Annandale

One of our favorite 7th Avenue buildings is the "Annandale", on the northeast corner of 7th Avenue and 3rd Street, built of light-colored brick with handsome brownstone trim and corner quoins. The building's warm yellow brick seems to glow in the late afternoon sun:

Annandale Apartments, 7th Avenue & 3rd Street, Park Slope
L. Anderson, architect - 1892

To reach the upper-floor flats, one enters a door behind a Romanesque archway off 7th Avenue. The entrance behind the arch is lined with what appear to be original half-height wooden panels, which make for an altogether extremely handsome doorway:

Annandale Apartments - detail

According to the American Architect and Building News, the apartment house was constructed in 1892-93 to plans by architect L. Anderson; the owners are listed as "Gold, Nicoll, & Anderson":

"Building Intelligence; Houses; Brookly n, N. Y.," AABN vol. 38, no. 884 (Dec. 3, 1892): p. 7.

– "Third St., n e cor. Seventh Ave., five-st’y brick store and dwell., tin roof; cost, $16,000; owners, Gold, Nicoll & Anderson, Third St. and Third Ave.; architect, L. Anderson, 33 Cornelia St."

Andersons (as both developer, and architect) are also associated with the adjacent row of four brownstones in 3rd Street, also built in 1892.

"Building Intelligence; Houses; Brooklyn, N. Y.," AABN vol. 36, no. 858 (Jun. 4, 1892): p. 3.

– "Third St., n s, 29' e Seventh Ave., 4 three-st’y brick dwells., tin roofs; cost, $6,000 each; owner and builder, Julius Anderson; architect, Lewis Anderson."

One wonders: could "Lewis Anderson," architect of the adjacent row of 4 townhouses in 3rd Street, be the same architect ("L. Anderson") who designed the corner apartment house at 7th Avenue, which was constructed around the same time? It seems highly likely to us.

Prospect Theater in 1914

Concluding our survey of the Brooklyn Public Library's photographs of historic theaters in Park Slope is this great view of the Prospect Theater. The BPL cites 1914 as the date of the photograph:

Prospect Theater, Park Slope, in 1914
photo: Brooklyn Public Library

According to our research, the theater was built in 1914, so this very early image shows the building in its original condition, including domes and cornice, now gone. Also note the handsome street lights progressing up 9th Street.

The theater building extends all the way through the block to 8th Street. The front is now a C-Town supermarket, and the back has been converted to apartments, whose residents enter through the original stage door in 8th Street:

Prospect Theater - 8th Street side

Park Slope's Fifth Avenue Theater

Another historic Park Slope Theater appearing in the Brooklyn Public Library's collection of newly-digitized Brooklyn theater images is the Fifth Avenue Theater. The library's caption indicates that the theater was located at 5th Avenue and 4th Street in Park Slope:

Fifth Avenue Theater, Park Slope, 1911
Image: Brooklyn Public Library

We were completely unfamiliar with this theater, and inquired of the Brooklyn Collection's curator regarding it. She kindly responded that the Fifth Avenue Theater had indeed once stood at the northwest corner of 5th Avenue and 4th Street, as indicated on the "Belcher Hyde atlas" for the period. We were also unfamiliar with the Belcher Hyde atlas, but a quick web search reveals that it is available on the HistoricMapWorks.com website, and the 1916 Belcher Hyde map does in fact show the Fifth Avenue Theater at that corner (circled in green below):

Fifth Avenue Theater (circled)
5th Avenue & 4th Street, Park Slope
1916 Belcher Hyde Atlas (image: HistoricMapWorks.com)

The theater's location is where the J. J. Byrne Playground stands today, near the Old Stone House.

Our library correspondent further states that the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of Sunday, Nov. 2, 1919, announces a performance of "The Country Cousin" at Brooklyn's Fifth Avenue Theater under the heading "At the Play in Brooklyn". Sure enough, here it is below; the play was co-authored by Booth Tarkington and Julian Street and is the story of a "country girl" who falls prey to the "machinations of a group of selfish relatives":

Brooklyn Eagle, Nov. 2, 1919, p. 7

Note that the "Belcher Hyde" maps are listed as "Ullitz" maps in the New York Public Library's digitized collection of atlases of New York City. A close inspection of the title page indicates that Hugo Ullitz was apparently the engineer who put together the maps, while "E. Belcher Hyde" was the publisher:

Plaza Theater

Updated: Commenter LGR is correct about the Bunny Theater. See subsequent post about the nearby Flatbush Pavilion.

