HOW YOUR BROWNSTONE LOST ITS SOUL (1915)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** It started just 20 years after construction began on “Brownstone Brooklyn” – our brownstones and townhouses began to lose their “souls.” Constructed in a time when owners needed three and four stories of room for large families, they had, in those times, existed as the epitome of style and class. Now that so much square footage so close to the city center was becoming too dear for so many residents (who did not have families or who needed much less room), builders were beginning to construct large apartment houses that provided all of the necessities of home within a smaller, but more stylish and efficiently laid out, space. Such competition from newer construction caused the formerly beloved brownstone to lose its lucrative “soul.” THE SOLUTION TO ANTIQUITY In 1915, real estate broker Frank Tyler struck upon an idea that turned out to be, in essence, a paradigm change: Take an old inefficient brownstone and turn it into a stylish and updated apartment house. Tyler noticed that “the average three-story and basement dwelling of old-fashioned style” had “become a drag on the real estate market.” Because of “great changes that have taken place in construction, and the popularity of apartment house living,” brownstone owners had been experiencing a decline in the rental […]
FROM A TUDOR TO A BOX (1926)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** It’s a given fact that we all age. It is not such a given that we all do it well. These impressive Tudor revival apartment houses were going up everywhere throughout the outer reaches of Brooklyn in the mid 1920s. The style was appealing to the Brooklynites of the Roaring ’20s, especially those who did not want the responsibility of the upkeep of a full house, had some money in their pocketbooks, and wanted a style of home that was not only visually appealing, but was also different from the stoic – and by then dated – townhouse. The “ultra modern elevator apartment house” at 1800 Ocean Parkway in Gravesend boasted an “ocean view” and apartments with cedar closets, a vapor heating system, tiled kitchens, spacious foyers, an incinerator, and selections of apartments with three, four, or five “huge” rooms each. They were renting for a princely $60 to $95 a month. No one, at the time, could have expected that these grand apartment houses would have aged so disgracefully. In this case, time has been particularly unkind. While this building may very well be structurally sound today, everything that had once made this building stand out from its neighbors – and contributed to its great “visual appeal” – has either […]
