo in the AABN listing, which incorrectly places the row on the northwest corner of the intersection, on land occupied by the All Saints Episcopal Church:

Brooklyn Eagle, August 27, 1887, p. 1 ("Falling Off")

"Building Intelligence; Apartment-Houses; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 22, no. 610 (Sept. 3, 1887): p. xi.

– "Seventh Ave., n w cor. [sic - s w cor.] Seventh St., 5 four-st’y brown-stone flats, cor. with store, tin roofs; cost, each, $10,000; owners and buiders, Cozzens & Brown, 377 Fulton St.; architect, I. D. Reynolds."

The corner building features a wonderful, circular corner bay window overlooking the intersection. This bay might have once been surmounted by a conical tower, a part of which still appears below the cornice. Many of the mixed-use buildings in 7th Avenue appear in historic photographs with such tower-like corner embellishments:

294 7th Avenue - detail

The corner bay is just visible at the far right-hand side in an old photo of the row across the street in the Brooklyn Public Library's collection.

Little is known about the firm of Cozzens and Brown, according to the Prospect Heights Historic District's Designation Report, where the firm is listed along with its Prospect Heights attributions:

Prospect Heights Historic District - Designation Report

We know a bit more about the architect, Isaac D. Reynolds, who established his Brooklyn practice in the 1860s and who designed many buildings in both the Prospect Heights and Park Slope Historic Districts:

Prospect Heights Historic District - Designation Report

ROSAS: Commercial Design Guidelines

2010-07-24T17:14:00.000-07:00

Not so long ago, according to longtime Slope residents, "Park Slope" was a lot smaller than it is today, ending at perhaps 3rd Street or maybe 9th Street on the south. The "South Slope" was seen as a distinct neighborhood, with its own set of needs, which would best be served by a separate neighborhood association. Such was the rationale for ROSAS, which stood for "Revitalization of the Southern Area of the Slope."

By the late 1990s, however, the South Slope was booming, along with the rest of Brooklyn's brownstone belt. The need for a separate neighborhood association having subsided, ROSAS decided to merge itself into the Park Slope Civic Council in about 1998 or 1999. (Some wags contend that ROSAS, having successfully revitalized the South Slope, next decided to "revitalize" the Park Slope Civic Council through an influx of new Trustees!)

ROSAS is not often remembered now, but one of its signature projects, a booklet called "Design Guidelines for Facade Improvement," has come into our hands, and we decided to scan it in and make it available on the web along with our photo archive, block history archive, etc.

Our understanding is that the 7th Avenue commercial corridor above 9th Street was dying out, through conversion of ground-floor commercial space into residential, which obviously tends to kill off a shopping street. The folks at ROSAS did not want to see their local commercial street die, and this manual is one manifestation of their efforts to sustain the local economy, similar to today's "shop local" campaigns and "business improvement districts."

The manual is of interest as a historical artifact, but it also contains useful information for anyone contemplating a commercial storefront renovation/restoration, and is highly recommended for this purpose.

The manual also reflects the aspirations of the early South Slope "brownstoners". One page contrasts the garish signage of a hypothetical "Cheap Charlie's" with that of the more restrained "Park Slope Gourmet:"

We have to say, we too prefer the more understated signage. But in today's Park Slope, where the concern is no longer revitalization, but hyper-gentrification, we'd be quite happy to see "Cheap Charlie's" stick around. Which begs an interesting question... would "Cheap Charlie's" still be "Cheap Charlie's" if it had signage like "Park Slope Gourmet"?

10th Street: 1891 Flats from Louis Bonert

2010-07-21T20:08:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time we devoted a huge amount of space on this blog to builder Louis Bonert, the man whose contributions to the physical appearance of Park Slope today cannot be understated. We haven't featured anything from Bonert in a while, but his attributions continue to pile up.

On the south side of 10th Street, between 7th & 8th Avenues, stands a row of 6 three-family "flat houses" (so named because they feature one "flat" or apartment per floor):

574-584 10th Street
Louis Bonert, Owner
Robert Dixon, Architect - 1890-91

According to an attribution from the American Architect & Building News, predecessor of today's American Architect magazine, the row was built in 1891 by Louis Bonert. Prolific Brooklyn architect Robert Dixon provided the plans:

"Building Intelligence; Apartment-Houses; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 30, no. 782 (Dec. 20, 1890): p. xvii.

