Thomas Bennett for Louis Bonert in 3rd Street

Long ago we identified prolific Park Slope builder Louis Bonert as the developer of much of 3rd Street between 6th and 7th Avenues.

More recently we identified Pohlman and Patrick as the architects for 8 westermost of these apartment houses, 4 on each side of the street, toward 6th Avenue. Pohlman and Patrick's buildings were erected in 1903, and can be identified by the flat, foliate entablature surmounting the entrance:

458 3rd Street
Pohlman and Patrick, architects - 1903
Louis Bonert, builder

458 3rd Street - entrance detail

Bonert apparently felt he had found a winning formula with these spacious, 8-family, 38'-wide apartment houses, because he built seven more of them one year later, in 1904, just uphill from the first group. For reasons unknown, however, he chose to employ for the later group another prolific Brooklyn architect, Thomas Bennett, with whom he had collaborated on some other apartments in 3rd Street a few years earlier:

"Projected Buildings," RERBG v. 73, no. 1882 (April 9, 1904): p. 847.
-639- 3rd st, n s, 293 e 6th av, three 4-sty brk tenements, 38.3x68, 8 families, steam heat; total cost, $45,000; L Bonert, 6th av and 3rd st; ar't, T Bennett, 3rd av and 52d st.

The 1904 buildings are nearly identical to the earlier group, and are distinguished mainly by a peaked entablature surmounting the doorway. The 1904 group also has one less window illuminating the central staircase:

461 3rd Street
Thomas Bennett, architect - 1904
Louis Bonert, builder

461 3rd Street - entrance detail

The similarity between the buildings from two different architects is remarkable. Bonert certainly seems to have maintained no loyalty to a particular architect from one development to the next.

Pohlman & Patrick in 7th Avenue

The architectural firm of Pohlman & Patrick became quite active in Park Slope around the turn of the last century.

According to the Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide, in 1903 the firm designed the group of three mixed-use (flats over stores) buildings on the southwest corner of 7th Avenue and 5th Street for builder Alexander G. Calder:

254-258 7th Avenue
Pohlman & Patrick, architects - 1903
Alexander G. Calder, builder

"Projected Buildings," RERBG v. 71, no. 1830 (April 11, 1903): p. 752.
-527- 7th av, w s, 21 s 5th st, two 3-sty brk stores and dwellings, 19.6x55, 2 families; total cost, $10,000; A Calder, 420 8th st; ar'ts, same as last [Pohlman & Patrick, 1235 3rd av].

"Projected Buildings," RERBG v. 71, no. 1833 (May 2, 1903): p. IX.
-679- 7th av, s w cor 5th st, 4-sty brk stores and dwelling, 21x71, 3 families, steam heat; cost, $25,000; A G Calder, 420 3rd av; ar'ts, Pohlman and Patrick, 1235 3d av.

Calder apparently carved off the rear 20 feet of his 7th Avenue lots, in order to squeeze in an extra lot behind them, facing 5th Street. On this lot Calder built a 4-story, 4-family apartment house, also designed by Pohlman & Patrick, also in 1903:

468 5th Street (left)
Pohlman & Patrick, architects - 1903
Alexander G. Calder, builder

"Projected Buildings," RERBG v. 71, no. 1833 (May 2, 1903): p. IX.
-697- 5th st, s s, 83.3 w 7th av, 4-sty brk tenement, 20x71, steam heat; cost, $9,000; A G Calder, 420 8th st; ar'ts, Pohlman & Patrick, 1235 3d av.

The Neoclassical apartment building from 1903 creates an arresting contrast to the much earlier (circa 1870s) Italianate brownstone row houses beside it in 5th Street.

Pohlman & Patrick in President Street

The American Architect and Building News yields the architects' names for Louis Bonert's 1902 row of four 3-story, 6-family apartment houses on the south side of President Street between 6th and 7th Avenues:

"Building Intelligence; Houses; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 76, no. 1394 (Sept. 13, 1902): p. xii.

– "President St., near 7^th Ave., 4 three-st’y brick dwells., 31' 9" x 83' 6"; $44,000; own., Louis Bonnert [sic - Bonert], 319 Sixth Ave., arch., Pohlman & Patrick, 322 Fifty-third St."

782-788 President Street
Louis Bonert, builder
Pohlman & Patrick, architects - 1902

We visited this row two years ago during our lengthy review of the great many Park Slope buildings constructed by prolific builder and local resident Louis Bonert.

At that time, however, we had not yet identified the architects of the row. It can now be credited to the firm of Pohlman and Patrick.

782 President Street
Louis Bonert, builder
Pohlman & Patrick, architects - 1902

Introducing Pohlman & Patrick, Architects

We've been scanning the Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide of late, concentrating in the very early 1900s. The online Brooklyn Eagle ends at 1902, and the American Architect and Building News listings grow sparse around this same time. But the RERBG is yielding many interesting "hits" for Park Slope.

For example, we are running into a number of apartment buildings from the firm of Pohlman and Patrick, whose name also appears in the Prospect Heights Historic District Designation Report:


We thought the name "Pohlman" sounded familiar, so we checked Park Slope's Designation Report, and indeed in 1903 Henry Pohlman designed what we consider to be some of Park Slope's finest apartment houses, at Garfield Place and 8th Avenue:

"Serine" Apartments
Henry Pohlman, architect - 1903
Park Slope Historic District

Park Slope's Designation Report says these buildings exemplify "the ubiquitous eight-family apartment house":


Also in 1903, Pohlman designed the similar apartment houses on the northwest corner of 9th Street and 8th Avenue in "the popular turn of the century neo-Italian Renaissance style":

820 8th Avenue
Pohlman & Patrick, architects - 1903
John Wilson, owner

"The Real Estate Market: New Buildings," The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Apr. 29, 1903): p. 18.

– "EIGHTH AVENUE, west side, 32 ½' from Ninth Street, two four story brick tenements, 27 ½' x 58', for eight families each, tin roof, cost $40,000, John Wilson, owner; Pohlman & Patrick, architects."

"Projected Buildings," RERBG v. 71, no. 1832 (April 25, 1903): p. 852.
-635- 8th av, n w cor 9th st, 4-sty brk flats, 26.3x88.1, 9 families, steam heat; cost, $25,000; J Wilson, 456 14th st; ar'ts, Pohlman & Patrick, 1235 3rd av.

"Projected Buildings," RERBG v. 71, no. 1833 (May 2, 1903): p. IX.
-683- 8th av, w s, 32.3 s [sic-n?] 9th st, two 4-sty brk tenements, &c, 27.6x84, 8 families, steam heat; total cost, $40,000; John Wilson, 456 14th st; ar'ts, Pohlman & Patrick, 1235 3d av.

"Lorraine" Apartments
Pohlman & Patrick, architects - 1903
John Wilson, owner

820 8th Avenue also boasts some attractive "basket-style" fire escapes on the 9th Street facade:


We will be seeing more from the firm of Pohlman and Patrick shortly.