Calder & Calder in 8th Street

On the south side of 8th Street, just above 7th Avenue, stands a row of seven single-family residences. The row dates to 1889 and is the work of Alexander G. Calder, owner/builder, and his son William M. Calder, architect, a prolific pair of Park Slope builders whose 7th Avenue work we recently examined:

428-420 8th Street - unprotected
A. G. Calder & W. M. Calder, 1889

432-430 8th Street

On two of the houses (422 & 424), the original upper half-story was long ago raised in the front to provide a full third floor, at the expense of losing the beautiful original cornices that still grace the adjoining houses.

Our attribution is confirmed by both the Brooklyn Eagle and the American Architect & Building News:

Brooklyn Eagle, April 21, 1889, p.13 ("The Work of Building")

"Building Intelligence; Houses; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 25, no. 699 (May 18, 1889): p. xvi.

– "Eighth St., s s, 90' e Seventh Ave., 7 two-st’y brownstone dwells., tin roofs; cost, each, $5,000; owner and builder, A. G. Calder, 312 Thirteenth St.; architect, W. M. Calder."

#420 8th Street, the end house in the row and the only one that appears to have been originally a full three stories over basement, was the residence of the developer, Alexander G. Calder, for much of his life. His 1927 New York Times obituary cites 420 8th Street as his residence at the time of his death at age 85, and notes that he developed hundreds of buildings in Park Slope and South Brooklyn. A. G. Calder was also the first president of the South Brooklyn Board of Trade, which later became the Park Slope Civic Council, sponsor of the current effort to expand the Park Slope Historic District:

New York Times, March 6, 1927, p. 20

Another curiosity regarding the 8th Street houses is that they are virtually identical to two other rows by other developers, in Garfield Place and in President Street. Compare the detailing in the examples below:

430 8th Street - unprotected
Alexander G. Calder, builder/owner; William M. Calder, architect - 1889

221 Garfield Place - Park Slope Historic District
Martin & Lee, builder/owners; Charles Werner, architect - 1890

807 President Street - unprotected
Builders/owners/architects, Martin & Lee - 1888

Such are the irrational vagaries of the 1973 Park Slope Historic District boundaries! Identical houses, some protected, some not.

Al Capone, Park Sloper

Amongst other such notables as Barack Obama, Al Capone was a Park Sloper.

Al Capone mugshot

Young Al is associated with two addresses in Garfield Place, and with P.S. 133. According to his Wikipedia article, his family first lived at 38 Garfield Place, on the south side of the block between 4th & 5th Avenues:

40-38-36 Garfield Place - unprotected

The Capone family immigrated to the United States in 1893 and settled at 95 Navy Street, in the Navy Yard section of downtown Brooklyn, near the Barber Shop that employed Gabriele at 29 Park Avenue. When Al was 11, the Capone family moved to 38 Garfield Place in Park Slope, Brooklyn. (wikipedia)

While living in Park Slope, Capone attended P.S. 133, a few blocks north of his Garfield Place residence. Capone's biography dismisses the school as a "hideous Gothic monstrosity", but the building was well-loved by its neighbors and was the subject of an unsuccessful preservation campaign:

Excerpt from Capone by Laurence Bergreen

P.S. 133 - unprotected "Gothic monstrosity"
C. B. J. Snyder, architect

After being expelled from school, the 14-year-old Capone began running with several Park Slope street gangs. Around the same time, his family moved down the block to 21 Garfield Place, on the north side of the street:

17-19-21 Garfield Place - unprotected

Shortly after he was expelled, his father moved the family to 21 Garfield Place, in the neighborhood that would influence the direction of Capone's life and ultimately, his future. Capone joined two local street gangs, the Brooklyn Rippers and the Forty Thieves Juniors. Among the members were Johnny Torrio and Lucky Luciano. (u-s-history)

2010 House Tour: 178 Garfield Place

This house will be featured on the 2010 Park Slope House Tour, which will be held Sunday, May 16. Tickets will be available at 7th Avenue merchants, and are available now through the Park Slope Civic Council's website. All proceeds from the House Tour are returned to the community through the Council's Grants Program.

178 Garfield Place, part of a longer row of 11 similar houses on the south side of the street between 6th and 7th Avenues, in many ways exemplifies the history of Park Slope as a whole.