– "Tenth St., s s, 285' 9" w Eighth Ave., 6 three-st’y brick flats, tin roofs; cost, $4,000 each; owner, L. Bonard [sic - Bonert], on premises; architect, Robert Dixon, 219 Montague St."

All 6 of the original "flat houses" still stand today. Unfortunately, all 6 have lost their original cornices, although in other respects they remain in near-original condition.

We sometimes wonder what term would have been used had people first been accustomed to living in "flats," and then someone invented the house with stairs. Would such an arrangement have been initially called an "upright"?

Van Tuyl & Lincoln: 1888 Mixed-Use in 7th Avenue

2010-07-19T19:16:00.000-07:00

On the southeast corner of 7th Avenue and 8th Street in Park Slope stands an intact row of 4 buildings that mix commercial use on the ground floor, with "flats" for residential use above. The brick, brownstone-faced buildings are generously proportioned; the corner building boasts not one but two full-height, three-sided bays on the 8th Street side, and the buildings facing 7th Avenue are 4 bays wide:

309-315 7th Avenue
Van Tuyl & Lincoln, owners/architects - 1888

The 8th Street side of 309 7th Avenue features a variety of different elements in brick including "sawtooth" brick and unusual Gothic arches at the top floor:

309 7th Avenue - side elevation - detail

The two center buildings feature arched windows at the top floor:

311-313 7th Avenue

Our attribution comes from the American Architect & Building News of 1888:

"Building Intelligence; Stores; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 23, no. 653 (Jun. 30, 1888): p. xxii.

– "Seventh Av e., s e cor. Eighth St., 4 four-st’y brownstone stores and flats, tin roofs; total cost, $30,000; owners and architects, Van Tuyl & Lincoln, 166 Montegue St.; masons, Buchanan & Riley."

This row is one of very few works we can attribute to the firm of Van Tuyl & Lincoln. The firm's only other work in Park Slope, to our knowledge, is a fine 3-house row on the south side of Union Street, between 5th & 6th Avenues, recently featured on Brownstoner.

Is Grand Army Plaza Landmarked?

2010-07-15T20:40:00.001-07:00

We were playing around with Citymap this evening and noticed something odd.

Is Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn's grandest public space, a designated landmark?

In Citymap one can select additional options to show historic districts, individual landmarks, scenic landmarks, and interior landmarks. We checked every landmark option there is, and result is shown above. Historic districts (Park Slope to the left; Prospect Heights above) are shown in brown. Scenic landmarks (Prospect Park below; Eastern Parkway to the right) are shown in purple. The Soldiers and Sailors Arch in the middle of Grand Army Plaza is shown as an individual landmark.

But the rest of Grand Army Plaza appears to be unprotected by any kind of landmark designation, which seems an odd oversight. We had always assumed that the GAP berms etc. were protected under Prospect Park's scenic landmark designation. Are we wrong?

In fact this page at the city's Dept. of Parks and Recreation states that the Plaza itself is indeed a landmark and was designated in 1975:

The bust of John F. Kennedy was added in 1965. In 1973 the Arch was designated an official City landmark, and in 1975 the entire Grand Army Plaza was designated such as well.

If this is true, then why doesn't the GAP oval appear in purple on the map above? Or is this just an artifact of the mapping system?

UPDATED: We tracked down Prospect Park's original Designation Report from 1975, and it appears to include Grand Army Plaza after all. So Citymap's omission of GAP from the Prospect Park scenic landmark appears to be a mistake.

7th Street: Block History vs. Eagle & AABN

2010-07-14T19:20:00.000-07:00

We're particularly interested to read block histories because it gives us a chance to compare our own ad-hoc research findings from the Brooklyn Eagle, American Architect & Building News, etc. with the building research compiled by others.

So how does our research stack up against Lois Stewart's 7th Street Block History, compiled in the 1960s?

In fact, the two sets of research conform with each other quite well. Let's take a walk up the street and compare data.

