McDonaldization in Park Slope

Perhaps the one building in Park Slope we most love to hate is the Rite Aid on the southwest corner of 5th Avenue and 10th Street:

5th Avenue & 10th Street, Park Slope

We've described before how this building annihilates the unique "sense of place" for which Park Slope is famous worldwide. The building looks like it could be anywhere; it certainly has absolutely nothing to do with Park Slope. It is not just "non-contextual"; it actively debases the entire corner on which it sits.

The feeling that this building could "be anywhere" was brought home to us this past spring, while we were driving our daughter around New England to visit colleges. We unfortunately had to drive through a number of suburban strip-style commercial areas, and quite to our surprise, we passed this very same Rite Aid building several times! The building is the same everywhere, right down to the ridiculous diamond-shaped portholes:


Suddenly it hit us: these buildings are designed in some distant corporate boardroom to embody the store's "brand", and then plonked down anywhere regardless of context. Park Slope, New Jersey, Las Vegas, whatever... it's all the same, a perfect, seamless "market" of "consumers" out there... These "buildings" are basically like fast-food restaurants, machines designed to extract money from their "market" as efficiently as possible.

Back home, we checked Google Images, and sure enough, the very same building popped up all over the country:


Of course, we as "consumers" are somewhat complicit in this state of affairs. According to sociologist George Ritzer, author of The McDonaldization of Society, on some level we really want uniformity, sameness, non-differentiation; we want to walk into a McDonald's or a Rite Aid anywhere in the world and know exactly how the hamburgers are going to taste and that the shampoo is always in aisle 4.

But the unfortunate side effect is that the world itself becomes increasingly flat, the same everywhere, undifferentiated: what Ritzer terms the "McDonaldization" of society.

Fortunately here in Park Slope we still have a wealth of wonderful 19th-century mixed-use buildings housing locally-owned and -operated businesses that do so much to create the Slope's unique "sense of place" and to resist the rising tide of "McDonaldization" that has engulfed nearly the entire rest of the world.

7th Avenue and Garfield Place - unprotected

Truly Park Slope is a "treasure hidden in plain sight", as the Sufis might say.

We highly recommend Ritzer's book, which can be ordered through Park Slope's own Community Bookstore:

Park Slope Historic District Expansion Project Update

So where does the project to expand the Park Slope Historic District currently stand?

One of the biggest issues in defining Historic Districts involves boundaries. What to include? What to exclude? Where to draw the lines? There are many factors to weigh, including historic significance, "sense of place", and character. Another big factor is the limited resources of the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC); they have to consider the entire city and we acknowledge that there are a great many deserving neighborhoods outside of Park Slope. One suspects that all of these factors conspired to produce the irregular boundaries of our current Historic District which was designated in 1973:

Park Slope Historic District

However, the current boundaries seem totally arbitrary to us. Nearly all of Park Slope has an incredibly strong "sense of place" that seems highly worth preserving, at least to our untrained eye. Park Slope's historic character is one of the main reasons we are all here in the first place, and we feel we must do everything in our power to preserve it for future generations.

Thus it was that our Committee first approached the LPC two years ago to reactivate the Park Slope Civic Council's "Request For Evaluation", first filed in about 2000, to consider expanding the Park Slope Historic District.

For our first "Study Area", we suggested to the LPC that they consider, basically, all of Park Slope that is currently undesignated. By Park Slope we mean Flatbush Avenue to 15th Street, Prospect Park West to 4th Avenue. By "undesignated" we mean everything that is not in the current Historic District. More precisely, our Study Area stopped 100' east of 4th Avenue; we felt it was useless to consider the properties facing 4th Avenue itself since they were all likely to be bulldozed quickly due to the recent upzoning. So here is a map of our 2007 "Proposal" to the LPC:

Park Slope Historic District Expansion - Study Area

This area includes about 4,900 properties. The LPC's response? Our Study Area was too large. It would take years and years to study this area! So, we went back to the drawing boards, to try to come up with something more "realistic".

