Postscript: Louis Bonert

Our intrepid band of historic researchers has uncovered a wealth of new material regarding our favorite Park Slope builder, the prolific Louis Bonert, about whom we have written a great deal on this blog. We won't review the entire Bonert thread, but we want to clarify a couple of earlier tentative attributions.

Most of our latest material has been culled from the American Architect and Building News (AABN), a great resource for researchers of historic buildings. Some of the AABN is online, but we are lucky to have a researcher who has access to nearly the complete run in hardcopy, from which we have derived a wealth of new material for our ever-expanding "Documentary History of Park Slope" (which we hope to publish shortly on the web). Our Research Committee is winding up a chronological scan of the entire AABN run, extracting all of the "hits" for Park Slope. As the hits are obtained, we are logging them in the comments section of our comprehensive photo survey of Park Slope, and also compiling them in a master file we are calling the "Documentary History" of Park Slope, which we will be publishing in a few days.

At any rate, in our earlier Bonert series, we went out on a limb a few times and engaged in "interpretation" or "speculation", in contrast to simply publishing the documentary evidence.

One of these cases is the west side of Sixth Avenue between 4th and 5th Streets (the block from Puppetworks to the Park Slope Ale House):

6th Avenue and 5th Street, northwest corner - unprotected

6th Avenue and 4th Street, southwest corner - unprotected

Despite a complete lack of any evidence, we speculated earlier that this row was by Bonert, based on its similarities to buildings across the street for which we have a documented connection. And we are gratified that the AABN has now confirmed the connection. According to the AABN, Louis Bonert constructed this row in 1891 to the plans of prolific Brooklyn architect W. M. Coots:

"Building Intelligence; Apartment-Houses; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 34, no. 823 (Oct. 3, 1891): p. xvi.

– "Sixth Ave., n w cor. Fifth St., 5 four-st’y brick apartment-houses, tin roofs; cost, $35,000; owner and builder, L. Bonnert [sic - Bonert], 528 Tenth St.; architect, W. M. Coots, 26 Court St."

"Building Intelligence; Stores; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 34, no. 826 (Oct. 24, 1891): p. xviii.

– "Sixth Ave., s w cor. Fourth St., 5 four-st’y stores and apartment-houses, tin roofs; cost, $35,000; owner and builder, L. Bonnert, 528 Tenth St.; architect, W. M. Coots, 26 Court St."

We speculated elsewhere that the northeast corner of 6th Avenue and First street might also have been from Bonert, based on similarities to some of his other work:

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

However, the AABN confirms that these buildings were built in 1895 by M. S. Buckley to designs by architect Robert Dixon:

"Building Intelligence; Houses; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 49, no. 1019 (Jul. 6, 1895): p. 7.
– "Sixth Ave., e s, 22' 8" n 1^st St., 4 four-st’y brick dwells., 19' 4" x 62'; tin roofs; $19,000; own. and bld., M. S. Buckley, 287 Tenth St.; arch., Robt. Dixon, 219 Montague St."

– "Sixth Ave., , n e cor. 1^st St., four-st’y brick dwell., 22' 8" x 90'; tin roof; $8,000; own. and bld., M. S. Buckley, 287 Tenth St.; arch., Robt. Dixon, 219 Montague St."

In truth we harbored doubts about our earlier tentative attribution to Bonert. The buildings lack the distinctive "Green Man" panels beneath the windows, and also feature only single columns flanking the doorways, rather than Bonert's distinctive column clusters. Now the AABN confirms that they are in fact not by Bonert at all, although they do seem somewhat derivative of his buildings.

Watch for the upcoming publication of our "Documentary History" of Park Slope.

Louis Bonert: 8th Avenue Apartments, 1910

A New York Times search on "Bonnert", a common misspelling of Park Slope builder Louis Bonert's surname, yields a new "hit" from 1910:

New York Times, August 28, 1910, p. 10 ("Brooklyn's Apartment House Development Active on the Heights and Prospect Park")

As noted in the article, after focusing exclusively on apartment houses, Louis Bonert broke into single-family home construction in the first decade of the last century. And he did so in a characteristically big way: according to the Park Slope Historic District designation report, Bonert developed the entire south side of First Street between 8th Avenue and Prospect Park West:

1st Street, 8th/PPW, south side - Park Slope Historic District

He also built most of the north side of Second Street, also in the park block:

2nd Street, 8th/PPW, north side - Park Slope Historic District

These houses are perhaps some of the most luxurious, desirable, and costly residences in Park Slope today.

The article notes that about the same time, Bonert constructed an entire block of buildings on 8th Avenue, between 4th & 5th Streets:

404-420 8th Avenue - unprotected

We've followed the progression of Bonert's apartment houses through 4-family to 8-family configurations. We haven't counted the doorbells yet, but we suspect these 8th Avenue apartments must be 16-family buildings; they are truly colossal in scale.