Nearest 7th Avenue is a row of 10 brownstone-faced 3-family flat houses, discussed previously on this blog:

476-494 7th Street - 1887
Alexander G. Calder, owner
William M. Calder, architect

Lois Stewart's Block History dates this row to 1887 and attributes it to the father-and-son team of Alexander G. and William M. Calder:

This conforms precisely to our own findings about this row from the American Architect & Building News:

"Building Intelligence; Tenement-Houses; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 21, no. 589 (Apr. 9, 1887): p. xii.

– "Seventh St., s s, 80' e Seventh Ave., 10 three-st’y brown-stone tenements, tin roofs; cost, each, $7,000; owner and contractor, A. G. Calder, 312 Thirteenth St., architect, W. M. Calder."

The next group of six buildings is nearly identical to the first group of 10, differing only slightly in detailing:

496-506 7th Street - 1888
Sampson B. Oulton, owner
William Wirth, architect

Lois Stewart's Block History cites 1888 as the year of construction, and attributes the row to Sampson B. Oulton:

Once again our AABN listing conforms to the above, and adds the name of William Wirth, architect, to the story.

"Building Intelligence; Houses; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 23, no. 651 (Jun. 16, 1888): p. xix.

– "Seventh St., s s, 422' 10" w Eighth Ave., 6 three-st’y brownstone dwells., tin roof; cost, each, $5,000; owner, S. B. Oulton, 188 Eleventh St.; architect, Wm. Wirth; builder, Lawson."

Careful readers will recall another collaboration from the team of Oulton and Wirth.

So far our research is 2 for 2 on this block!

The final set of buildings on the block is a later Neoclassical row of 10 single-family houses, quite different from the adjacent rows of 3-family flats:

508-526 7th Street - 1899-1900
Daniel Buckley, owner

We had uncovered nothing about this particular row. Lois Stewart's Block History attributes them to a builder named "Buckley," since all of the sales transactions were in the name of Rose Buckley, presumably the builder's wife:

Here at last we are able to add something that escaped Lois Stewart's eagle eye. Some research in the Brooklyn Eagle, Lain's Brooklyn Directory of 1897, and our own Park Slope research files indicates that Rose P. Buckley was the wife of Daniel Buckley, a Park Slope-based builder; thus the evidence strongly suggests that these houses were built by Daniel Buckley:

Brooklyn Eagle, January 2, 1896, p. 2 ("Legal Notices")
Establishes Rose P. Buckley as wife to Daniel Buckley

BUCKLEY Dan'l bldr. h 283 7th av

1897 Lain's Brooklyn Directory

The above findings raise our confidence that the building research we've compiled from the Brooklyn Eagle, AABN, etc. is fairly accurate. It's certainly not complete; for example, we had nothing in our files regarding the 7th Street Buckley row. For that we have to thank the amazing work done by Lois Stewart in the 1960s.

Block History: 7th Street between 7th & 8th Avenues

2010-07-11T21:21:00.000-07:00

7th Street between 7th & 8th Avenues, Park Slope

As word of our efforts to expand the Park Slope Historic District spreads, people step forward to contribute in a variety of ways. Sometimes the contribution takes the form of a "block history:" a history of a specific block, or even just one side of a block, here in Park Slope. Usually these histories are known only to the residents of that block, and sometimes, if the history was done long ago, not even to many of them.

We hope to recover as many of these block histories as we can, and to scan them in and make them available online so that they will be more widely available. If anyone knows of any "block histories" for Park Slope, please contact the Park Slope Civic Council and bring them to our attention.

The most recent example of this is the history of 7th Street between 7th & 8th Avenues, south side, composed in the 1960s by Lois Stewart, then as now a resident of that block. Ms. Stewart's block history is extremely comprehensive, even citing the deed history for each building (current into the 1960s of course), and is precisely the kind of research that we are trying to do for all of the undesignated portions of Park Slope.

It is our understanding that this block history was conducted in the 1960s in the hope that the block would be included in the original Park Slope Historic District. The District was established in 1973 but unfortunately, this block of 7th Street was unaccountably excluded. It is a privilege to build upon the pioneering preservation work of dedicated Park Slope residents such as Lois Stewart.