182-180-178 Garfield Place - unprotected

These houses are outside the Park Slope Historic District, so we know little about when or by whom they were built. A smaller row of matching houses stands behind these, through the block on 1st Street. The entire group is visible on an 1880 map of Brooklyn, so we know that they must have been standing at that time, when Garfield Place was still called Macomb Street (it was renamed after the 1881 assassination of President James Garfield):

1880 Park Slope Map
178 Macomb Street (now Garfield Place) in row at lower right

New York Times, January 23, 1969

Garfield Place: Another Row Split by Historic District

Earlier we saw how the current Park Slope Historic District boundary divides rows of identical houses in Union Street and President Street between buildings within and outside the Historic District.

A similar case exists on the south side of Garfield Place, in the row beginning at the southeast corner of 7th Avenue:

204-220 Garfield Place - partially protected

Here, what appears to be a row of nine identical buildings is split between the four easterly houses, which are included in the Park Slope Historic District, and the five westerly houses, which are not.

The Park Slope Historic District's Designation Report includes a description of the first group, #214-220 Garfield Place, four neo-Grec houses built in 1884 by owner-builders Martin & Lee of 440 Clermont Avenue:

Park Slope Historic District Designation Report, p. 58

The same builders erected some of the houses in President Street just below 7th Avenue.

Citations from the American Architect and Building News confirm what the eye can plainly see, which is that Martin & Lee built the rest of the Garfield Place row to the 7th Avenue corner as well.

Interestingly, however, the buildings were apparently built in small groups of two or three at a time. #212 & 210 Garfield Place, immediately outside the current historic district (the boundary runs between #214 and 212 Garfield Place), were apparently built in 1884:

"Building Intelligence; Brooklyn," AABN vol. 16, no. 451 (Aug. 16, 1884): p. 83.

–"Garfield Pl., s s, 50' e Seventh Ave., 2 three-st’y brown-stone dwells., tin roofs; cost, each, $9,000; owners, architects and builders, Martin & Lee, 440 Clermont Ave."

#208-204 Garfield Place, however -- the three buildings on the corner of 7th Avenue -- were apparently built nearly two years later, in 1886:

"Building Intelligence; Houses; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 19, no. 540 (May 1, 1886): p. xv.

– "Seventh Ave., s e cor. Garfield Pl., 3 three-st’y brown-stone dwells., tin roofs; total cost, $30,000; owners, architects and builders, Martin & Lee, 440 Clermont Ave."

#204 Garfield Place, at the corner of 7th Avenue, was later retrofit for commercial space at the basement and parlor floors. That the commercial conversion was very early is reflected in the cast-iron pilasters framing the projecting window at the parlor level, which look nearly as old as the original cast iron on many 7th Avenue mixed-use buildings:

204 Garfield Place - parlor floor commercial conversion

Although all nine buildings in the entire row by Martin & Lee are otherwise identical, there is one extremely slight difference in the console brackets from 1884 and 1886:

214 Garfield Place - 1884 Console Bracket

208 Garfield Place - 1886 Console Bracket

So once again we have a case of an identical row by the same builder, split between houses inside and outside the historic district. Once again, five houses are excluded, each approximately 20' wide, for a total of 100', the depth of a standard building lot in Brooklyn. It is as if the 7th Avenue frontage were deliberately excluded from the original 1973 Park Slope Historic District, to allow large development parcels to be assembled and bulldozed for larger buildings. Is this another case in which politics impact landmarking decisions?

Finally, for the "completists" out there (you know who you are)... the current Park Slope Historic District Designation Report (p. 59) omits the builder for the 5-building group 230-238 Garfield Place, inside the current historic district. We have discovered that it is, again, Martin & Lee:

"Building Intelligence; Houses; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 32, no. 804 (May 23, 1891): p. xviii.

– "Garfield Pl., s s, 250' 4½" e Seventh Ave., 5 three-st’y brick dwells., tin roofs; cost, $11,000 each; owners, Martin & Lee, 440 Clermont Ave."

Probable Louis Bonert: 6th Avenue between Garfield Place & 1st Street

Updated: the row at the northeast corner of 6th Avenue and 1st Street is not by Bonert.

At the present time we have no documentary evidence regarding the east side of 6th Avenue between Garfield Place and 1st Street. However, knowing what we now know about the work of prolific Park Slope builder Louis Bonert, we are almost certain that the entire blockfront facing 6th Avenue is by him.