Bonert's 4-family "single flat" apartment houses were usually about 20 feet in width. His "double flat" buildings (two apartments per floor) began at 30 feet in width, and progressed through 36 to 46 foot configurations. These buildings in 8th Avenue are a full 50 feet wide, and very deep as well:

420 8th Avenue - unprotected

After spending weeks with Mr. Bonert on the blog, we've quite nearly reached the end of the line. As far as we know right now, these were the final buildings constructed by Louis Bonert in Park Slope. It remains only to relate what little else we know about him in the next post.

Louis Bonert's $750,000 deal in Park Slope

In 1905 Louis Bonert put together a deal to sell a great many of the apartment houses he had recently built in Park Slope. The deal's value was estimated to be $750,000, a tremendous amount in those days. The deal was reported in both the New York Times and the Brooklyn Eagle:

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, November 18, 1905, p.1 ("$750,000 deal in flats")

New York Times, November 19, 1905, p. 18 ("In the Real Estate Field")

It is worth working through the list of addresses in the articles, both to confirm attributions we have already made, and to look for new buildings that we have not yet confirmed to be from Bonert.

The first set of addresses includes several of the buildings in the row extending from the northwest corner of 6th Avenue and 3rd Street. We discussed these buildings earlier on the blog and attributed them to Bonert, circa 1895:

407-415 3rd Street - unprotected

417-421 3rd Street - unprotected

423-427 3rd Street - unprotected

The articles indicate that several of the eight-family apartments on the north side of 3rd Street between 6th & 7th Avenues were included in the deal. Bonert built eight of these "double flat" apartments on the north side of the street, devoting a very generous 46' in lot frontage to each building. We now immediately recognize Bonert's signature enframements over the central (stair hall) windows. The buildings closer to 7th Avenue boast a doorway with full pediment and flanking columns. These buildings were constructed circa 1902-1903:

3rd Street between 6th & 7th Avenues, north side - unprotected

461 3rd Street - unprotected

461 3rd Street - detail

The deal also included some 4-story, 4-family flat houses in the south side of 3rd Street between 5th & 6th Avenues. These buildings are similar to others across the street, constructed by Louis Bonert circa 1895:

414-408 3rd Street - unprotected

The deal also included a few buildings from the 1894 row Bonert constructed at the southwest corner of 6th Avenue and 3rd Street:

6th Avenue & 3rd Street, southwest corner - unprotected

The deal also included the row of eight-family apartment houses on the south side of 3rd Street between 6th & 7th Avenues, matching the row across the street, and constructed by Louis Bonert circa 1902-1903:

466-450 3rd Street - unprotected

The apartments further from 7th Avenue lack the pedimented entablature, boasting instead Bonert's characteristic "florid classical" detailing around the doorway. Again we see his distinctive hoods over the central stairway windows:

458 3rd Street - unprotected

458 3rd Street - detail

458 3rd Street - detail

The huge deal also included a row of Bonert's earlier (circa 1894) "Green Man"-style, Romanesque-infected 4-family flat houses in 4th Street between 5th & 6th Avenues:

357-363 4th Street - unprotected

There's our friend, the Green Man himself, symbolizing our unity with Nature, peeking out from the spandrel panels:

359 4th Street - detail

The deal also included Bonert's row from the north side of 4th Street east of 6th Avenue:

389-393 4th Street - unprotected

Finally, Bonert threw into the deal the apartment building at the northeast corner of 6th Avenue and 3rd Street:

319 6th Avenue - unprotected

It was a huge deal for Louis Bonert, most likely one of the largest in his career, and one of the largest in Park Slope up to that time. Interestingly, the buyers were a couple of local guys, David Marks of 107 6th Avenue and A. E. Goldstein of 121 St. Johns Place.

Bonert went on to construct luxurious single-family limestone row houses on the entire south side of 1st Street and the north side of 2nd Street, in the park blocks, within the current Park Slope Historic District, financed perhaps by the proceeds from this colossal sale of his earlier apartment houses.