Once again, if anyone knows of additional block histories, please contact the Park Slope Civic Council and make them known to us.

Transitions: William M. Calder

2010-07-06T19:22:00.001-07:00

Architect and developer William M. Calder, who helped shape the Park Slope we know today, also found time to serve in the House of Representatives and to become elected to the United States Senate. Calder died on March 3, 1945, and his obituary was carried in the next day's New York Times:

New York Times, March 4, 1945, p. 38

Calder's residence at the time of his death was 551 First Street, on the north side of First Street's "park block", within the current boundaries of the Park Slope Historic District. One notes that Calder chose to reside in a house designed by another architect (P. J. Cullen, according to the historic district's Designation Report), rather than in a residence that he had designed himself.

An election-season profile of William Calder in the New York Times of Oct. 22, 1922 notes that he had become associated with the so-called "Calder House" or two-family house, which proliferated in the "Flatbush section" of the borough. The "Calder House", notes the article, appeals "strongly to beginners in housekeeping, otherwise known as 'newly-weds'." The article also notes that Senator Calder was born on March 3, 1869:

New York Times, October 22, 1922, p. 35

Calder Flats in 11th Street

2010-06-30T22:53:00.000-07:00

At nearly the same time in 1899 that William M. Calder filed plans for three mixed-use buildings in 7th Avenue, he also filed plans for five small apartment houses on the adjacent plots in 11th Street, south side, east of 7th Avenue:

Brooklyn Eagle, March 24, 1899, p. 14 ("Real Estate Market")

And in fact the apartment buildings are still there, unchanged since they were erected in 1899. Apologies for the rather poor quality of the photograph, but it is possible to make out the five 8-family "double flat" buildings, just beyond the building at the southeast corner of 11th Street and 7th Avenue, also by Calder and reviewed in our last post.

496-506 11th Street - erected 1899
William M. Calder, owner

The photograph below shows the easternmost two of the row of 5 matching flat houses:

506-504 11th Street - erected 1899
William M. Calder, owner

Calder apparently gained control of a large parcel of property on the south side of 11th Street, east of 7th Avenue, and developed it all at about the same time: apartment houses on the side street, and mixed-use (flats over stores) on the corner and facing 7th Avenue.

Further confirmation that these 11th Street buildings were constructed by Calder is found in the Brooklyn Eagle of January 31, 1903. The photograph is of some buildings in 12th Street designed by architect Thomas Bennett for William Calder in 1901. But the photograph's caption reads, in part:

About two years ago [William Calder] sold five fine flat houses on Eleventh street, near Seventh avenue, to William Dick, the sugar refiner, for $75,000 cash.

493-497 12th Street - William Calder, owner (Park Slope Historic District)
Thomas Bennett, architect - 1901
Brooklyn Eagle, January 31, 1903, p. 11 ("Comfortable Conditions Prevailing in Real Estate Market")

1899 Mixed-Use Calder Row on 7th Avenue

2010-06-26T21:02:00.000-07:00

When we last checked in on architect William M. Calder, he was working with his father, Park Slope builder Alexander G. Calder, to develop property on 7th Street between 7th & 8th Avenues, on the corner of 7th Street and 7th Avenue, and on the south side of 8th Street above 7th Ave.

It is unclear when the father retired from the partnership. But in 1899, the Brooklyn Eagle reported plans filed by William M. Calder to develop the southeast corner of 7th Avenue and 11th Street, and there is no mention of his father Alexander:

Brooklyn Eagle, March 25, 1899, p. 14 ("Real Estate Market")

The property extended most of the way to 12th Street and included the large corner building and two additional buildings facing 7th Avenue:

369-383 7th Avenue
William M. Calder, owner - 1899

It is interesting and instructive to contrast these 1899 mixed-use (flats over stores) buildings with Calder's earlier row of the same type at 7th Avenue and 7th Street, from 1888.