The buildings at the southeast corner of 6th Avenue and Garfield Place are consistent with Bonert's Neoclassical-style apartment houses. They are four story flat houses, fully faced with limestone over a brownstone basement, featuring full-height rounded window bays. The Garfield Place elevation is of "fancy brick" with limestone trim, and features rounded windows at the top story:

6th Avenue & Garfield Place, southeast corner - unprotected

The four-family flat houses feature paired classical entrances and "Greek ears" on upper story windows:

271-273 6th Avenue - unprotected

The style changes mid-block, where the buildings continue in a row very much like Bonert's Romanesque-inspired "Green Man" flat houses:

277-279 6th Avenue - unprotected

Except these buildings, if indeed they are by Bonert, lack the characteristic terra cotta spandrel panels below the windows. Also the top-floor window arches employ a keystone, which is unusual for Bonert.

Also uncharacteristically, Bonert's usual "clustered columns" flanking the doorway have been reduced to a single Romanesque column in these buildings:

281 6th Avenue - detail

The row concludes in a wonderful 8-family "double flat" apartment house featuring a rounded window bay overlooking the intersection.

6th Avenue and 1st Street, northeast corner - unprotected

6th Avenue and 1st Street, northeast corner - detail

So are these buildings by Bonert? At this time we can cite no documentary evidence supporting such a claim. However his hand seems quite clear to us. We would probably date these as "circa 1895", similar to the Bonert row running westward from the northwest corner of 6th Avenue and 3rd Street.

The double flat at the southeast corner of 6th Avenue and Garfield Place features a highly distinctive cast- and wrought-iron fence about the areaway:

6th Avenue and Garfield Place, southeast corner - detail

We knew we'd seen this unusual fencing somewhere else in Park Slope, and with a bit of digging we found it. Indeed, the same fence is found at 427 3rd Street:

427 3rd Street - detail

427 3rd Street is just below 6th Avenue, on the north side of the street, in the middle of a row confirmed to have been built by -- you guessed it -- Louis Bonert in 1895.

Yet More Cevedra Blake Sheldon

Today we turn our attention once again to prolific Park Slope builder Cevedra Blake Sheldon, whose work we have examined here in the past and who seems to have exerted a particularly strong influence on 7th Avenue.

Sheldon constructed every building standing today on the west side of 7th Avenue between Garfield Place and 1st Street. In addition, he built about half of the buildings on the west side of 7th Avenue between Garfield Place and Carroll Street.

Sheldon seems particularly to have excelled at those wonderful mixed-use, commercial/residential buildings occupying corner lots. His corner buildings often feature a 3-sided bay projecting above the corner entrance to the first-floor commercial space, as in the row below:

7th Avenue and Garfield Place, northwest corner - unprotected

According to the Brooklyn Eagle, Sheldon built these buildings in 1888:

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 24, 1888, p. 6 ("Various Improvements")

The article indicates that the buildings were "single flats", with the kitchens positioned at the rear of each floor's apartment.

The article cites a row of five buildings that was constructed together, but there are seven nearly identical buildings in the row today. It is likely that the original was expanded shortly after construction, or that the row cited here added to already existing buildings.

Continuing south across Garfield Place, we encounter another row by Sheldon, built at the same time in 1888 and also featuring another of his signature projecting corner bays:

7th Avenue and Garfield Place, southwest corner - unprotected

The same Eagle article attributes these buildings, and in fact the entire row to 1st Street, to Sheldon:

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 24, 1888, p. 6 ("Various Improvements")

The blockfront culminates in yet another mixed-use building with a projecting corner bay:

7th Avenue and 1st Street, northwest corner - unprotected

These corner buildings are wonderfully complex. Besides the corner bay, each corner building also has a three-sided bay on the side elevation. The entrance to the flats above is via a door at the far end of the side. But, one also notes traces of other doorways along the side wall... one of the articles indicates that the first-floor commercial space could have been subdivided into several small specialty shops. Finally, a now-blocked archway above the cellar hatch in each corner building probably once held a door or partition that could swing open to facilitate deliveries.

