THE “GOETHE” AT No. 461 GREENE AVE. (1890)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** Starting 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 WAS DONE BY A. KORBER Albert Korber, who went by “A. Korber,” was an architect and designer who settled in Brooklyn at the age of 15. Three years later he “started business on Adams street as a manufacturer of picture frames and moldings. Several years later he founded the decorating business which bears his name, with showrooms on Montague street and a factory for the manufacture of interior woodwork and furniture in South Brooklyn.” By 1889, Korber was 42, a successful decorator throughout the City of Brooklyn. His specialty was making the entrance to a house […]