William Calder was apparently an efficient project manager, for the 1899 buildings went up quickly. Later the same year, in November 1899, the Brooklyn Eagle reported the sale by Calder of the two buildings fronting 7th Avenue between 11th & 12th Streets:

Brooklyn Eagle, November 24, 1899, p. 12 ("Real Estate Market")

South Slope's Red Door Club

2010-06-23T20:43:00.000-07:00

288-286 14th Street

Not long ago, the New York Times quoted real estate broker Roslyn Huebener on the highly specialized market for wood-frame houses in Brooklyn's brownstone belt:

“Wood frames are not for everyone,” Ms. Huebener said. “But most people who want wood frame will do whatever they can to get them. There’s that cult of wood-frame buyers.” -NY Times, November 27, 2009

267 14th Street

Most of Park Slope's old wood frame houses are found in the South Slope, probably because the city's "fire limits" (the boundary within which it was illegal to erect a wood house) arrived here relatively late, allowing more time for them to be built. Many of these houses are visible on the 1880 Bromley Brooklyn Atlas and thus can be dated to the 1870s or earlier.

330 12th Street

A particular sub-group of the wood-frame house cult are those with doors painted red, such as the ones pictured above and below. The bright red door makes for a striking contrast to the painted wood clapboards.

349 13th Street

223 14th Street

Even the occasional brick house appears to be making a bid to enter the red-door club:

413 10th Street

What do you think? Should brick houses be allowed in? Or should the Red Door Club be reserved exclusively for wood-frame houses?

HD Expansion Interest Spikes at 7th Heaven

2010-06-21T19:53:00.000-07:00

Interest in the Park Slope Civic Council's campaign to expand the Park Slope Historic District was running high at last weekend's annual "7th Heaven" Street Fair.

Both of the Civic Council's two booths saw heavy foot traffic as people crowded forward to learn more about the benefits and responsibilities of historic district designation. The Civic Council gathered hundreds of petition signatures from Park Slope property owners, who asked that their homes be included in one or another of the several proposed phases of the historic district expansion.

We hope to have some concrete news about the Phase 1 expansion shortly.

Old First's Mission Missing?

2010-06-17T21:11:00.001-07:00

We noticed today that Old First's Mission Statement has gone missing from its usual home in a display case facing 7th Avenue. Here is what it used to look like:

Old First is like an old friend, towering over the intersection of 7th Avenue and Carroll Street. If Park Slope were a medieval European town, Old First would be the Gothic cathedral facing the main public square.

Old First Reformed Church
George L. Morse, Architect - 1889-92

We've always been impressed that Old First has historic preservation built into its Mission Statement:

Old First Reformed Church is a community of Jesus Christ in Brooklyn.

We welcome persons of every ethnicity, race, and orientation to worship, serve, and love God, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

We embrace the following missions:

-To offer God's word, prayer, the sacraments, and discipleship.

- To offer outreach, education, fellowship and music.

- To offer sanctuary to anyone seeking spirituality and hope.

- To offer hospitality to community groups and the arts.

- To care for the gifts we have been given through our Reformed Church, including our historic sanctuary and building.

Could preservation be a form of spiritual practice? Old First's Mission Statement seems to hint at the possibility. Perhaps there is a sense in which Park Slope, our home, is a boon, a Gift, a "Garden" for which we, its residents, in a distant echo of Adam, bear a gardener's responsibility.

We hope to see Old First's Mission Statement soon restored to its rightful place facing 7th Avenue.

Cevedra B. Sheldon, Designer

2010-06-14T20:22:00.000-07:00

Cevedra Blake Sheldon was a prolific Park Slope architect/builder who constructed a great many Park Slope buildings including the entire west side of 7th Avenue between Garfield and 1st Street, the 3 matching corner buildings at the intersection of Garfield & 7th, and the Verona apartment building at 7th Avenue and President Street, among other buildings.

It turns out that Cevedra B. Sheldon was a designer/inventor as well.

