2010 House Tour: 946 President Street

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 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.

946 President Street - Park Slope Historic District

Part of a 4-house row built in Queen Anne style, 946 President Street was constructed in 1886; the date is visible in the gable. The tall, quoined chimney serves unusual corner fireplaces in the line of rooms below it. According to the Park Slope Historic District's Designation Report, this house once shared a central courtyard with its paired neighbor at #944 through which both houses were entered. The architect might have been Charles T. Mott, who in 1890 modified some of the companion houses in this row.

946 President Street - detail

In 1902, both 944 and 946 President Street were auctioned by the estate of Newbury H. Frost, who served on the Board of Directors of the Long Island Elevated Rail Road. Frost was also a "man of the turf;" the Brooklyn Eagle noted that he was "...one of the most enthusiastic of local horsemen... As he cannot be ranked among the lightweights he rides a seal brown mare of great strength and endurance."

Brooklyn Eagle, March 9, 1902, p. 30

Both houses were bought at auction by Gilbert Elliott, a Brooklyn real estate operator and lawyer; the 1902 price for 946 President Street was $9,500.

For much of the 20th century, 946 President Street was the home and music school of Carl H. Tollefsen, a violinist, music teacher, and collector of musical items. He became a violinist with the Metropolitan Opera orchestra and with the New York Symphony Society under Walter Damrosch, conductor, but gained his widest fame and critical plaudits with the Tollefsen Trio, founded with his first wife in 1908. In his house he had a collection that included more than 1,500 musical manuscripts and excerpts from manuscripts by Beethoven, Bach, Schumann, Paderewski, Tchaikovsky, Mozart and other composers. Mr. Tollefsen owned 30 rare stringed instruments, including a lute that belonged to Catherine the Great and a harpsichord once owned by Marie Antoinette.

Brooklyn Eagle Almanac for 1919

Carl Tollefsen died at 946 President Street in 1963, and his second wife died in 1965. But the historic district's Designation Report still identified the house as the Tollefsen School of Music in its 1973 description.

Carl Tollefsen (holding violin) in 1940
Photo: University of New Hampshire Library

2010 House Tour: 614 2nd Street

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 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.

614 2nd Street, Park Slope Historic District
Benjamin Driesler, architect - 1903

Our next tour home, 614 2nd Street, is part of a longer row of 26 houses (#590-648) built as a single development. The row occupies most of the south side of the "park block" of 2nd Street. Regarding this row, the Park Slope Historic District's Designation Report tells us:

This long row of twenty-six houses was begun in 1903 for William H. Reynolds, representing the First Construction Company of Brooklyn, and was designed by Benjamin Driesler, a Brooklyn architect. It is an interesting example of the quest for variety, while at the same time utilizing certain standards of form, materials and architectural detail. Although at first the row has the appearance of a series of individually designed townhouses, a second glance reveals certain underlying similarities, with minor variations of detail intended to differentiate the houses. First, with regard to form, there is an alternating sequence of curved and three-sided bays; in addition, the end houses terminate the row with projecting square bays. Second, with regard to materials, there are three basic house types, all built upon brownstone basements: an all brownstone house, a brick above brownstone house, and an all limestone house. Third, there is the consideration of architectural style and details and how they are used relative to the houses of varying materials. The basic similarities of these houses are found in the uniform use of brownstone basements, Romanesque Revival L-shaped stoops, and neo-Classical sheetmetal cornices with small round bosses evenly spaced throughout. The houses are all slightly stepped down, as is noticeable at the cornices, to follow the slope of the street. ...The materials are used at random, and the limestone houses stand out quite boldly against their more sombre-hued neighbors. ...Architecturally, these houses all belong to the Eclectic period, when a wide range of styles was in use.

614 2nd Street, center

The architect, Benjamin Driesler, was born in Bavaria in 1869, and immigrated in 1881. He built a very successful architectural practice in Brooklyn, designing hundreds of houses in Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Ditmas Park, Midwood, and Kensington:

From Flatbush of Today, by Herbert Foster Gunnison, 1908

The developer, William H. Reynolds, served briefly as a New York state senator. He was a shrewd businessman whose ability to profit from public investments sometimes raised eyebrows:

New York Times, July 20, 1916.

