Blizzard of 1888

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.

David Atkins: 9th Street Flats

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.

Park Slope Jewish Center - Part 1

This past weekend we had the great privilege of attending the opening of "Building on a Strong Foundation," an exhibit mounted at the Park Slope Jewish Center, 8th Avenue and 14th Street in Park Slope. The wide-ranging exhibit explores the extremely rich history of PSJC, which traces its roots back to three South Brooklyn congregations that are as old as Park Slope itself: B'nai Jacob, B'nai Sholaum, and Tifereth Israel. We will try to capture a bit of this rich story here. This fascinating story reflects aspects of American immigration and religious history, the history of American Judaism, of Brooklyn, of Park Slope, and of the larger social currents of American life in the 20th century.

PSJC's home has also been placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the designation report, available for download at New York's Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, makes for very interesting reading. We will draw from both the exhibit and the designation report.

Background (from the National Register Designation Report):

In addition to its architectural significance, Park Slope Jewish Center is also historically significant... for its association with the development of Conservative Judaism. It is also important in the area of ethnic heritage for its association with the history of Eastern European Jewish immigration in New York City. The synagogue exemplifies the history of American Jewish congregations, and the ways that Jews have changed and adapted to life in this country.

While Jews have been in America since the earliest colonial days, there was not a large presence in Brooklyn until the second half of the nineteenth century. The early immigrants were Sephardic Jews. During the early 1800s the immigration shifted to Ashkenazim from Germany... Things changed rapidly in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Many Jews moved to New York. Between 1880 and 1910 1.4 million Jews moved to the city, and 1.1 million stayed. Before the First World War, Jews began leaving the Lower East Side of Manhattan for other neighborhoods around the city. One of these neighborhoods was the Park Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn.

Background (from the Exhibit):

Legend has it that, in the 1830s, the Levy family rowed across the East River to attend Shabbat services. German Jews arrived in the mid-1850s, and soon Reform congregations were springing up. Beginning in the 1880s, an influx of traditional Eastern European Jews brought more Orthodox congregations. South Brooklyn was never a "Jewish" neighborhood, but the Jewish community was growing. Over time, mergers and splits of congregations were common, as ritual preferences diverged and population patterns shifted.

Each of our congregations began modestly. At first they met in people's homes or rented space. Only when they achieved a degree of success and stability did they put up buildings of their own.

Early History of Congregation Tifereth Israel (Designation Report):

Congregation Tifereth Israel was founded in 1900, according to papers in the synagogue's archives. The congregation filed its articles of incorporation on April 12, 1912, under the name of "Congregation Thifereth Israel, Inc." The congregation dates from the period when Park Slope was being developed, and benefited from the major wave of Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe from 1880 to World War 1.

Early History of Congregation Tifereth Israel (Exhibit):

This was a congregation of immigrants (as far as we know). Services were Orthodox, and shul business was conducted in Yiddish. The membership was organized as a chevra, with members referred to in meeting minutes as "Brothers". In 1912, the Chevra hired a doctor, available to members for an extra $2.00 per year in dues.

The Exhibit details the locations where the young congregation worshiped. The earliest was on the second floor of 232 15th Street (between 5th & 6th) which no longer stands; our comprehensive photographic survey of Park Slope shows an empty lot there:

(Formerly) 232 15th Street
Earliest location of Congregation Tifereth Israel

(Parenthetically, the lot until quite recently held a very early Park Slope theater building, a view of which is preserved in Google's street view below. We recall attending one of theater historian Cezar Del Valle's walking tours of early Park Slope theaters, and he stopped the tour at the building shown below, now gone:)

Google street view showing early Park Slope theater, now demolished

Tifereth Israel's next location was at 411 7th Avenue, third from left in the set of four matching buildings shown below:

407-413 7th Avenue
Congregation Tifereth Israel, 411 7th Avenue until 1915

Next, the congregation purchased 397 14th Street, between 7th & 8th, in 1915, and the following year purchased the adjoining 399 14th Street:

399 14th Street
Tifereth Israel here from 1916-1925

397-399 14th Street at center

In 1925 the congregation built PSJC's present home at the corner of 8th Avenue and 14th Street, which we will examine in a subsequent post.