Earlier this year, we went back to the LPC with a phased approach that included about 1,600 properties in "Phase 1", as shown below:

Park Slope Historic District Expansion - Study Area - phase 1

Phase 1 would have expanded the Historic District in both the South and North Slope, and would also have protected 7th Avenue, which we consider one of our highest priorities: it is the commercial "heart" of Park Slope; it has many magnificent, intact mixed-use late 19th-century buildings. In the North Slope, this "Phase 1" would have stopped 100' east of 5th Avenue.

At any rate, the LPC's reaction to our "Phase 1" was the same as to our initial proposal: way too large!

Therefore, we went back to the drawing boards yet again, and came back to them again in June with "Phase 1a", which reduced the Study Area to about 800 buildings. Basically what is included now is 7th Avenue, both sides, and the blocks between 7th & 8th Avenues in the South Slope:

Park Slope Historic District Expansion - Study Area - Phase 1a

And, miraculously, the LPC said "yes"; i.e. they agreed to "look at" this area and come back to us in the fall for further negotiations!

So is our "phase 1a" a formal proposal? No way! Obviously, these lines are just guidelines for the LPC; we do not think every building in this area is landmark-worthy, and we do not expect the LPC's proposal to look anything like this. They may even say that they find none of this area to be worthy of inclusion in the Historic District, although we would find that highly surprising. However, they have apparently agreed to at least consider this area and to come back to the community later with their findings, so this alone represents a "landmark" accomplishment!

Whatever form the first Study Area takes, however, be assured that we are in this process for the long haul; we intend to maintain the struggle to preserve Park Slope until the LPC protects a great deal more of our deserving neighborhood.

Besides working to define the boundaries of the initial Study Area, we have been conducting our own historic research, hosting meetings, and compiling expressions of support for an expanded Historic District in the form of postcards and petitions. We will highlight these diverse efforts in subsequent posts.

In Memoriam: Louis Bonert

We conclude our review of the work of prolific Park Slope builder Louis Bonert with a glimpse into his personal life.

Bonert maintained a country residence in Sayville, Long Island. In 1908 his 25-year-old daughter Lucille was driving a car that was struck by a Long Island Rail Road train at an unguarded Sayville crossing, and was permanently injured. Lucille sued the LIRR and was awarded $10,000 in damages in 1910:

New York Times, April 13, 1910, p. 4 ("$10,000 For Her Injuries")

Louis Bonert, toward the end of his life, and having done so much to create the built environment of Park Slope, actually moved into one of his own buildings, a fine townhouse at 625 Second Street in the park block:

625-627 2nd Street, Park Slope Historic District

Bonert built this house, designed by architects Eisenla and Carlson, in 1908, as part of a longer row. This house was Bonert's residence at the time of his death, at 74, on May 15, 1916:

New York Times, May 17, 1916, p. 11 ("Died")

Bonert's funeral observances occurred at what was then the Emanuel Lutheran Church, in 7th Street just above 6th Avenue. The building still stands today:

Park Congregational Church

- unprotected

The building, whose history we hope to recount in a later post, dates to 1870 and is now hemmed in closely by buildings on both sides.

It was Louis Bonert, careful readers will recall, who sold the land on which another Lutheran church, St. Matthews English, now stands at 6th Avenue and 2nd Street in Park Slope:

St. Matthews English Lutheran Church - unprotected

Louis Bonert died intestate, a situation that unfortunately precipitated a legal battle between his widow, Louisa, and his daughter Lucille, who was appointed "administratrix" of the estate. Although Bonert was deemed a wealthy man in life, apparently his estate was reduced to virtually nothing by the claims of creditors, taxes, and administrative fees, prompting Bonert's widow Louisa to mount a lawsuit against her own daughter Lucille:

The New York Supplement

, 1921

But let us draw the curtain on this unfortunate family squabble. We prefer to remember Bonert as the man who build so many fine buildings in Park Slope.