2010 House Tour: 553 1st Street

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 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.

553 1st Street is one of a row of four Neo-Renaissance rowhouses, #547-553, erected in 1901. These houses, like many others in this beautiful block, reflect the influence of the highly influential Chicago Exposition of 1893, with its idealized "White City" based on classical architecture.

547-553 1st Street - Park Slope Historic District

553 1st Street is within the boundaries of the Park Slope Historic District, designated July 17, 1973. Regarding 547-553 1st Street, the historic district's Designation Report tells us:

This row of severely classical limestone houses was built for owner William Flanagan according to 1901 designs by architect P. J. Cullen.

553 1st Street - Park Slope Historic District
P. J. Cullen, architect; William Flanagan, owner - 1901

The three-story facades of the row alternate in an ABAB pattern; the type 'B' houses, No. 549 and No. 553, are identical, with full-height, three-sided projecting bays and simple detailing. Carved decoration embellishes the wall surfaces of the bays between the second and third floors, and engaged Ionic columns flank the entrances and support simple entablatures.



...In this row there is an elegant simplicity and a feeling for unity, which is enhanced by the identical L-shaped stoops and classical cornices with dentils.

2010 House Tour: 475A 1st Street

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 through the Park Slope Civic Council's website.

475A 1st Street - Park Slope Historic District

475A 1st Street is one of a row of six two-story-over-basement single-family homes built in 1877 for owner George W. Richards and designed by Brooklyn architect-carpenter William Wright. The Park Slope Historic District Designation Report states that the row is "French neo-Grec", based perhaps on the incised foliate decoration carved into the window lintels. However, the houses also exhibit many characteristics of the lingering Italiate style, including the segmental-arched windows and door hood, the parlor-floor windows that drop all the way to the floor, the cornice detailing, and the cast-iron stoop handrails, newel posts, and areaway fence.

In 1891, this house was the venue for an elaborate musicale, hosted by a Mrs. Wardner, to benefit the home mission work of the Park Congregational Church. The Brooklyn Eagle reported that the event drew performers from both Brooklyn and New York, then still a separate city; that "the capacious parlors were well filled"; and that an "elocutionist" was particularly well-received.

Brooklyn Eagle, February 13, 1891, p.2 ("In Aid of Home Mission Work")

Park Congregational was at that time located in a church building that still stands in 7th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues; in a few years it would move to a new home at the corner of 8th Avenue and 2nd Street.

475A 1st Street has very recently undergone a renovation and enlargement that is highly sensitive to the original house and to the historic district. A new half-floor was added to the roof, but is invisible from the sidewalk and can only be seen from the top of the stoops across the street:

475A 1st Street, showing rooftop addition.
View from top of stoop across the street

2010 House Tour: 15 Prospect Park West

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 through the Park Slope Civic Council's website.

15-13 Prospect Park West, Park Slope Historic District

15 Prospect Park West, one of an identical pair of residences, was built in 1919 for Walter Kraslow and designed by Brooklyn architect William T. McCarthy. These houses exemplify the neo-Tudor style that was very popular in the years following the First World War. Historian Francis Morrone notes that these are among the last single-family residences constructed in Park Slope. A continuous balustrade supporting heraldic animals above the first story ties the two buildings together.

A noteworthy feature of these houses is the central driveway leading to separate garage space in the rear of the lots, reflecting the growing importance of the automobile in daily life. The driveway creates a break in the "street wall", and a curb cut for access to the street; both radical departures from earlier urban design in Park Slope.

Ultimately, as the automobile grew ever more important, and as cities sprawled into suburbs, the garage, which began as a separate outbuilding, crept ever closer to, and finally merged with, the primary residence:

1950s house

In modern houses the garage, enlarged to accomodate two or even three automobiles, becomes the dominant feature of the facade, and residents of such "drive-in" homes become accustomed to using the "garage door" rather than the "front door" to enter the residence. The front yard is overwhelmed by a vast parking lot:

1990s house

Walter Kraslow died a suicide, aged 45, in 1928. A New York Times article notes that he was depressed and brooding about business reversals in the time leading up to his death:

New York Times, August 23, 1928, p. 26