On February 1, 1876, Sheldon was granted a patent for the invention of a new kind of reclining lounge chair/"invalid chair". The chair went into mass production by the Marks Adjustable Folding Chair Company of New York:

Image: Brooklyn Museum Collection

The Marks company defended its product line assiduously, bringing suit against imitators:

The Federal Reporter: Volume 43, Sept.-Dec. 1890

Many of these folding chairs appear to have survived and to come up for auction fairly frequently. A casual search on "Cevedra B. Sheldon" yields the following examples currently for sale:

Calder & Calder in 7th Street

2010-06-09T19:49:00.000-07:00

Recently we noted rows of Park Slope buildings by the father-and-son team of Alexander G. Calder and William M. Calder in 8th Street and in 7th Avenue.

The prolific pair of Park Slope builders also apparently constructed in 1887 the long row of 10 brownstone-faced, three-story, three-family "flat houses" in 7th Street just above 7th Avenue:

476-506 7th Street
Alexander G. Calder, builder
William M. Calder, architect - 1887

476-506 7th Street

The New Buildings permit was recorded in the April 9, 1887 issue of the American Architect & Building News:

"Building Intelligence; Tenement-Houses; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 21, no. 589 (Apr. 9, 1887): p. xii.

– "Seventh St., s s, 80' e Seventh Ave., 10 three-st’y brown-stone tenements, tin roofs; cost, each, $7,000; owner and contractor, A. G. Calder, 312 Thirteenth St., architect, W. M. Calder."

These lots are immediately adjacent to the 7th Avenue lots, developed a year later in 1888, also by Calder & Calder, with a row of five mixed-use (flats over stores) buildings facing 7th Avenue. Apparently the pair of developers managed to gain control over the entire 100' deep parcel extending from mid-block between 7th & 8th Avenues, all the way to 7th Avenue.

486 7th Street

498 7th Street - stoop detail

The permit recorded by the AABN was for 10 houses, and all 10 remain today, in essentially intact condition. This row is part of the Park Slope Civic Council's "Phase 1" proposal to extend the Park Slope Historic District.

Lost Park Slope - Charles Feltman Residence

2010-06-07T20:18:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to reader "LGR" who correctly identified the subject of our recent "Lost Park Slope" feature as the former Charles Feltman mansion, which stood at the southwest corner of 8th Avenue and Carroll Street.

Below is another photograph of the Feltman mansion during demolition, along with the present 130 8th Avenue apartment house that replaced it. In the older photograph, one can also see the side of 140 8th Avenue, an Art Deco apartment building built in 1935-36.

Charles Feltman Residence
Montrose W. Morris, Architect (demolished ~1950)
photo: Brooklyn Public Library

130 8th Avenue - Park Slope Historic District

The Brooklyn Eagle ran the top photograph in 1950, and the apartment house was constructed the same year, according to the Park Slope Historic District's Designation Report. It is likely that nearly all of Park Slope's taller apartment buildings replaced earlier mansions that became "soft" development sites only a few decades after they were built.

The Designation Report continues: "The palatial Romanesque Revival Feltman mansion, designed by Montrose W. Morris, was originally located on this corner. Charles L. Feltman was the inventor of the American "hot-dog-on-a-bun" of Coney Island fame, and Montrose W. Morris was the most popular architect among the wealthy residents on The Slope."

It is unclear when the Feltman residence was constructed. On January 2, 1891, when the Brooklyn Eagle announced the tragic death of Feltman's son, the family's address was given as 422 3rd Street, so the new mansion must not have been finished yet. The mansion somewhat resembles Morris's great Hulbert mansion on Prospect Park West, built between 1889-1892.

It was said that Charles Feltman "sold to the masses and lived with the classes." Such is the kind of palatial residence that hot dogs can buy. Feltman died in 1910 and is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery.

Finding Aid & Guide to Resources

2010-06-06T21:16:00.000-07:00

The campaign to expand the Park Slope Historic District is sponsored by the Park Slope Civic Council's Historic District Expansion Committee.

The Committee maintains several resources in support of this campaign:

I. Historic Park Slope Real Estate News.

The Committee maintains two web pages containing hundreds of transcriptions of historic real estate news about Park Slope. The news comes from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the American Architect & Building News, the New York Times, and other sources. The web pages are sorted by street address and can be searched via web browser.