Louis Bonert: 4th Street and 6th Avenue, 1903 sale

We've already identified the building at the northeast corner of 6th Avenue and 4th Street as a Louis Bonert "double" apartment house (i.e. housing eight families), constructed in 1897. The following Brooklyn Eagle article records the sale of this building six years later, in 1903. The article doesn't add to our knowledge of the "vital statistics" for this building, to use Francis Morrone's term (i.e. builder/architect/date). But the article is noteworthy for its contemporary assessment of Bonert as having "constructed some of the finest and most artistically finished apartment houses in this fashionable district":

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 27, 1903, p. 11 ("Brokers Report a Fairly Busy Week")

The building, in yellow "fancy brick" with limestone trim over a brownstone basement, is indeed very fine, as we noted earlier. Note the gently rounded window bays, alternating with slightly angled bays, chimney stacks, and central stairway windows over the double-granite-columned entrance portico:

343 6th Avenue - unprotected

Note to the reader: With this 1903 Brooklyn Eagle article, we have exceeded the limit of the online Eagle at the Brooklyn Public Library, which runs only through 1902. The rest of the Eagle's run can be accessed at the wonderful "Fulton History" website. The articles do no load the way they do at the Brooklyn Public Library, so we cannot provide a hyperlink directly to the article as we have been doing with the BPL material. But the issues can be accessed via the search box at the Fulton History website. Many thanks to Fulton History for putting online material that the BPL has been unable to make available. The search key we used is highlighted in the article above ("Louis Bonnet", a typical misspelling of Bonert's name).

Note also that there is an error in the address cited in the article. The Bonert building at the corner of 4th Street is actually 343 6th Avenue, not 243 as cited above.

Louis Bonert, 6th Avenue & 4th Street, northeast corner

We have been following the evolution of Louis Bonert's four-story, four-family apartment houses in Park Slope. His earlier style often features three stories of "fancy brick" over a brownstone first story and basement, with a full-height, three-sided projecting window bay, and terra cotta spandrel panels (often featuring a "Green Man"). The top-floor windows are arched, and Romanesque clustered columns flank the doorway.

299 6th Avenue - unprotected

Around 1896, Bonert begins building a new style of apartment house. They are still four stories in height. The full-height projecting window bay is now gracefully rounded. The spandrel panels are gone, as are the Romanesque columns flanking the doorway; instead, the doorway features classical columns and entablature. More importantly, the "fancy brick" facade is dressed up even more, becoming fully faced with limestone. And most distinctively, Bonert employs some highly unusual window hoods:

317 6th Avenue - unprotected

In 1897, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reports yet another cluster of new Bonert apartment houses, at the northeast corner of 6th Avenue and 4th Street. The Eagle mistakenly attributes the buildings to "L. Bossert". Louis Bossert was a contemporary lumber magnate, who also built the Hotel Bossert on Montague Street, but our buildings are obviously the work of Louis Bonert, not Bossert. It is not the only time the two men were confused: a New York Times article from 1910 reports the sale of an unfinished house on the south side of First Street in the park block "for Louis Bossert", even though Louis Bonert is known to have built that entire block.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 13, 1897, p. 12 ("New Buildings")

In this row, Bonert seems to retain the form and detailing of his more recent style of apartments, while reverting to the use of "fancy brick" instead of cladding the buildings entirely in stone.

389-391-393 4th Street - unprotected

The corner building has a wonderfully varied 6th Avenue facade: projecting window bays, both angled and gently rounded, alternate along the facade, interspersed with chimney stacks. Twinned granite columns support an elegant entrance portico. The top-story windows, consistent with Bonert's later apartment style, are not arched.

343 6th Avenue - unprotected

The second and third story windows on the 4th Street facades employ the highly distinctive window hoods that Bonert first used in his nearby 6th Avenue row.

343 6th Avenue - detail

The row employs "fancy brick" of slightly varying shades, with either limestone or brownstone trim, over a brownstone base, with rounded window bays, and classical doorways. The row hybridizes the form and detailing of Bonert's emerging apartment house style, with the materials (brick with stone trim) of his earlier buildings.

391 4th Street - unprotected

391 4th Street - detail

Yet More Louis Bonert: 6th Avenue between 4th & 5th Streets

Our last few posts have followed Park Slope builder Louis Bonert at work in 6th Avenue between 4th and 5th Streets. We examined a row he built in 1892 at the northeast corner of 6th Avenue and 5th Street, and also a row he built in 1893 at the southeast corner of 6th Avenue and 4th Street.

These rows nearly meet in the middle of the block. But close inspection reveals a mysterious building, #355 6th Avenue, between the two Bonert rows on either side:

353-355-357 6th Avenue - unprotected

Is 355 6th Avenue a Bonert?

We have confirmed in previous posts that Bonert was responsible for the entire rest of the block facing 6th Avenue. It seems unlikely that only this one mid-block lot would have escaped his control.

The building is a four-story, four-family "single flat" house executed in "fancy brick" with brownstone trim, a characteristic building style for Bonert. The cornice detailing on this building is identical to that on the rest of the block, as is the detailing on the top-floor windows:

353-355-357 6th Avenue - detail

Although we cannot provide a photograph at this time, the original wooden details set into the doorway are identical between 355 6th Avenue and the rest of the buildings on the block.

