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 […]
A TREE FALLS ON PROSPECT PLACE (1901)
******************************************************************************************************************************** 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? ******************************************************************************************************************************** On the night of July 11, 1901, Brooklyn experienced a “Wind Storm” that knocked down a number of trees. One of those fallen trees crossed Prospect Place between 5th and 6th Avenues. One man “barely escaped the fallen tree, with the outer limbs grazing his body.” The storm must not have done much damage, though, as this picture – in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle – was the only reference to it. Just a little over a week earlier, though, trees were falling faster than Brooklyn home prices in 2009, when a wind storm killed two men at Coney Island and caused extensive damage at Parkville (a suburb then just west of Kensington). “Great trees, four and five feet in circumference, were uprooted and hurled across fences and into yards where gardens were the pride of the household,” noted the Eagle. “When the strong winds swept across the open fields between Coney Island avenue and the Ocean Parkway between Franklin avenue and Avenue D,” the Eagle continued, “it carried away with it four frame cottages being erected by the Morris Construction Company.” When the skies had finally cleared, the locals would view the distruction – the suburb was “full of wreckage. Every street was full of fallen trees…” Follow @BrownstoneDetec Share ———————————————————————————————————————– […]
