SAVE BEDFORD STUYVESANT

Free Talk on Bedford Stuyvesant Architecture Monday, November 7, 2011

2011-11-06T06:11:00.000-08:00

Monday, November 7, 6:00pm
Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn

Presenters: Suzanne Spellen, Brownstoner.com columnists and Morgan Munsey, from http://savebedfordstuyvesant.blogspot.com/

The Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood contains an astonishing number of architecturally, historically and culturally significant structures, including rowhouses, mansions, religious buildings, and schools dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Although there are currently two designated historic districts in the area, the vast majority of Bedford Stuyvesant’s architectural splendor is unprotected. The recently-formed Bedford Stuyvesant Society for Historic Preservation, a coalition of concerned neighborhood block associations, and the landmarks committee of Brooklyn Community Board 3 are working to correct that and will be on hand to answer questions about their campaign.

Impressionism in Bedford Stuyvesant

2011-08-10T14:32:00.000-07:00

Tompkins Square Park 1887

Herbert Von King Park originally called Tompkins Square Spark is one of the oldest parks in Brooklyn. The Square dates back to the 1850's maybe even earlier. In the 1850s this area was called East Brooklyn but today if you look at Google maps the neighborhood is called Tompkins Park North a sub neighborhood of Bedford Stuyvesant.

Vaux & Olmstead 1871 Plan

Tompkins Park was redesigned in 1871 by the famous Vaux & Olmstead. If you look at there map it depicts the park as a whole and includes pathways, individual trees, and fountains. The streets and avenues surrounding the park are also noted. The layout of Von King Park shown here reflects Vaux and Olmstead’s 1871 design. Like their most famous works, Central Park and Prospect Park, Vaux and Olmstead were meticulous in their design of the park, with every tree, pond, and bench planned. Olmstead wrote: “Every foot of the parks surface, every tree and bush, as well as every arch, roadway, and walk and been placed where it is for a purpose.” Today, because of Vaux and Olmstead’s efforts, the citizens of Bedford-Stuyvesant have the privilege of enjoying a fine urban public recreation area in New York City.
William Merritt Chase "Self Portrait"

By the 1880's the new Tompkins Square Park was maturing and Bedford resident and artist William Merritt Chase painted two works in the park. These two paintings called In Tompkins Park which is housed at the Art Institute of Chicago and Tompkins Park which is at the Colby College Museum of Art, in Maine . The Chase paintings are probably the first color images of Bedford Stuyvesant. William Merritt Chase is responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons The New School for Design.
Tompkins Park 1887

Chase was born in Ninevah, Indiana in 1849. He studied in Indianapolis, then (in 1869) went to New York and studied briefly at the National Academy of Design. In 1872, after working for two years as a still life painter in St. Louis, several leading citizens and art patrons sponsored a five year trip to Munich where he was greatly influenced by the style of the Munich Artists. Upon his return to New York in 1878 he opened his Tenth Street Studio where he developed a style more vibrant and brightly colored, finding in Impressionism a means of conveying the emotion in both landscapes and city scenes. He did most of his later work in and around New York City, producing both urban and pastoral studies, which were realistically portrayed, yet infused with nuances of light, color, and brushwork, and conveyed the subjectivity of his interpretations. Such were the artistic styles and intentions of Chase; he considered himself a realist, but felt that Impressionistic techniques provided a means of expressing emotions - which are a part of the artists' reality.
Chase was a member of the Ten (Ten American Painters), but also devoted much of his time to teaching, first at his New York studio, than at the Students League. He also taught at his summer home in Shinnecock, Long Island, at the Chase School (which he founded), and later at the New York School of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. His students included Marsden Hartley, Charles Demuth , Edward Hopper , Georgia O'Keeffe , and Charles Sheeler. His achievements as an artist and teacher reflect the impact of the Impressionist movement in American culture; Chase not only pursued artistic innovation, but also brought progress to academic institutions of art. He died in New York in 1916.

William Merritt Chase 1900

14 - 22 Arlington Place

2011-07-07T13:25:00.000-07:00

Arlington Place west side mid 1880s

Arlington Place west side 2011 buildings by Amzi Hill

Arlington Place is one of the most picturesque blocks in all of New York City. It was only fitting that Spike Lee would shoot his 1994 movie Crooklyn here. Charles Lockwood author of Bricks and Brownstones once wrote to me and said that "Arlington Place is my favorite block in Bedford Stuyvesant." I do not have a favorite block in Bedford Stuyvesant but Arlington Place would be in my top ten most interesting. The residential building of Arlington Place are designed by only three architects, Isaac D. Reynolds, George Chappell and Amzi Hill. Between 1884 and 1886 Amzi Hill designed the entire west side of Arlington Place between Macon Street and Halsey Street. In 1883 the Brooklyn bridge was up and the many builders came to the then Bedford Section to put up the many commercial and residential buildings that we still see today.
Arlington Place west side 1974
Image: Danny Lyon / National Archives and Records Administration

I want to focus on 14 - 22 Arlington designed by Amzi Hill the modern architect of his day. This group of buildings are in the Queen Ann Style which is "free Renaissance" (non-Gothic Revival) details rather than of a specific formulaic style in its own right. Before these wonderful Queen Anne Brownstones where built once stood the large mansion of Rem Leffert. You can read more about the Lefferts here. Numbers 14 -22 Arlington Place are truly unique homes that are in the ABABA configuration and I think Jenny Lind face is in the building. The pressed metal work along the upper floors are truly amazing and makes a interesting skyline on this side of the block. There are three other groups similar to these Arlington houses in Bedford Stuyvesant and two I know are by different architects. I really hope that the LPC works fast in protecting these 125 year old structures. As you can see from the picture from the 1880s not much has changed on this block.

Arlington Place west side

We will be giving a walking tour this weekend of Bedford Corners and a small portion of Stuyvesant Heights. You can read more about that here.

Arlington Place looking towards Halsey 2010

1900 Census Arlington Place

259 Jefferson Avenue

2011-06-07T16:11:00.000-07:00

259 Jefferson Avenue

In 1886 architect John G. Prague designed a beautiful Queen Anne/ Romanesque Revival home at 259 Jefferson Avenue in the then Bedford Section of Brooklyn. I will be talking about the great architectural contribution of J. G. Prague in future post but I want to focus on the first owners of 259 Jefferson. This block of Jefferson Avenue is known for Mr. Frank Woolworth but there was another big resident living a few houses down.

William Joseph Howard
1857 – 1919

Many people today do not know who William Joseph and Bridget Theresa McGrover Howard are but this couple moved into there beautiful Jefferson home in 1886 along with young daughters Loretta and Gertrude. The Howard's would go on to have three more children while living at 259 Jefferson, Elizabeth, William and Genevieve. William Howard is the founder and builder of Howard Beach in Queens, NY.

Bridget Theresa McGrover
1853 - 1937
William J. Howard, a Brooklyn glove manufacturer who operated a 150 acre goat farm on meadow land near Aqueduct Racetrack as a source of skin for kids' gloves. In 1897, he bought more land and filled it in and the following year, built 18 cottages and opened a hotel near the water, which he operated until it was destroyed by fire in October 1907. He gradually bought more land and formed the Howard Estates Development Company in 1909. He dredged and filled the land until he was able to accumulate 500 acres by 1914. He laid out several streets, water mains and gas mains, and built 35 houses. William Howard died in 1919 at his Jefferson Ave home.

