WATCHING THE (HOUSE) DETECTIVES…
Have you ever wondered about the people who once lived in your house?
Where did they sleep? How did they dress? Were they bankers, doctors, carpenters, engineers…? What were the hopes that encouraged them to go on and the secrets that kept them awake at night?
Well, if you live at 738 Macon Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn – which is a decidedly very low probability – then you are privy to the answers to these questions.
And more.
Brownstone Detectives, an historical investigation team, published 738 Macon Street: The Story of a House, a 170-page full color coffee table book laying out the history of the brownstone house at that address. Published in 2014, it was their first book of many others to follow. Since then, they have gone on to publish more than 50 others for homeowners in Brooklyn and Manhattan. And they plan to expand soon to the remaining boroughs and eventually to the tri-state region.
Their first book – like the many that have come after it – spanned the ownership of the house for many generations, including the ownership of the land that the house was built on back to the time of the original Dutch settlers.
The story is revealed in a manner that seamlessly weaves the individual owners’ stories into one continuous and flowing narrative. Rich, colorful pictures, ancestral documents, newspaper clippings, and architectural records fill the almost 200-page hardbound document.
FALLING INTO HISTORY…
Brian Hartig, the chief Brownstone Detective, fell into this work completely by way of a private passion, a personal desire to understand who the caretakers of his house once were.
“I was going through old city records with a friend when all of these owners’ names started popping up,” Hartig stated. “That’s where I got the bug.”
Hartig, formerly a journalist, started researching these peoples’ lives, as well as the house itself, and slowly the history of his house began to come into focus.
“Most of these people were everyday Brooklynites, but their lives were documented in the newspapers of the time,” Hartig explained. “They’re in city records, census documents, city directories, and countless other resources.”
Armed with what he was able to dig up, Hartig began writing the story of his house, which grew to some 400 pages long.
“Along the way, I had so many friends ask me to research and write a book for their houses, that I eventually realized there was a future here.”
THE POWER OF AUTHENTICITY
“I think one of the reasons that brownstones are so popular right now is that we live in an age when there is so little authenticity in our lives,” Hartig said, “and this desire for authenticity prompts a strong desire to become familiar with the past.”
With the Brownstone Detectives’ book, that authenticity is literally infused within the pages of each chapter; it evokes another time and transports you into that long-ago past.
One example of this is Hartig’s recent discovery of a former resident of his house, Patricia O’Neill, known affectionately as “Aunt Patsy.”
“I was searching for former owners and descendants to interview and, after a month or so of digging, I found Aunt Patsy – who had lived in my house from 1936 to 1951,” Hartig explained. “She was living over in Floral Park in Queens and hadn’t been back to her old house in 62 years, so she was very happy to come back for a tour – which she gave us!”
Hartig’s first conversation with “Aunt Patsy” took place in a telephone call. As the interviewer, Hartig had expected to be asking most of the questions, but she surprised him with her inquisitiveness. After an absence of 62 years, clearly there was a desire on the part of Aunt Patsy to return to her own roots.
One of her questions, in particular, was her first, and it has become a stock story when Hartig talks about the history of his house.
“She asked me if I still had ‘that mirror in parlor’,” Hartig said. “I told her that, of course, we did, and then there was this brief silence. Then she said, ‘I used to dance in front of that mirror when I was a little girl.'” (See the interview with Aunt Patsy that Hartig made with videographer, JR Sheetz.)
Apparently, it turned out, dancing in front of their parlor mirror must have been a certain rite of passage at 738 Macon Street. A few months later Hartig’s sleuthing produced further results as he met another descendant of another former owner of the house who told him a similar story.
“I remember when I heard that for the second time,” Hartig said, “how much it helped me to appreciate that mirror’s history and especially what it must have meant to the former residents of the house.”
A FUTURE FOR THE DETECTIVES
Hartig and his employees perform the in-depth research on each house, write (rewrite and edit) the stories, identify graphics, and then pull everything together for the Detectives’ graphic designer, Tom Beckham, who lays everything out with a delightfully historic look before each book is sent off to be published.
“The concept simply intrigues people,” said Hartig. “When people see the stories in the books of other homes they always ask if it is possible that this kind of history exists in their own homes. I always tell them that we haven’t come across a house yet that has stumped us or proved to be an empty canvass. There is always history there.
“As people flip through the book you see the light in their eyes brighten,” Hartig said, “not just from the beautiful layout or the fascinating stories; they begin to see something they never saw before – that undiscovered stories certainly exist within their own homes, too.”
And this “light” formed the impetus for the creation of Brownstone Detectives. It gave Hartig the opportunity to turn this passion into reality.
“I had never thought that my interest in the history of my house would turn into a business,” Hartig said. “Now I am planning clients’ House History Books on my calendar into next year.”
And there is likely no end in sight to the work that these Detectives will have. They expanded their services last year to Manhattan, and plan to start working in the other three boroughs soon.
“We’ve had so many requests for our services in the other boroughs that we had to plan our expansion to them,” Hartig said. “We will eventually be writing house histories for homeowners in New Jersey and the region and then potentially partnering with others house detectives around the country.”
And now there’s even talk of a television show.
“The capacity to research the histories of houses is a pretty universal one,” Hartig added. “When people hear about it, they literally say, ‘I would watch that show!'” Hartig added. “So, we’re currently working on a project.
“But right now at this very moment we’re really concentrating on just saving history – one house at a time. And that’s all we have time for.”
To commission a Brownstone Detectives House History Book, Brownstone Detectives can be reached through their website, their email, info@BrownstoneDetectives.com, and by telephone, 718-484-7607.
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The story you have just read was composed from extensive historical research conducted by The Brownstone Detectives. We perform in-depth investigations on the historic homes of our clients, and produce for them their very own House History Books. Our hardbound books include an illustrated and colorful narrative timeline that will bring the history of any house to life. Contact us today to begin discovering the history of your home.