We recall our Greek philosophy professor, quoting Alfred North Whitehead, saying that all Western philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato. In the same way, It can almost be said that the development of Park Slope, at least along 6th Avenue and side streets in the central Slope, is a series of "footnotes to Louis Bonert".

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.

Early Louis Bonert: 4th Avenue, 1884

A reader who is helping conduct research for a possible expansion of the Park Slope Historic District sends along a tip about some buildings by Louis Bonert on the west side of 4th Avenue, at the northwest corner of Bergen Street. They are outside our Study Area, and technically not even in Park Slope, but we thought we'd include them here anyway, along with all the other Bonerts, since we are "completists" to a degree.

They are a group of five three-story, mixed-use buildings (flats over stores). Our correspondent found the following listing in the American Architect & Building News from 1884:

"Building Intelligence; Brooklyn," AABN vol. 15, no. 437 (May 10, 1884): p. 227.

-- "Fourth Ave., n w cor. Bergen St., 5 three-st'y brick stores and tenements, tn roofs; cost for all, $25,750; owner, Albert Scales, 378 Van Brunt St.; architect and carpenter, Louis Bonert."

We didn't include the west side of Fourth Avenue in our comprehensive Park Slope photo archive, but it is possible to use Google's "street view" to examine the corner. And, apparently, all five buildings are still there today, in nearly original condition. We particularly like the quoins on the corner building:

70-62 Fourth Avenue

The upzoning of Fourth Avenue a few years ago unleashed a building frenzy that has seen many of the original, "first growth" buildings replaced by new, mid-rise apartment houses. The Great Recession has lessened development pressures somewhat. Even so, we suspect these 1884 buildings by Louis Bonert won't be around much longer.

Louis Bonert: Five 8-Family Double Flats in Sterling Place

In 1909 Louis Bonert traded five four story, 8-family "double flat" apartment houses in Sterling Place for a large parcel on the other side of Prospect Park, in a deal recounted in the New York Times:

New York Times, August 4, 1909, p. 10 ("In the Real Estate Field")

The apartments are still there today, on the south side of Sterling Place, just off Flatbush Avenue:

164-180 Sterling Place - unprotected

168 Sterling Place - unprotected

The buildings exhibit some of the stylized hoods over the central stairway windows that we have come to associate with Bonert from his apartment houses in 3rd Street and in 6th Avenue:

180 Sterling Place - detail

The doorways are a riot of classical detail. We can make out swags and egg-and-dart molding, but our limited architectural vocabulary cannot begin to describe everything here. What are those pointy things on the upper corners called?:

164 Sterling Place - detail

Bader's roadhouse, which occupied a large parcel at the corner of Ocean Parkway and Coney Island Avenue, just outside Prospect Park, was a popular destination for excursions, apparently as much for the outsized personality of its proprietor as for its convenient location and popular prices:

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 4, 1897, p. 20 ("Havens for Cyclists")

Early Louis Bonert: 5th Street, 1891

Somehow this early "flat house" by Louis Bonert in 5th Street just below 6th Avenue escaped our notice. The new building notice appeared in an 1891 Brooklyn Eagle:

Brooklyn Eagle, October 10, 1891, p. 1 ("New Buildings and Real Estate")

393 5th Street - unprotected

The building, at three stories, is uncharacteristically small for Bonert. But it does exhibit the top-floor rounded windows, and terra cotta spandrel panels, with which we have become so familiar from his later "Green Man" style, Romanesque-inflected apartment buildings:

393 5th Street - detail

The building is located just around the corner from two complete blockfronts that we have linked to Bonert. We have not yet uncovered evidence to document Bonert's hand in the west side of 6th Avenue between 4th and 5th Streets, but we have linked Bonert to the east side of that block of 6th Avenue. In any case, the doorway of the 5th Street building is identical to doorways from the 6th Avenue rows.

393 5th Street - detail

348 6th Avenue - detail

355 6th Avenue - detail