Free Walking Tour of Bedford Corners

2011-05-24T14:52:00.000-07:00

Residents of Bedford Stuyvesant please come out to the Morris, Hill and Sparrow first walking tour of 2011.

The Alhambra

2011-05-24T14:08:00.000-07:00

The Alhambra in 2010 photo by Jim.henderson

The Alhambra in 1890 Architect Montrose W. Morris

One of the most magnificent apartment houses in New York City is The Alhambra. The name Alhambra means literally "the red one" which comes from Morrish Spain. In Spain Alhambra is a palace and fortress complex constructed during the mid 14th century by the Moorish rulers of the Emirate of Granada in Al-Andalus, occupying the top of the hill of the Assabica on the southeastern border of the city of Granada in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia. In the old Bedford section of Brooklyn The Alhambra is a grand apartment erected in 1889 by Louis F. Seitz. It faces Nostrand avenue, and has a frontage of two hundred feet and a depth of seventy feet which is on Macon and Halsey Street. Six large octagon towers ornament the edifice; two of them being in the center and one at each of the four corners. According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle the originally ground floor center of the building had a lofty stone arch that welcomed you as you entered a vista of an open court with fountains, gardens, croquet and tennis grounds. Similar arches on Macon and Halsey Street remain today. One of the most noticeable features of the front is a center pavilion of arcade balconies which use to give views of the long gone gardens.

The architect and Bedford resident was twenty-eight year old Montrose Morris who was a big fan of the Romanesque style at the time. Morris brought this style to Bedford Stuyvesant in 1885 with his own house on Hancock Street. Morris use elaborately delicate red Terra-cotta carvings, rock-face Stone and light-colored brick, and is beautified by chimneys, lofty gables, recessed balconies, arched windows and tiled covered roofs. The original building housed 30 families of upper and upper middle class status.

1890's Montrose W. Morris apartment interior

Individually Landmarked in 1986 the once vacant building of the 1980's has come almost full circle. The beautiful jewel fell into complete disrepair including a great fire in 1994. Thanks to developer and preservationist Tom Anderson of Anderson Associates the building was repaired and restored in the late 1990's/2000.

Bedford Stuyvesant Historic Districts Map

2011-01-29T09:06:00.000-08:00

Stuyvesant Heights Houses done by architect Axel Hedman (1861-1943) Born in Sweden, emigrated to USA in 1880, lived and worked in Brooklyn rest of his life.

Click on this here to see the map

Summer walking tour 2010

2011-01-28T17:38:00.000-08:00

Morris Hill and Sparrow walking tour of Bedford Stuyvesant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHHFJn79sTs

Victorian Bedford Corners, The Kelly Mansion early 1890s

2011-01-28T17:26:00.000-08:00

Montrose W. Morris designed John C. Kelly House on Hancock Street. Homes like this is why the Brooklyn Daily Eagle called this the choice Bedford Section of Brooklyn.

595-605 Jefferson Avenue Stuyvesant North

2011-01-28T16:42:00.000-08:00

In 1904 Willfur Burr had architect Benjamin Driesler design these handsome six two story and basement limestone on Jefferson Ave between Lewis and Stuyvesant. Benjamin Driesler was a Bavarian, German born architect that came to the US in 1881. According to the Prospect Heights designation report his office was located at Avenue C and Flatbush Avenue later moving to Avenue F. Driesler was marketing his designs for "modest, modern, model homes" to individuals and professional builders. Driesler designed 400 homes in New York in fifteen months. Many of homes are found in Kensington, Ditmas Park and Fiske Terrace-Midwood Park to name a few. These homes in what we are calling the Stuyvesant Heights North section which is not landmarked and protected.

Most Worshipful Enoch Grand Lodge/originally Reformed Episcopal Church of the Reconciliation

2011-01-12T08:59:00.000-08:00

At the corner SE corner of Nostrand Avenue and Jefferson Avenue Heins & LaFarge's Reformed Episcopal Church of the Reconciliation (1890), now the Most Worshipful Enoch Grand Lodge of the Order of Masons.

The old Reformed church place with its octagonal corner tower rising above in terra-cotta. Once a place that people like Frank Woolworth walked past everyday is now a Masonic temple. This building is not protected but is in the Proposed Bedford Corners Section of Bedford Stuyvesant.
Christopher Grant LaFarge, eminent American architect, who, with his partner, the late George L. Hines, served as architects. “Architects of the NYC Subway, Hines and LaFarge: formed their partnership in 1886. In 1899, Heins was appointed New York State architect by Governor Theodore Roosevelt and he designed state buildings until his death in 1907.
According to Wikipedia the New York-based architectural firm of Heins & LaFarge, composed of Philadelphia-born architect George Lewis Heins (1860–1907) and Christopher Grant LaFarge (1862–1938) - the eldest son of the artist John LaFarge, famous especially for his stained glass panels - were responsible most notably for the original Romanesque-Byzantine east end and crossing of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York, and for the original Astor Court buildings of the Bronx Zoo, which formed a complete ensemble reflecting the esthetic of the City Beautiful movement. Heins & Lafarge provided the architecture and details for the Interborough Rapid Transit, the first subway system of New York.

The two young men met at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and trained together in the Boston offices of Henry Hobson Richardson. In 1886, they opened their office. Heins was the man on the site; LaFarge was the principal designer.
In 1888, a design competition for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the most prominent project of its kind in the US, was entered by 68 architectural firms, and won in 1891 by Heins & LaFarge, with an eclectic design, based on Romanesque forms but with many Byzantine and Gothic elements, dominated by a massive spired tower over the crossing. The cornerstone was laid December 27, 1892, but unexpectedly, massive excavation was required before bedrock was hit. Heins & LaFarge completed the east end and the crossing, temporarily roofed by Rafael Guastavino with a tiled dome (still standing). The Chapel of St. Columba was consecrated in 1911, but the death of Heins impelled the Cathedral trustees to hire a new architect Ralph Adams Cram, whose nave and west front would be continued in French Gothic style.
The other prime commission in New York City was the Fourth Presbyterian Church (1893–94), now Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, at West End Avenue and West 91st Street on the Upper West Side, a tribute to their joint master. The rusticated masonry façade with a sparing use of Venetian Gothic and Richardsonian Romanesque details and the square corner bell tower with a crenellated parapet embellished with gargoyle gutter-spouts reveal Richardson's training. Fine stained glass may be from Tiffany studios, or may be by John LaFarge, the architect's father, which would make them even rarer.