Builder Charles Peterson in 15th Street

People walking 15th Street between 8th Avenue and Prospect Park West pass a handsome row of white houses, each two stories of limestone over a brownstone basement floor:

15th Street, between 8th Avenue and Prospect Park West - unprotected

Most of the houses have a full-height, three-sided bay; on some the bay is rounded. The stoops alternate, in ABAB pattern, between "straight" and L-shaped configurations.

The houses are nearly identical to other rows within the district such as this row on the north side of 9th Street, in the park block; the similarities extend even to the alternating straight and L-shaped stoops:

9th Street, between 8th Avenue and Prospect Park West - Park Slope Historic District

According to the Park Slope Historic District Designation Report, the 9th Street row was constructed in 1902-03 for William H. Reynolds, to designs by Brooklyn architect Benjamin Driesler. According to the Brooklyn Eagle, the 15th Street row was also begun in 1902, by builder Charles Peterson:

Brooklyn Eagle, November 11, 1902, p. 18 ("New Buildings")

All of these houses of course post-date the great Columbian Exposition of 1893, which showcased the "White City" to the throngs that packed the Chicago fair for its 6-month run, and which helped finally to draw the curtain on brownstone's long dominance in urban neighborhoods like Park Slope. Our friend Francis Morrone has said one can generally estimate the age of a Park Slope building by its color: if brown, earlier than 1893; if white, later than 1893.

Note that these houses, though white on the upper two floors, still retain a brownstone stoop and basement floor. Perhaps it was hoped that brownstone at the base would be less likely to show the dirt from the gritty streets?

We believe that the Charles Peterson who built these houses is the same Charles Peterson who constructed the full blockfront on Prospect Park West between 6th & 7th Streets:

Prospect Park West, 7th to 6th Streets - Park Slope Historic District

And we suspect it is the same Charles Peterson who built the "wrong-way" houses in 8th Avenue, just off Flatbush, whose backsides face their distinguished neighbors across 8th Avenue:

8th Avenue, Lincoln Place to St. Johns Place, Park Slope Historic District

The plans created a huge stir in their day and actually caused gentlemen to leave the Montauk Club! Click here for more of this story... It is our personal theory, never before seen in print, that Peterson's architectural affront in 8th Avenue commenced Park Slope's long decline from its 1890s "Gold Coast" status, a decline that would not be turned around until the "brownstoner" movement of the 1960s.

Charles Peterson's 15th Street row is outside, but adjacent to, the current Park Slope Historic District; the line runs down the rear lot line between 14th and 15th Streets. The Park Slope Civic Council has asked the Landmarks Preservation Commission to consider this block in a proposed expansion to the historic district.

7th Avenue & 15th Street, northwest corner

The interesting cluster of buildings at the northwest corner of 7th Avenue and 15th Street certainly looks as if it might have been built as a unit:

438-432 7th Avenue - unprotected

In addition to the corner building, there are four additional buildings that appear to be part of the group. A kind of banding runs continually across the five facades, at the top and bottom of the windows. The banding holds bricks set at 45-degree angles, and a rectangle of similarly-laid brick appears between floors (what is the technical term for this kind of masonry?):



Another indicator that buildings might be related is seen in the cornice, which runs continously across the complete row:



Thus it is not surprising to discover in the November 23, 1889 Brooklyn Daily Eagle a notice of plans to erect a group of five four-story, mixed use buildings (flats over stores) on this very corner:

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, November 23, 1889, p. 1 ([title obscured])

This notice is admittedly just a new building permit. One sometimes finds a corresponding notice of completion in the Eagle, some months after the initial notice of building plans, which would strengthen the case for attribution. We may yet find such a notice. But a case like this, where the existing buildings perfectly match the original permit, seems sufficiently strong; consequently we are attributing this interesting ensemble to D. Atkins, owner/builder, 1889-90. Disagree with us if you want! But show us a more compelling case for another builder.