URL for buildings facing the avenues: http://bk.ly/r9t

URL for buildings facing the streets: http://bk.ly/r9u

II. Photo Survey of Park Slope, Winter 2008-09.

The Committee photographed all of Park Slope in the winter of 2008-09 and the photographs have been uploaded to the web. Photographs are mostly of groups of related buildings, plus some street scenes and individual buildings. The photographs are grouped into "albums" by block (e.g. "north side of 11th Street between 7th & 8th Avenues") and are captioned by street address. The photographs can be enlarged and/or downloaded. All of the historic Park Slope Real Estate news maintained in the web pages (see above) is also maintained in the photograph comments.

URL for the Park Slope Photo Survey: http://picasaweb.google.com/pscc.hd.01

III. Department of Buildings Files for Park Slope.

The Committee is in the process of photographing files at the Brooklyn Department of Buildings, and making these files available on the web. These files are organized by block/lot number. Currently, only the west side of 7th Avenue from 10th to 15th Streets is available.

URL for the Dept. of Building files: http://gallery.me.com/andito72

Lost Park Slope

2010-06-01T21:16:00.000-07:00

Time for another edition of "Lost Park Slope".

The mansion shown below is in the process of being demolished. Some of the doors and windows are boarded up, and a chute for debris drops from a window on the right side.

Where in Park Slope did this mansion once stand? Who designed it, when, and for whom? When was it demolished?:

Civic Council: New Park Highway Will Relieve Congestion?

2010-05-28T17:42:00.000-07:00

This story marks the beginning of "driving season" this Memorial Day weekend.

If the Park Slope Civic Council were to advocate a new highway through Prospect Park to relieve traffic congestion, the idea would probably be universally condemned today.

Thankfully, when the South Brooklyn Board of Trade, the Park Slope Civic Council's ancestor organization, proposed this very idea in 1930, it was roundly condemned at that time as well, and the Park remained "inviolate". This forgotten story will surely resonate for anyone familiar with contemporary issues such as bike lanes, cars in the parks, and one-way vs. two-way streets.

The sponsor of this idea was Dr. J. Francis Ward, president of the South Brooklyn Board of Trade in 1930. Ward was also the city's Regional Director for Prospect Park at the time.

Ward advanced the idea to build a new highway through Prospect Park as a continuation of 9th Street, to relieve the "traffic jam" that was induced when 9th street was widened during the construction of the F subway line. Many other neighborhood groups voiced immediate opposition to the proposal, but parks officials gamely agreed to survey the park with Dr. Ward to assess the proposed highway's impact:

New York Times, July 13, 1930

Dr. Ward was apparently an adherent of the idea that the way to relieve traffic congestion is to pour ever more concrete. Regarding his wish for a "direct route... to the Sunrise Trail," one also wonders whether Dr. Ward might have had a weekend cottage on Long Island to which he was seeking a quick getaway:

Nathan Straus, Jr., president of the city's Park Association, was decidedly unimpressed by the proposal, calling it two days later a "park encroachment of the grossest and most objectionable kind." Ward, meanwhile, citing the opinions of "experts," vowed to continue the fight:

New York Times, July 15, 1930

Interestingly, communities south of the park opposed the plan, in contrast to today, when it is sometimes assumed that some in those communities seek to maximize vehicular access through and around the park. The Borough Park Neighborhood Association in particular threatened to litigate if the plan for a new highway through Prospect Park advanced:

A Mr. Davy, however, employed in the capacity of City Engineer, voiced the seemingly counterintuitive idea that "any new roads through the park would only add to the traffic jam there now," an idea now known as induced demand or "Build it and they will come" (along with its corollary, "Take it away and they will go"). Mr. Ward concludes with an appeal to "the facts," and expresses the opinion that a highway could become a "decorative part of the park:"

Even the way Dr. Ward frames his argument ("I am as heartily for the sentiment of natural beauty as my opponents, but...") finds echo in today's opposition to bike lanes ("I'm all for bikes, generally speaking, but...").

Of course we all know the end of this story. Thankfully, the highway was never built. As for Dr. Ward, president of the South Brooklyn Board of Trade, he was asked to resign from his post as director of Prospect Park, but he expressed no doubt that "time would show the wisdom of my plan:"

New York Times, July 24, 1930