An exercise in a somewhat subdued Richardsonian manner, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant district of Brooklyn, is Heins & LaFarge's Reformed Episcopal Church of the Reconciliation (1890), now the Most Worshipful Enoch Grand Lodge of the Order of Masons. It too has a corner tower that is octagonal and embedded in the volume of the church in a most Richardsonian manner, though the materials used are tame, brick, now painted, rather than Richardsonian rustication.
In Washington DC, the church, now Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, was begun in 1893, to designs of LaFarge. It is a brick structure of an abbreviated Latin cross floorplan with such a prominent crossing dome, raised on an octagonal drum lit by ranges of arch-headed windows, that has something of the aspect of a centrally-planned Greek cross. The interior is rich with frescoes and mosaics and inlaid marble floors in full American Renaissance manner. The first mass was celebrated on June 2, 1895, and the completed church was dedicated in 1913.
In 1899, Heins was appointed New York State architect by Governor Theodore Roosevelt, and he designed interiors for the first buildings at the State University of New York, Albany: the Auditorium and the Science and Administration Buildings.
LaFarge, a fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) often served on advisory committees for the schools of architecture at Columbia University, M.I.T. and Princeton University, and also as trustee and secretary for the American Academy in Rome.
Roosevelt was also a prime mover behind the creation of the New York Zoological Society, for whom the partners designed the original nucleus of buildings (1899–1910, now called the Astor Court) as a series of pavilions symmetrically grouped round the large sea lion pool, all in a sturdy brick and limestone Roman Ionic and Doric, with the heads of elephants and rhinos, lions and zebras projecting festively from panels and friezes. The central Administration Building (1910), offering an arched passageway to the zoo's outdoor spaces, has complicated domed spaces formed of Guastavino tile.
University commissions were also in their oeuvre. At Yale, their rusticated Richardsonian Romanesque design for a chapter building of St. Anthony Hall, also known as the Delta Psi fraternity, stood from 1894 to 1913. Their ornamental iron gates were re-used in the 1913 successor by Charles C. Haight. In 1899 Heins & LaFarge built the Houghton Memorial Chapel at Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, Richardsonian in its recessed entrance, dominating central tower and interpenetrating Romanesque massing. Also in 1899, at the United States Military Academy, West Point, they erected the Roman Catholic chapel of the Most Holy Trinity, also hearkening back to their Richardson apprenticeship with an essay in rusticated granite, with a battlemented corner tower and a heavy arcaded porch. It was enlarged in 1959.
In 1903 Heins & LaFarge were commissioned to design the Municipal Building for Washington DC.
In 1904 they were commissioned to design the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St James in Seattle by Bishop Edward J. O’Dea, whose diocese had purchased property on Seattle’s First Hill and demanded a cathedral “that must surpass anything in the West.” The Italian quattrocento design features tall, paired campanili at the west end and a central dome. The firm sent two young architects, W. Marbury Somervell and Joseph S. Coté, to oversee construction on the site, who went on to establish a thriving architectural practice in Seattle. The cornerstone ceremony took place on November 12, 1905. The cathedral was completed in 1907 and solemnly dedicated on December 22, 1907. Unhappily, under the weight of two feet of wet snow the dome collapsed on the afternoon of February 2, 1916, dropping 400 tons of masonry eighty feet into the empty cathedral, shattering every window and leaving a gaping hole that exposed it to the elements. The cathedral reopened on March 18, 1917, but with a flat roof over the crossing. The central repositioning of the altar in response to reforms of the Second Vatican Council has finally brought it into the position envisaged by the architects.
Beginning in 1901, Heins & LaFarge designed subway stations and buildings for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company under the direction of the chief engineer, William Barclay Parsons.[4] When the Interborough Rapid Transit opened on October 27, 1904, its showpiece station was City Hall, designed by Heins & LaFarge using uninterrupted sweeping Guastavino-tiled arches and vaults which incorporated shaped skylights and mosaics and polychrome terracotta panels. Throughout the original stations the polychrome faience panels (from Grueby Faience Company, Boston, and Atlantic Terra Cotta Company of Staten Island and New Jersey) were designed by the firm. The partners' control house for the IRT is at Bowling Green at the corner of Battery Park in the Dutch Renaissance manner reminiscent of New Amsterdam. A few Heins & Lafarge subway entrances survive, notably at 72nd Street. Lafarge was replaced by Squire J. Vickers as architect in charge in 1908.

Map of the Stuyvesant Heights Expanded District. Calendared

2011-01-05T11:31:00.000-08:00

HDC Annouces the Six To Celebrate!

2011-01-05T07:49:00.000-08:00

Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn

The Historic District Council are pleased to announce the first annual Six to Celebrate, a list of historic New York City neighborhoods that merit preservation attention. This is New York’s only citywide list of preservation priorities.

The Six were chosen from applications submitted by neighborhood groups around the city on the basis of the architectural and historic merit of the area; the level of threat to the neighborhood; strength and willingness of the local advocates, and where HDC’s citywide preservation perspective and assistance could be the most meaningful. Throughout 2011, HDC will work with these neighborhood partners to set and reach preservation goals through strategic plan

The Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood contains an astonishing number of architecturally, historically and culturally significant structures, including rowhouses, mansions, religious buildings, and schools dating from the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Although there are currently two designated historic districts in the area, the vast majority of Bedford Stuyvesant’s architectural splendor is unprotected. The recently-formed Bedford Stuyvesant Society for Historic Preservation, a coalition of concerned neighborhood block associations, and the landmarks committee of Brooklyn Community Board 3 are working to correct that.

Other areas in New York City are:

The Bowery, Manhattan , Gowanus, Brooklyn, Inwood, Manhattan, Jackson Heights, Queens and Mount Morris Park, Manhattan

Here comes the judge.... August Van Wyck

2010-12-19T14:36:00.000-08:00

172 Hancock Street

Augustus Van Wyck (October 14, 1850 – June 8, 1922)

One of the neighborhood most famous residents in 1890s was Augustus Van Wyck of 172 Hancock Street of the Bedford Section of Bedford Stuyvesant Brooklyn. 172 Hancock is on the architectural pleasing block between Nostrand and Marcy Avenue. Augustus Van Wyck in 1881 was the third man to build a home on this block. The architect for this neo-grec house was the Brooklyn architect Marshall J. Morrill. Morrill designed many other fine homes on Hancock street between Bedford and Nostrand with architect Robert Dixion. Morrill practiced architecture from the 1860s until the early 1900s and was a popular brownstone architect. Morrill's work can be found in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Clinton Hill, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Ft. Greene and Cobble Hill just to name a few.

Augustus Van Wyck

Son of William Van Wyck, Augustus was born October 14, 1850. His brother was Mayor Robert A. Van Wyck and his brother-in-law was Confederate General Robert Hoke. Roots of the Van Wyck family date back to early Dutch immigration to North America. One of the first descendants of the family, Cornelius Barents Van Wyck came from the town of Wyck, Holland in 1650.

Augustus Van Wyck's education led him to Phillips Exeter Academy and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to study the practice of law. Moving to Richmond, Virginia where he met and married Leila and practiced law there for a brief period. In 1871 Van Wyck moved to Brooklyn, New York living first on 387 Gates Ave, near Nostrand.

He was an active member of the Democratic party in Brooklyn. In 1882 Van Wyck was elected as President of the County General Committee. He also was active in state, county and national conventions of the Democratic party.

In 1884, Augustus Van Wyck was elected to the Superior Court in Brooklyn until transferred to the Supreme Court where he remained until 1896.

Much to Van Wyck's surprise, he was nominated by his fellow Democrats to oppose the Republican, Theodore Roosevelt, in the race for Governor of New York in 1898. Although Van Wyck was seen as a strong candidate, Roosevelt's popularity in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War led him to win the election by 17,786 votes. Van Wyck received 643,921 votes, while Roosevelt received 661,715 votes.[1]

After the election Van Wyck resumed his law practice on 149 Broadway, New York.

