7th Avenue - Single & Double Flats Over Stores

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")

1887 Mixed-Use Row in 7th Avenue

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

A Complete 5th Avenue Blockfront

In the April 29, 1886 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, we read that George Brown had completed "five brown stone front houses" at the southwest corner of 5th Avenue and Douglass Street. The article noted that each "house" (actually a mixed use building) contained a store and three flats or apartments above:

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 29, 1886, p. 1 ("New Buildings")

Checking our comprehensive Park Slope photo archive, we find that the original buildings are still standing. Each of them is three "bays" or windows wide.

5th Avenue & Douglass Street, SW corner - unprotected

The cornice detailing, or what remains of it, matches on two of the adjoining buildings:



An earlier Eagle notice for the same row attributes the buildings to W[illiam]. H. Brown, who may have been in the same firm with George Brown. William Brown was also active in this area of the Slope around the same time:

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, November 21, 1885, p. 1 ("More Houses")

At the same time George Brown erected his 5th Avenue row, he also constructed a building in Douglass Street, just to the rear. Its completion was noted by the Eagle in the same article that noted the completion of the 5th Avenue row:

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 29, 1886, p.1 ("New Buildings")

It was not unusual for builders to control lots on both sides of a corner, as here. The building is actually only trimmed, not faced, with brownstone:

410 Douglass Street - unprotected

But the cornice detailing matches that of the 5th Avenue row:


And it is also the only three-story, three-family building on the south side of Douglass Street, which facilitates the identification.

Meanwhile, the four buildings at the northwest corner of 5th Avenue and Degraw Street were erected by Dan Buckley, as noted in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of March 19, 1887:

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 19, 1887, p.1 ("Buildings")

Unlike George Brown's row to the north, which is faced with brownstone, the Buckley row is brick with brownstone trim. Again, the quoins on the corner building nicely punctuate the row:

5th Avenue & Degraw Street, NW corner - unprotected

Oddly, the corner building in this block, at 17.5' wide, is much narrower than the other three, which are each 27' in width. The former held only one family per upper floor ("single flats"), while the wider buildings held two ("double flats").