THE SKY BLUE CEILINGS OF 121 HENRY ST (1889)
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. Do you know the history of YOUR house? ******************************************************************************************************************************** In the late 1880s, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle started a series of articles which described – in great length and detail – the interiors of individual newly-built or renovated houses. These houses were usually brownstones belonging to those affluent or upper-middle-class members of society. Not only did such articles describing the interiors of neighbors’ homes sell newspapers, but the articles also served as advertising directed at those in the market for a townhouse to have a home of their own. These advertisement-articles were placed, likely at the expense of the designers responsible for the “interior decorations” being described, as each piece often ended with what readers wanted to know. “Who did the work?” WORK IS BY JOHANSMEYER & KOENKE, NEW YORK The “three story brown stone residence,” at “121 Henry street, near Clark,” was owned by Henry L. Meyer, who – at the time – was a hotel keeper, but who would rise to the position of treasurer of the Consumers Brewing Company. Meyer lived in the house with his wife and two daughters. In 1889, Meyer, who had recently acquired the (what until then had been used as a) rooming house, embarked upon a whole-house renovation, employing the New York City designers Johansmeyer & Koenke. Theodore C. Johanesmeyer and Bernhard […]