1900 Census

New York Times article from 1898: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F10F10FA3F5C11738DDDA00894D8415B8885F0D3

G. A. Schellenger Architect

2010-08-06T17:38:00.000-07:00

Hancock Street G. A. Schellenger homes 1883-1885

Jefferson Ave G. A. Schellenger homes built 1884-87

The future Bedford Historic District had many famous architects (or Starchitects) from the Victorian era who designed most of the buildings. One such architect was Gilbert A. Schellenger. Schellenger was born to Rueben Riggs Schellenger and Esther Perry on December 21, 1845, in the town of Stockholm, NY. Schellenger grew up in a very large family. His father was a mechanic/carpenter which was had a common tradition producing architect sons. Schellenger studied at the prestigious and world famous L’Ecole des Beaux Artes in Paris but dropped out to accept the commission for a new city hall and opera house in Ogdensburg County.Schellenger along with his first wife Jennie came to New

G. A. Schellenger house around 1900

York City in 1883 and right away he started working on various projects. His earlest New York townhouses are here in Bedford Stuyvesant but on the Bedford side. At that time Bedford as it was called then was a rather choice neighborhood with upper middle class families dominating its blocks. Schellenger Bedford buildings are on Hancock Street and Jefferson Avenue and where done for builder George Stone. Stone lived in a Schellenger designed house at 301 Jefferson in the proposed historic district was the owner and builder of these lots.

Jefferson Ave G. A. Schellenger homes built in the early 1890's

G. A. Schellenger use the Queen Anne and Roman Brick Renaissance Revival style for most of his homes on Jefferson Avenue and Hancock Street. His brownstone stoops and wood cathedral doors are surrounded by crowned pediments. Schellenger likes to play with his skyline making all of his roofs have a language of there own. Many of the house have three sided bay windows or rather large arched picture windows that are typical of the Queen Anne style. Many of the first owners of these house were Physicians, Stock Brokers, Insurance men, Lawyers and Merchants.

Jefferson Ave in 1954

These homes where built for the upper middle class that wanted to live in the choice Bedford Section following 1883 Brooklyn Bridge opening. By 1885 Schellenger had designed 10 homes on Hancock Street as well as Jefferson Avenue and would later design a few more for George Stone. Schellenger houses built in 1887 Jefferson Ave.

G. A. Schellenger would go on and turn his attention to Manhattan clients, I am sure they paid very well compared to the Brooklyn developers. G. A. Schellenger would design many of stately homes on the Upper West (and East) Side of Manhattan and Harlem. If you read the LPC reports for Manhattan his name is everywhere making him a very busy man during the 1890's. Schellenger designed many fine apartments and dorms (for Columbia University) that still stand today. At 128 Broadway he completed plans for the Salvation Army National Headquarters which was noted in the New York Times. G. A. Schellenger also did a few buildings in Crown Heights and Prospect Heights later in the 1880s and 1890s. Schellenger interior built 1884

In my research I do not find him designing any buildings in the Stuyvesant Heights section of the neighborhood.
Gilbert Alphonso Schellenger died on November 22, 1921 while visiting his sister Alta Schellenger Taylor in Massachusetts. I am truly thankful that this NYC super architect of the 1890's designed lovely homes here in Bedford section of Bedford Stuyvesant in the 1880's. His houses are just as beautiful as other architect rivals such as John Prague, George Chappell and Montrose Morris. Some residents are starting to restore these grand house to there original grandeur. If you walk down or Hancock Street between Nostrand and Marcy or Jefferson between Marcy and Tompkins you see all his great works looking as stately as the day erected. Most if not all of G. A. Schellenger buildings are landmarked in Manhattan, Crown Heights and Prospect Heights. His earliest homes in New York City are in Bedford Stuyvesant and not protected. I really hope this changes very soon.

1900 census for Jefferson and Hancock.

Lena Horne The Queen of Bedford Stuyvesant.

2010-05-10T06:53:00.000-07:00

Helena Mary Calhoun Horne (born June 30, 1917), is a singer and actor of African-American, Caucasian, and Native-American descent. She has recorded and performed extensively, independently and with other jazz notables, including Artie Shaw, Teddy Wilson, Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington, and Charlie Barnett. She lived in New York City and no longer makes public appearances. Lena Horne was born in Bedford-Stuyvesant really in the non landmarked sections Stuyvesant Heights, Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in an upper middle class black community at 189 Chauncey and 519 Macon Street. She lived with Her father, Edwin "Teddy" Horne, who worked in the gambling trade, left the family when she was three. Her mother, Edna Scottron, was the daughter of inventor Samuel R. Scottron; she was an actress with an African American theater troupe and traveled extensively. Horne was mainly raised by her grandparents, Cora Calhoun and Edwin Horne. Her uncle, Frank S. Horne, was an adviser to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She is a reported descendant of the John C. Calhoun family. Lena Horne was educated at The Girls High School in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

Lena Horne made her film debut starring as "the Bronze Venus" in The Duke is Tops, a 1938 musical. After a false start headlining a 1938 musical race movie called The Duke is Tops, Horne became the first African American performer to sign a long-term contract with a major Hollywood studio, namely Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She made her debut with MGM in 1942's Panama Hattie and became famous in 1943 for her rendition of "Stormy Weather" in the movie of the same name (which she made while on loan to 20th Century Fox from MGM).She appeared in a number of MGM musicals, most notably Cabin in the Sky (also 1943), but was never featured in a leading role due to her race and the fact that films featuring her had to be reedited for showing in southern states where theaters could not show films with African American performers. As a result, most of Horne's film appearances were stand-alone sequences that had no bearing on the rest of the film, so editing caused no disruption to the storyline; a notable exception was the all-black musical Cabin in the Sky, though even then one of her numbers had to be cut because it was considered too suggestive by the censors. In Ziegfeld Follies (1946) she performs "Love" by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane.She was originally considered for the role of Julie LaVerne in MGM's 1951 version of Show Boat (having already played the role when a segment of Show Boat was performed in Till the Clouds Roll By) but Ava Gardner was given the role instead (the production code office had banned interracial relationships in films). In the documentary That's Entertainment! III Horne stated that MGM executives required Gardner to practice her singing using recordings of Horne performing the songs, which offended both actresses (ultimately, Gardner ended up having her singing voice overdubbed by another actress for the theatrical release, though her own voice was heard on the soundtrack album).By the mid-1950s, Horne was disenchanted with Hollywood and increasingly focused on her nightclub career. She only made two major appearances in MGM films during the decade, 1950's Duchess of Idaho (which was also Eleanor Powell's film swan song), and the 1956 musical Meet Me in Las Vegas. She was blacklisted during the 1950s for her political views.[4] She returned to the screen three more times, playing chanteuse Claire Quintana in the 1969 film Death of a Gunfighter, Glinda in The Wiz (1978), and co-hosting the 1994 MGM retrospective That's Entertainment! III, in which she was candid about her treatment by the studio. In her later years, Horne also made occasional television appearances - generally as herself - on such programs as The Muppet Show (where she sang with Kermit the Frog) and Sanford and Son in the 1970s, as well as a 1985 performance on The Cosby Show and a 1993 appearance on A Different World.She appeared in Broadway musicals several times and in 1958 was nominated for the Tony Award for "Best Actress in a Musical" (for her part in the "Calypso" musical Jamaica) In 1981 she received a Special Tony Award for her one-woman show, Lena Horne: "The Lady and Her Music". Despite the show's considerable success (Horne still holds the record for the longest-running solo performance in Broadway history), she was not inclined to capitalize on the renewed interest in her career by undertaking many new musical projects. A proposed 1983 joint recording project between Horne and Frank Sinatra (to be produced by Quincy Jones) was ultimately abandoned, and her sole studio recording of the decade was 1988's The Men In My Life, featuring duets with Sammy Davis, Jr. and Joe Williams. In 1989, she received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.The 1990s found Horne considerably more active in the recording studio - all the more remarkable considering she was approaching her 80th year. Following her 1993 performance at a tribute to the musical legacy of her good friend Billy Strayhorn (Duke Ellington's) longtime pianist and arranger), she decided to record an album largely comprised of Strayhorn's and Ellington's songs the following year, We'll Be Together Again. To coincide with the release of the album, Horne made what would be her final concert performances at New York's Supper Club and Carnegie Hall. That same year, Horne also lent her vocals to a recording of "Embraceable You" on Sinatra's "Duets II" album. Though the album was largely derided by critics, the Sinatra-Horne pairing was generally regarded as its highlight. In 1995, a "live" album capturing her Supper Club performance was released (subsequently winning a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album). In 1998, at the age of 81, Horne released another studio album, entitled Being Myself. Thereafter, Horne essentially retired from performing and largely retreated from public view, though she did return to the recording studio in 2000 to contribute vocal tracks on Simon Rattle's Classic Ellington album.