It should be noted that builders frequently used identical cornice brackets when constructing rows of multiple buildings. Sheldon seems to have used the same cornice bracket everywhere he worked. We have grown so used to seeing it in 7th Avenue that we now call it the "Sheldon bracket":

"Sheldon" Cornice Brackets

These mixed-use, commercial/residential buildings in 7th Avenue were constructed differently from all-residential "flat houses". In order to create a first-floor facade that could accommodate large glass shop windows, the buildings frequently incorporated vertical cast-iron beams supporting a shallow iron arch into which bricks are set. The arch is usually covered with signage, but some businesses prefer to leave it exposed as in the example below from the South Slope:

7th Avenue & 14th Street, northwest corner - unprotected

The attentive flaneur, strolling Park Slope's commercial avenues, occasionally encounters these cast-iron beams crafted to look like pillars or pilasters on the old commercial bases of the mixed-use buildings. In our perhaps biased opinion, the more minimal the signage, and the more a shop highlights the original building construction, the better we like it.

If one looks carefully at the base of these exposed cast-iron "pillars," one can occasionally make out original foundry marks as in the following example from "Howell & Saxtan" of 353 Adams St., Brooklyn:

Foundry Mark:

HOWELL
&
SAXTAN
353
ADAMS. ST
BKLYN

These foundry marks recall a much more localized economy, when nearly everything from cast-iron to beer was made right here in Brooklyn. One wonders if we may yet revert (or is it advance?) to such an economy once again.

James Howell of "Howell & Saxtan" may not be much remembered now. But he was Mayor of the independent City of Brooklyn from 1878 to 1881.

Finally, it should be noted that these corner buildings often sported wonderful peaked "hats" that accented the projecting corner bays. A historic photograph from the Brooklyn Public Library's wonderful Brooklyn Collection shows yet another of Sheldon's buildings, now lost, at the corner of 7th Avenue and President Street, when it still retained its peaked corner. Old First Church is on the left in the picture below and the view is to the north in 7th Avenue, toward Flatbush Avenue:

Brooklyn Public Library - Brooklyn Collection

The building, which unfortunately was outside the current Park Slope Historic District, was replaced fairly recently with the Astoria Savings Bank building that currently occupies the site. We have nothing against Astoria Savings; in fact they are our personal banker; but we keenly regret the loss of the older building at the corner of President Street. With each of these losses, Park Slope loses a bit more of its unique "sense of place", becomes a little less interesting, a little more like everywhere else. Plus one hardly need add that we lost three units of housing when the old building was demolished to make way for the current "single-use" bank building:

7th Avenue & President Street, northwest corner - contemporary view

"Incredible CD Rates", indeed...

We would be extremely saddened - we hesitate to say "heartbroken", but the word very nearly applies - if we lost any more of the wonderful original buildings by Cevedra Blake Sheldon and others that provide so much of the interest, character, and "sense of place" to Park Slope's commercial corridors. And we daresay most Park Slope residents, at least the ones who care at all about the community in which they live, would feel the same way.

Cevedra Blake Sheldon, pt. 2

Once again we turn our attention to prolific Park Slope builder Cevedra Blake Sheldon, who built a row of five buildings on the northeast corner of 7th Avenue and Garfield Place in 1888-89:

151-159 7th Avenue - unprotected

The corner building, at Garfield Place, was originally built for mixed-use, with the first floor flush with the sidewalk, accomodating a store, and three flats above; it retains this same configuration today. Park Slope is filled with these early mixed-use buildings, often located on prime corner locations. C. B. Sheldon himself built three identical buildings on this same intersection of 7th Avenue and Garfield Place. 6th Avenue has many buildings of this configuration, even though in many cases the first floor has been converted from commercial to residential use.

What's interesting about this row in 7th Avenue is that the four buildings adjacent to the corner store were originally entirely residential in use. They were "flat houses", each built to house four families, one per floor. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle of Feb. 2, 1889 notes that each of the first floor apartments contained a 3-bedroom apartment:

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 2, 1889 ("New Flats")

These buildings reflect the original pattern of development along 7th Avenue: in those days, it was not exclusively commercial, as it is now. Hard as it may be to imagine today, some of the buildings in 7th Avenue's commercial core were originally exclusively residential.

The entire row was probably converted to mixed-use, with first floor commercial, not long after the buildings were constructed. Surprisingly, one of the "flat houses" retains its original low stoop, door, and original neo-Grec cast-iron balusters:

Detail, 155 7th Ave. - unprotected

In a subsequent post we will examine remnants of single-family residences in 7th Avenue.