The Brooklyn Public Library recently digitized and made available on the web its photographs of Brooklyn theaters. Naturally we reviewed the collection, looking for anything related to Park Slope.

One of the newly-available photographs features an early view of the Plaza Theater, at the corner of Park Place and Flatbush Avenue. The image is from 1914. The mansarded building on the right is the Durfey residence, 158 Park Place, which stood until 1932:

Plaza Theater, 1914
Photo: Brooklyn Public Library

The center building housed an amazing mix of businesses. All of these signs beckon the passerby:

Prospect Lunch
Brush's Dining Room
Oysters
Bedford Rubber Tire Co. - Auto Tires Repaired

The Plaza Theater lingered until quite recently, finally succumbing to the ultimate ignominy of becoming a chain clothing store.

Hundreds of Park Slopers walk this very sidewalk every day, between the Q train entrance just beyond the edge of the photograph, to the left, and the foot of 7th Avenue to the right.

Annals of Espionage: Prospect Theater

According to theater historian Cezar Del Valle, whose fascinating lecture on Brooklyn Motion Picture Theater history we were privileged to hear this evening at the Brooklyn Public Library, Park Slope's Prospect Theater played a bit part in the Cold War, when Alger Hiss was introduced to his Soviet handler in the mezzanine there.

Prospect Theater in 1966
image: Brooklyn Public Library

The only evidence we have found to support this claim appears to have been authored by Mr. Del Valle himself, in a volume of essays entitled The Brooklyn Film, edited by John Manbeck and Robert Singer. Unfortunately the citation lacks a footnote:


Pete Hamill cites the same tale here. Who knows if it is really true, but it is a great story.

UPDATED: Mr. Del Valle provides evidence supporting the account in the comments section. Thank you!

1870s Park Slope: 11th & 12th Streets

Below is an excerpt from the 1880 Bromley Brooklyn Atlas, showing the 7th-to-8th blocks of 11th, 12th, and 13th Streets. North is to the top. The most obvious feature is the Ansonia Clock Factory at the lower left, which of course still stands on 7th Avenue between 12th & 13th Streets.


One notes that the rest of the blocks are largely empty, with a smattering of frame houses (in yellow). The most substantial buildings, besides the Ansonia, are the two rows of brick houses (circled) in pink.

The upper "brick" row on the map, on the south side of 11th Street between 7th & 8th Avenues, can be seen to this day. It is a row of eight simple, two-story-over-basement single-family houses, built to a generous 20' lot width. (The map shows a 9th brick building to the east that was later demolished for the firehouse addition.)

They were apparently built in 1879 by Henry Lansdell, to designs by architect A. V. B. Bush, as documented in the Brooklyn Eagle of May 10, 1879:

514-528 11th Street
A. V. B. Bush, architect - 1879
Henry Lansdell, builder

Brooklyn Eagle, May 10, 1879, p. 4 ("New Buildings")

The map also shows a row of 4 buildings on the north side of 12th Street between 7th & 8th. These too are still with us today:

413-419 12th Street
Ca. 1879 (architect unknown)

They are very similar to the 11th Street houses. At this time we know nothing more about this row in 12th Street beyond the fact that it was apparently standing by 1880.

The Bromley Brooklyn Atlas

The "Bromley" Brooklyn Atlas is a great resource for armchair historians. The Atlas was published every few years from the late 19th into the 20th centuries, and the New York Public Library has many of them online here. (Unfortunately the library's viewing application is cumbersome and rather like trying to view the Grand Canyon while looking through a mailing tube.)

The Bromley Atlas is particularly valuable for building researchers because it shows lot lines and even individual buildings. What's more, the buildings are color-coded by material, with "brick" buildings in pink, and "wood" buildings in yellow.



We've spent the past few weeks reviewing the 1880 Bromley Brooklyn Atlas, and have recorded our findings in our ongoing Documentary History of the Park Slope Historic District Expansion Area (streets, avenues), and also in the photo captions of our comprehensive photo archive. We have already compiled a lot of research gleaned from sources like the Brooklyn Eagle and the American Architect & Building News. But, of course, there were gaps. The Bromley Atlas can at least tell us whether a building was standing by 1880 or not, which helps to fill out the history of Park Slope.

We will review some of our Bromley findings in subsequent posts.