.Horne also is noteworthy for her contributions to the Civil Rights movement. In the 1940s, she sang at Cafe Society and worked with Paul Robeson, a singer who also combated American racial discrimination. During World War II, when entertaining the troops at her own expense, she refused performing "for segregated audiences or to groups in which German POWs were seated in front of African American servicemen" , according to her Kennedy Center biography. She became better known during the Civil Rights movement, participating in the March on Washington and speaking and performing in behalf of the NAACP and the National Council for Negro Women. She also worked with Eleanor Roosevelt to pass anti-lynching laws. In 2003, ABC announced that Janet Jackson would star as Horne in a television biopic (after it was rumored for years that Whitney Houston would take the job). In the weeks following Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" debacle during the 2004 Super Bowl, however, Variety reported that Horne demanded Jackson be dropped from the project. "ABC executives resisted Horne’s demand," according to the Associated Press report, "but Jackson representatives told the trade newspaper that she left willingly after Horne and her daughter, Gail Lumet Buckley, asked that she not take part." Oprah Winfrey stated to Alicia Keys during a 2005 interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show that she might possibly consider producing the biopic herself, casting Keyes as Horne.In January 2005, Blue Note Records, her label for more than a decade, announced that "the finishing touches have been put on a collection of rare and unreleased recordings by the legendary Horne made during her time on Blue Note. Remixed by her longtime producer Rodney Jones, the recordings featured Horne in remarkably secure voice for a woman of her years, and include versions of such signature songs as 'Something To Live For', 'Chelsea Bridge' and 'Stormy Weather'." The album, originally titled Soul but renamed Seasons of a Life, was released on January 24, 2006.Horne married Louis Jordan Jones in January 1937 and lived in Pittsburgh. In December 1937 they had a daughter, Gail, and a son, Edwin (February 1940 - 1970), who died of kidney disease. Horne and Jones separated in 1940 and divorced in 1944.
Horne's second marriage was to Lennie Hayton, a Jewish American and one of the premier musical conductors and arrangers at MGM, in December 1947. They separated in the early 1960s, but never divorced; he died in 1971. In her as-told-to autobiography Lena by Richard Schickel, Horne recounts the enormous pressures she and her husband faced as an interracial married couple. She later admitted in a 1980 Ebony interview she had married Hayton to advance her career and cross the "color-line" in show business.
Screenwriter Jenny Lumet, known for her award-winning screenplay Rachel Getting Married, is Horne's granddaughter, the daughter of filmmaker Sidney Lumet and Horne's daughter Gail.
Horne died on May 9, 2010, at the age of 92, at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.

I am back! Lets look at MacDonough St

2010-05-06T15:13:00.000-07:00

MacDonough Street between Tompkins and Stuyvesant has been landmarked since 1971. One of the most famous and largest house on MacDonough is number 87.

87 MacDonough is a free standing brick mansion was built in 1863 for William A Parker a hops and malt merchant. The building has been occupied since 1945 by The United Order of Tents, one of the oldest lodges for African-American women in the country. The lodge was founded in Norfolk, Virginia by two slave women, Annetta M. Lane and Harriet R. Taylor; and two abolitionists, Joliffe Union and Joshua R. Giddings as a part of the underground railway, assisting slaves to escape to the north. After the Civil War it was formally organized and publicly recognized as a lodge for African American women and dedicated to charity. The most famous resident of 87 MacDonough was James McMahon. Who was James McMahon? James McMahon founder and first president of the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank was born in Franklin County, NY in 1831 and in his infancy was taken by his parents to Rochester. At seventeen years of age he came to New York, and remained for a year in the book trade, with Cooley, Keys and Hill. He then went to New Haven where he associated himself with an elder brother, who owned a carriage manufacturer. His Brother leaving the carriage business in 1849 made McMahon return to Rochester where he reentered the book business as a clerk, and shortly afterwards began in the same trade on his own account. At the age of twenty five he cross the country and again joined his brother, who was engaged in mercantile pursuits in San Francisco. McMahon returned to Rochester and in 1865, he accepted a position of deputy grain measure in New York, at the same time making home in Brooklyn. His new business associations resulted in his establishing, in conjunction with James T. Easton, of Brooklyn an organization to protect the interests of grain carriers, under the title of the "Protective Grain Association," from which sprang the great transportation business of Easton, McMahon & Co. When the federal government, in the days of the Civil War made a requisition on the tonnage of the Camden and Amboy Railroad Co., which had acquired a monopoly of the growing traffic between New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, urged him to resume his interest in its affairs. He ultimately yielded to their solicitations, and, in 1881, recognized the business, making it a stock company, known as the Eston & McMahon Transportation Company, of which he became president. Within five years , Mr. McMahon again retired from the business and gave himself to the less arduous duties of a financier, also unselfishly devoting time and money to charities that had always claimed from him much attention. The Emigrant Industrial Saving Bank. of which he was the president, had assets placed at $45,000,000 in 1890. He was also a director in the People's Trust Company, of Brooklyn. His experience as the public official followed his appointment by Mayor Low to a seat in the board of education. He participated with all his energy in the plans for reform, which attacked few other departments of municipal administration more severely than the did the educational system; sweeping changes were made and permanent improvements were established. MacMahon was a trustee of the House of the Good Shepherd; belonged to the Orphan Asylum Society, and various charitable and philanthropic societies. He was president of the committee which perfected arrangements for the jubilee celebration of the late Bishop Loughlin. James McMahon was marred three times and died in 1913.The residence of Mr. McMahon at 8 MacDonough Street is situated on the north side of the thoroughfare. The house is surrounded by about an acre of ground, running through from MacDonough to Macon Street, and shaded by numerous tress. The front entrance is about thirty feet back from the street. Ascending a flight of five steps, the visitor enters upon a spacious piazza, which use to extend across the entire front. At the time McMahon the main entrance hall was wide and high-studded, and to the left of it was the library, a large square apartment elegant in its decorations and appointments. The Parlor was situated to the right of the main entrance, and, like every other apartment in the mansions was furnished with eye to comfort rather the to gorgeous display. The dining room was in the rear of the parlor on the main floor. The second story was charming boudoirs and suites of chambers and spacious baths. Upon the top floor was the billiard-room and its is there that Mr. McMahon would seek and obtain his recreation from the care of his great responsibilities.

