Below is a small representation of the hundreds of investigations we’ve performed into our clients’ New York City properties. For each, we’ve produced a House History Book or House History Report. Contact us today to discover the history of YOUR house.
********************************************************************************************************************************* 285 Twentieth Street – a 1931 industrial property, located in the Greenwood Heights section of “South Brooklyn,” had been used for the majority of its life as a store, a bakery, and for storage purposes. Originally a 1 1/2-story wood frame property, it had housed a collection of working class Fenian souls for approximately 30 years since its construction in the 1870s – conductors, laborers, drivers, bricklayers, and the like. Owned by a German toy manufacturer in the early 20th century, the 1905 census showed 15 people living in the structure, which was later used for storage purposes. In the late-1920s, however, it burned to the ground and a brick and mortar structure was subsequently built in its place. By the 21st century the property had become an investment project for a “distinguished appellate litigator in Manhattan” who had been “instrumental in the recover from East Germany of 49 works by the Bauhaus expressionist Lyonel Feininger.” The property was next purchased by an NBC White House correspondent who had married the creator of the news show, 60 Minutes. After an extensive renovation in 2014, the house was sold the following year to its present owners.