Finally, 355 6th Avenue was listed has having been sold at the same time and by the same broker, John Pullman, as three buildings in the Bonert row to the north.

For all these reasons, we feel confident in attributing this building to Louis Bonert. It's true that the building is slightly different from its neighbors to either side. It lacks decorative terra cotta panels below the windows. It lacks the classical doorway of its neighbors to either side. It remains a mystery why this building is distinct from its Bonert neighbors.

At any rate, if we conclude that 355 6th Avenue is a Bonert, as we believe we must, then further conclusions follow as well.

Directly across the street, on the west side of 6th Avenue, running from 4th to 5th Street, stands a complete row of buildings executed as a unit:

6th Avenue and 4th Street, southwest corner - unprotected

6th Avenue and 5th Street, northwest corner - unprotected

It is a row of eight four-story, four-family, brick-faced "single flat" apartment houses. A brownstone-faced mixed-use building stands at each end, and these buildings match the Bonert building at the northeast corner of 6th Avenue and 5th Street, across the street. The cornice detailing, the top-floor arched window detailing, the geometric terra cotta panels beneath the windows... all these details match those on the Bonert buildings we have been examining.

340 6th Avenue - detail

346 6th Avenue - detail

Finally, the rusticated stone door and window arches on the first floor of these flat houses, and the wooden detailing of the door frames, precisely match those on the first floor at #355 6th Avenue across the street:

346 6th Avenue - detail

The conclusion is inescapable: all of these buildings, on both sides of 6th Avenue from 4th to 5th Streets, were built by Louis Bonert. We have not yet found any Brooklyn Eagle or New York Times citations for the buildings on the west side of the street, nor for #355 on the east side, so we cannot yet offer the usual documentary evidence. But the stylistic evidence overwhelmingly points to Bonert's hand here.

The west side of the block forms an extremely handsome row. The two center buildings meet to form a mirror image, surmounted by a high cornice at the middle of the block:

348-346 6th Avenue - unprotected

It is not possible to see in the photo above, but the very top of this cornice features two hands clasped in a handshake... whatever could have been meant by this image?

One of our favorite details in all of Park Slope is the group of three half-figures holding up the cornice at each end of the row:

356 6th Avenue - detail

Updated: the attribution for the west side of 6th Avenue between 4th & 5th Streets has been confirmed.

Louis Bonert: 6th Avenue and 4th Street, 1893

The next chapter in the story of Louis Bonert, Park Slope builder, is culled from an early 1894 New York Times report concerning Brooklyn real estate sales:

New York Times, January 21, 1894, p. 15 ("Brooklyn Realty Matters")

#351, on the east side of 6th Avenue between 4th and 5th Streets, is the fourth building from the left in the photograph below:

345-353 6th Avenue - unprotected

Now that we have become more familiar with the kind of development Bonert was doing around this time, we can immediately recognize several characteristics of his buildings: a row of several four-family flats, in light-toned brick, with a brownstone-faced mixed-use building on the corner lot, with arched windows on the top story, continuous cornice detailing, and decorative panels below the windows.

The corner mixed-use, brownstone-faced building is virtually identical to the one at the corner of 6th Avenue and 5th Street. The one at 4th Street features handsome scalloped shingles on the round bay facing the corner, but its original first floor commercial space has been converted to residential use.

6th Avenue and 4th Street, southeast corner - detail

6th Avenue and 5th Street, southeast corner - unprotected

The classical doorway surrounds on the apartment houses are identical to the ones Bonert employed on his row just to the south:

347 6th Avenue - detail

359 6th Avenue - detail

Bonert here again employs a full-height bay with decorative geometric terra cotta panels set below each window, a device he used earlier in his St. Johns Place rows:

353 6th Avenue - detail

21-23 St. Johns Place - detail

Some of the decorative terra cotta panels feature Bonert's first use of the fascinating archetype known as the "Green Man", a human face surrounded by leaves and vegetation:

353 6th Avenue - "Green Man" detail

A New York Times article from a few weeks later records the sale of several more buildings from this row (347, 349, 353). Apparently Bonert was doing a brisk business, building these small apartment houses, filling them with tenants, and then selling them off to local investors seeking a reliable return on their money:

New York Times, February 14, 1894, p. 12 ("Brooklyn Realty Matters")

Of course we tracked down the addresses listed in this article, and sure enough, it lead us to yet another Bonert, lying just around the corner at #380 Fourth Street. The article refers to the material of its construction as "fancy brick". It is identical to the four-family buildings in 6th Avenue and was most likely built and marketed at the same time; it is pictured on the right below:

4th Street, looking east from 6th Avenue - unprotected

With this group we are drawing quite near the "Bonert epicenter" of Park Slope, where we will find many more "fancy brick" apartment houses.