318-310 Jefferson Ave

2009-04-28T21:27:00.000-07:00

This row of six Neo-Grec brownstones was built by the developer James Steward. The architect Isaac Reynolds designed these three story houses set above high basements to have two sided brownstone masonry bays that rise full height. The doorways have grooved pilasters surmounted by brackets.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle article from March 6, 1886

Katherine Cark (Winkler) Jefferson Ave Brooklyn around 1898

A similar group of Neo-Grec brownstones on Hancock Street between Bedford and Nostrand Avenues, outside the current Stuyvesant Heights historic district. The houses are three floors over a basement floor. Several of the houses below retain the original, heavy, Neo-Grec cast-ironwork on the stoop. Both of these blocks are well preserved and in the proposed Bedford Historic District but none of these homes are protected.

1900 census of the 100 block at Hancock Street and 300 block of Jefferson

182 Macon

2009-04-20T07:31:00.000-07:00

182 Macon was once owned by the famous Reverend Edward Beecher. The house simple, handsome and dignified with three stories above high basements is crowned by a series of French Second Empire mansard roof that I am sure were once topped by iron cresting. Long gone hand railing at the stoops and roof cornices could have given a better indication of the late date of this structure. The residence still radiate a feeling of quiet intimacy, emphasized by a now modern gate which separate the front yard from the side walks. This home is not protected or on any historic registers.

Part of Brooklyn Daily Eagle Obituary

Edward Beecher was born in East Hampton, New York August 27, 1803 and was slated to follow in the tradition of his father Lyman Beecher. He is the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher. He graduated from Yale and studied briefly at the Andover Seminary. He became the pastor of Park Street Church in Boston in 1826, and in 1830 he became the first president of Illinois College at Jacksonville. The college grew under his leadership and he remained president for fourteen years. The reform spirit took hold of Edward and he organized the first anti-slavery society in Illinois. He resigned his presidency in 1844 after financial misfortune; religious controversies and opposition to his anti-slavery beliefs made the offer of the position of pastor of the Salem Street Church in Boston seem very desirable. He returned to the West in 1855, where he became the pastor of the First Congregational Church of Galesburg, Illinois, where he remained until 1871. That year he moved to Brooklyn and settle on 182 Macon Street where he remained until his death on July 28,1895.

Brooklyn 1880 Census

Who lived in your house?

2009-04-10T15:14:00.000-07:00

Decatur Street houses of Stuyvesant Heights

Have you ever wondered about the history of your house, apartment, church or other building in Bedford Stuyvesant? When was it built? Why was it built? Who owned it? What happened to the people who lived there? Is your house famous? Or, my perennial favorite question as a child, does it have any secret tunnels or cubbyholes? Whether you're looking for documentation for historic status or are just plain inquisitive, tracing a property's history and learning about the people who have lived there can be a fascinating and fulfilling project.
We need to show Landmarks Preservation Commission just how historic Bedford Stuyvesant is to New York. I am conducting research on buildings in Bedford Stuyvesant and parts of Crown Heights North which was Bedford Stuyvesant years ago... There are usually two types of information that I search for: 1) architectural facts, such as date of construction, name of architect or builder, construction materials, and physical changes over time; and 2) historical facts, such as information on the original owner and other residents through time, or interesting events associated with the building or area. A house history may consist of either type of research, or be a combination of both.

Bedford Stuyvesant is one of the oldest neighborhood in America let alone Brooklyn and is full of rich history. Much of this history of Bedford Stuyvesant has been lost over the years. Many people who live outside the neighborhood only know of the neighborhoods recent history. Bedford Stuyvesant community has been around since in the 1600's and the history should be preserved.

Please feel free to submit what you know about any building in Bedford Stuyvesant preferably outside any historic district. Also If you would like to know information on your home feel free to e-mail savebedstuy@gmail.com . I would try to find as much information as possible about buildings that are submitted and publish my results on this site. Lets work together and save and preserve our beautiful neighborhood.

275-285 MacDonough Street

For Example on MacDonough Street in the Stuyvesant Heights landmark district the houses above were built between 1885 and 1898. The first home to the far left no. 275 MacDonough is a fine French Neo-Grec house, built in 1888 respectively, for W. A. Walsh. The architect was Isaac D. Reynolds. The two-sided masonry bay extending the full height of the house with recessed panels under the windows and incised ornament on the enframements. The doorway, located have projecting lintels with incised ornament; they are supported on elongated console brackets. The roof cornices are also carried on elongated brackets, carefully related to the windows below them.

No. 277, an individually built French Neo-Grec house, was erected in 1888 for Rev. George F Pentecost of Tompkins Avenue Congregational Church and designed by J. C. Markham. Like its neighbors at the west, nos 273 & 275, it has a two sided masonry bay window extending the full height of the house. The handsome billet moldings at the bottom of the door and window lintels are distinctive decorative feature.

No. 279-283. These three houses, which combine late Romanesque Revival style with the classical trends of the 1890s, were designed by the Brooklyn architect Frederick D. Vrooman and built in 1895 by John F. Saddington. All three houses have rounded offset facades which make the transition from the recessed row of houses at the west to the corner house (no. 285) which is brought forward to the sidewalk line. Rough-cut stone-work at the basement and second floor lends a rugged quality to these houses, in strong contrast to the smooth intervening wall. The third floors, faced with sheet metal stamped with shallow Corinthian pilasters, have richly ornamented convex roof cornices above them. The wrought iron handrainling at the stoops and cast iron newel post show Romanesque influence.

No 285 at the corner of MacDonough and Lewis is a yellow brick Italian Renaissance style house was built in 1898 by John Seddington in collaboration with Vrooman. It is four stories high above a low basement. The brickwork on the exterior of this house is laid to resemble rusticated stonework.

This is the 1900 census which shows the first people that lived in these homes.

Eubie Blake's house at 284A Stuyvesant Ave.

2009-04-08T14:43:00.000-07:00

Eubie Blake Neo-Grec home at 284A Stuyvesant Avenue home is out side the historic Stuyvesant Heights District and not protected at this time. This house with its high stoop most likely had massive heavy cast-iron handrails at one time. Leading up the stoop the large double-leaf wood doors welcome you into this lovely brownstone. The massive door hood and enframement with angular decorative elements resting on brackets gives this small home grandeur. I can truly imagine this brownstone being full of great music.
James Hubert “Eubie” Blake (February 7, 1887 - February 12, 1983) was a composer and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music, as well as a lyricist. With his long time collaborator Noble Sissle, Blake wrote the Broadway musical Shuffle Along in 1921; this was the first Broadway musical ever to be written and directed by African Americans. Blake’s hit compositions included “Bandana Days”, “Charleston Rag”, “Love Will Find A Way”, “Memories of You”, and “I’m Just Wild About Harry”. In 1978, the musical Eubie! opened on Broadway.

The Teddy Bear was born in Bedford Stuyvesant

2009-04-02T19:01:00.000-07:00

This row of well preserved brick buildings with street level retail is located on Tompkins Avenue where Bedford and Stuyvesant Heights meet. Tompkins Avenue is what separates Bedford from Stuyvesant Heights. These fine buildings are not protected by landmarks but walking down Tompkins Avenue you get a glimpse of what it was like to walk down a commercial corridor at the turn of the century. The brick buildings with inset brownstone details and handsome iron cornices has not changed much in the last one hundred years. This one time very busy commercial corridor gave birth to a famous American icon. 404 Tompkins Avenue is the 1902 birthplace of the Teddy bear.

Teddy bears are a symbol of cuddly gentleness and security the world over. It is well known that the teddy bear is named for President Theodore Roosevelt. Less well known are the inventors of the teddy bear, Rose and Morris Michtom, two Russian Jewish immigrants who lived in Brooklyn.

The American bear as a symbol of gentleness is filled with ironies. For generations, bears prompted fear, not affection. The teddy bear’s namesake, Theodore Roosevelt, was a ferocious warrior and big game hunter – a man who killed for sport. However, an unlikely alliance between the rugged, native-born American Protestant president and the inventive, immigrant Jewish couple from Brooklyn created one of the most lovable and enduring American icons.

The story begins in 1902. The states of Mississippi and Louisiana disagreed over the location of their common boundary, which bisected some of the least well-developed land in the United States. The governors of both states invited President Roosevelt to arbitrate the dispute. Roosevelt decided to combine his tour of the disputed territory with a five-day black bear hunt.

The president’s foray attracted a large contingent of journalists, who reported on Roosevelt’s every move. Even more compelling to the reporters than the boundary dispute was the president’s pursuit of a trophy bear. For four days, the press reported little about Roosevelt’s arbitration of the boundary dispute and harped on the ability of the area’s bears to elude his crosshairs. On the fifth and last day of the junket, apparently to redeem the president’s reputation, one of his hunting companions caught and tied a bear cub to a tree so that the president could shoot it. When he came upon the cub, Roosevelt refused to kill it, saying that he only took prey that had a sporting chance to defend itself.

Roosevelt’s demurrer took the nation by storm. The leading American cartoonist, Clifford Berryman, published a cartoon showing Roosevelt turning his back on the young bear, tied by its neck, and public response to the president’s self-restraint was overwhelmingly favorable. The next day, the Washington Post published a second cartoon, depicting the bear as a more placid beast, cementing the docile image of the young bear even more firmly in the public imagination.

Enter the Michtoms. Morris had arrived penniless in New York in 1887, when only in his teens, a refugee from pogroms. He married Rose and opened a small store that sold notions, candy and other penny items. In the evening, to help make ends meet, Rose sewed toys that they sold in the shop. Like millions of other Americans, the Michtoms avidly followed press accounts of Roosevelt’s journey into the Louisiana backcountry. Roosevelt’s refusal to shoot the defenseless bear touched the Michtoms. Morris suggested to Rose that she sew a replica of the bear represented in Berryman’s cartoons.

That night, Rose cut and stuffed a piece of plush velvet into the shape of a bear, sewed on shoe button eyes and handed it to Morris to display in the shop window. He labeled it, "Teddy’s bear." To his surprise, not only did someone enter the store asking to buy the bear, but twelve other potential customers also asked to purchase it. Aware that he might offend the president by using his name without permission, the Michtoms mailed the original bear to the White House, offering it as a gift to the president’s children and asking Roosevelt for the use of his name. He told the Michtoms he doubted his name would help its sales but they were free to use it if they wanted.

The rest is an amazing – yet characteristic – American Jewish immigrant success story. The Michtoms sewed teddy bears and placed them in the window of their shop, but demand was so great they couldn’t keep up. The couple concluded that there was more profit in teddy bears than in penny candy and dedicated full time to producing them. Because of the doll’s popularity, Roosevelt and the Republican Party adopted it as their symbol in the election of 1904, and Michtom bears were placed on display at every public White House function.

The Michtoms’ labor grew into the Ideal Toy Company, which remained in family hands until the 1970s. Ideal Toys sold millions of teddies throughout the world; yet, their good fortune did not spoil the Michtoms. Ever mindful of their humble origins, supported the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the Jewish National Fund, the National Labor Campaign for Palestine and numerous other Jewish causes. While Ideal Toys could not secure a patent on the teddy bear and many imitators entered the market, the Michtoms created an American — and worldwide — icon. Their original teddy bear, treasured and saved by Teddy Roosevelt’s grandchildren, is now displayed at the Smithsonian.

Source: American Jewish Historical Society
You can read more here: Teddy Bear

209 Jefferson Ave.

2009-03-31T21:50:00.000-07:00

The first Woolworth's store was founded with a loan of $300, in 1878 by Frank Winfield Woolworth. Frank W. Woolworth was born on April 13, 1852, on a farm near Rodman in Jefferson County, New York. In 1875 a “99-cent store” opened in Watertown, and a merchant there decided to try the idea in Port Huron, Michigan. He took Woolworth along as a clerk and paid him a starting wage of $10 a week. When Woolworth proved to be a poor salesman, his salary was cut to $8.50 a week. He soon took ill, suffering a breakdown, and returned to Watertown. Back in Watertown, he met a waitress, Jennie Creighton, and married her in 1876. They had three daughters. One of Woolworth’s granddaughters was Barbara Hutton, a socialite who achieved notoriety for her many marriages.

1889/90 New York Directory

In 1886 Woolworth moved to a newly built house on 209 Jefferson Avenue in Brooklyn, New York, to be near wholesale suppliers. Taking advantage of the wide variety of goods available there, he assumed responsibility for purchasing merchandise for all of his stores. He added candy and was able to purchase it directly from the manufacturers. He also planned all of the window and counter displays for the chain. An admirer of the red color of A&P grocery stores, he designed the characteristic red store fronts for the Woolworth stores, adding the company name in gold letters.Despite growing to be one of the largest retail chains in the world through most of the 20th century, increased competition led to its decline beginning in the 1980s. In 1997, F. W. Woolworth Company converted itself into a sporting goods retailer, closing its remaining retail stores operating under the "Woolworth's" brand name and renaming itself Venator Group. By 2001, the company focused exclusively on the sporting goods market, changing its name to the present Foot Locker Inc.
209 Jefferson Avenue is a beautiful Neo-Grec brownstone that was built in 1886. The interior of this home has been changed a bit but many details from F.W. Woolworth time are still present. This home still has the beautiful herringbone floors and to my surprise a rather larger extension on the rear. A few houses on this row still have the original single storm protective door followed by the large double entry doors. This rather large row of identical Neo-Grec brownstones are rather nicely preserved on a beautiful treeline block that is not landmarked. Hopefully soon this house will be apart of the Bedford Historic District.Frank W. Woolworth

74 Halsey Street

2009-03-31T00:15:00.000-07:00

This very unusual Halsey Street house first owned by the builder John D. and Annie Godwin was most likely built in the late 1880s. The Bedford Section as it was called in those days was experiencing a rather large building boom due to the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge. At the time Brooklyn was trying to compete in buildings fine homes not only with its neighboring city across the east river but also cities across the pond such as London and Paris.
74 Halsey Street is a Queen Anne house with Romanesque details that has remained intact over the past 120 years. The pair of rusticated stone arches of the parlor floor window has this theme continues onto the top floor but with toothed brickworked bandcourses supported on brick corbels. The second floor bay window that supports a balcony above adds interesting depth to the facade of this house. The major element that makes this home stand out is the handsome wrough iron railings that escort you along the high stoop. You can read more about this house in the AIA guide to New York City. Hopefully this fine house soon will be in the new landmarked Bedford Historic District
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571-579 Jefferson Ave in Stuyvesant Heights

2009-03-30T15:37:00.000-07:00

These Jefferson Avenue beauties are in Stuyvesant Heights (but outside the current historic district) have a very unique identity of there own. Similar to a row built on Garfield Pl in Park Slope the Romanesque style townhouses were most likely constructed just before the turn of the twentieth century. Typical of the Romanesque style you have rounded arched doorways and round top windows. The combination's of texture and material with rough-hewn blocks and stone details of intertwined leafwork often called "Byzantine Leafwork" are very different of earlier brownstone facades . The asymmetrical massed roofline gives this block a different feel as you walk along Jefferson Avenue. This Brooklyn daily eagle article from 1900 shows the white painted house on the far left for sale.

Fresh Prince of Bed-Stuy?

2009-03-18T21:09:00.000-07:00

Before the days of rows of brownstones and large apartments buildings with retail below stood the large mansion of Rem Leffert. This June 25, 1893 New York Times article paints a beautiful picture of the Bedford Corners area around of yesterday. Today Arlington Place just off Fulton Street is a great little block which Spike Lee made famous in the movie Crooklyn. It would have been nice if this house could have been saved and moved to another location in the Bedford area.
Clove Road was the old road where Thomas Lambertse, May 14, 1700, sold his Bedford farm to Leffert Pieterse. Jacobus Lefferts, a son of Leffert Pieterse of Flatbush, was born 1686, and settled on this farm. On October 7, 1716, he married Jannetje Blom, daughter of Claes Barentse Blom, whom later had come to the U. S. in 1662. Blom sold to Jacobus Lefferts, who by trade was a carpenter, for the sum of 800 pounds. In 1725, his farm of 40 morgen at Bedford, bounded on the west side by land of Johannes Bergen (later of John Reyerson). Jacobus Lefferts lived in the farmhouse on the south west corner of Glove & Jamaica Roads, built about 1759 by Andries Andriese. It came with all the land in possession of Jacobus Lefferts. The house was surrounded by locust trees and it's roof gave shelter to Major Andre & General Greg. Jacobus died in 1768. His son, Leffer Lefferts then lived in the house. He was born 1727, and died 1804. His house was taken down in 1877. Judge Lefferts, son of Jacobus Lefferts & brother of Leffert Lefferts (1727-1804) was born in 1736 and died 1819. He lived on the northeast corner of Jamaica & Cripplebush Roads in the house formerly occupied by his father-in-law, Rem Remsen. Barents son, Rem Lefferts bought the house and put a new front on it in 1838. The house was built in the 18th century by Jeromus Remsen and was known at one time as John Lefferts house. The site was later known as Arlington Pl. & Fulton Street.

176-180 Hancock Street

2009-03-16T22:37:00.000-07:00

Queen Anne Style buildings in America came into vogue in the 1880s, replacing the French-derived Second Empire as the "style of the moment." The popularity of high Queen Anne Style waned in the early 1900s. In the book Bricks and Brownstones by Charles Lockwood during the 1880s and the life of Queen Anne style, the architectural fashion that each row house have a measure of individuality and the streetscape a visually exciting appearance reached its culmination. The present "epoch of Queen Anne is a delightful insurrection against the monotonous era of rectangular building," declared one magazine in the early 1880s.
These three brownstones completed in 1886 on Hancock Street in the Bedford Historic District were built by brothers Messa, and George G. Hallock . Alfred T. Lawrence built 180 for his family. You find these families still living in these these Queen Anne Brownstones according to the 1900 census but the Hallock brother are deceased. George Hallock was 51 years old in 1896 when he passed away at his residence 196 Hancock. Unfortunately none of these great houses are landmarked protected at the present time.

Please click on the census to view larger image.

68 Macon Street

2009-03-16T13:40:00.000-07:00

This beautiful brick semi detached was probably built sometime in 1890s. The mix of neo-Romanesque and Queen Anne style architecture makes this house stand out from many others on this beautiful treeline Macon Street block. Located in the non landmark section of Bedford Stuyvesant his house was owned by the Stephen and Amelia Hoff at the turn of the 20th century. Before the Hoff's moved into this house it was rented out to the Walter family according to the 1900 census. The 1899 ad posted above from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle shows this house with the conservatory (which is still intact today) is in the "select" neighborhood of Bedford. Hopefully this pre-turn of the century home will be protected soon by being in the Bedford Historic District.

John C. Kelly House 247 Hancock St.

2009-03-15T21:07:00.000-07:00

Often called the Queen of Hancock Street this Montrose Morris house was built in the 1880s for water meter king John C. Kelly. This Romanesque and Queen Anne design house was model after the W. H. Vanderbilt house on fifth Ave. in Manhattan. This house is not on a landmarked blocked which is full of Montrose Morris designed homes. We hope that this wonderful Brooklyn block becomes part of the Bedford Historic District.

Bedford Stuyvesant

2009-03-15T19:13:00.000-07:00

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Bedford-Stuyvesant is the amalgam of two middle-class communities of the old City of Brooklyn: Bedford, the western portion, and Stuyvesant Heights, to the east. Today's Bedford Stuyvesant is one of the city's two major black enclaves; the other is its peer, Harlem. Often called Bed-Stuy it differs from its Manhattan counterpart in its much larger percentage of home owners, although Harlem is rapidly following its lead in gentrifying its own blocks. The southern and western portions comprise masonry row housing of distinguished architectural quality and vigorous churches whose spires contribute to the area's frequently lacy skyline. At one time the northeastern reaches have considerable numbers of wooden tenements, containing some of the nation's worst slums now have new buildings rising everyday. But on the whole, Bed-Stuy has a reputation that doesn't fit with reality: a stable community with hundreds of blocks of well-kept town houses.Where Bedford-Stuyvesant has distinguished architecture, it is very good. Its facades of brownstones and brickfronts create a magnificent town scape as good as-and sometimes better than-many fashionable areas of Brooklyn and Manhattan. Parts of Chauncey, Decatur, MacDonough, Jefferson, Halsey and Macon Streets, and the southern end of Stuyvesant Avenue, are superb. Hancock Street, between Nostrand and Tompkins Avenues, was considered a showplace in its time (why not now too?). Alice and Agate Courts, short cul-de-sacs isolated from the macrocosm of the street system, are particularly special places in the seemingly endless, anonymous grid.
Bed-Stuy comprises roughly 2,000 acres and houses 400,000 people, making it among the 30 largest American cities.