Walking Tour with Morgan Munsey

 Jefferson Ave Homes Designed by architect G. A. Schellenger in 1884

Writer Anne Hellman of http://design-brooklyn.tumblr.com/ and photographer Michel Arnaud tour us around Brooklyn's recent townhouse renovations, restaurant and bar build-outs, garden designs, and public structures, as well as visits to studios of designers making high-end furniture, lighting, and textiles.
I was honored to give the lovely Anne Hellman White, the wonderful Jane Creech and the super talented Michel Arnaud a tour of Bedford Stuyvesant for an up coming book.  Here is a sneak preview of whats to come
If you would like to join me and awesome Suzanne Spellen (aka Montrose Morris) on a tour this summer please go to  MAS NY.  We are leading a tour this weekend of the proposed Bedford Historic District and Stuyvesant Heights.

The Largest building in Bedford Stuyvesant

The second 13th Regiment Armory,  i.e.,  the Sumner Avenue Armory,  was built in 1891 to replace the 1874  Flatbush Avenue  Armory. The new armory, designed by Rudolphe Lawrence Daus,  is  a massive,  early medieval inspired,  fortress-like  edifice dominated by a  two-story,  stone-trimmed sally port  and two  symmetrical,  originally six-story round towers  with crenelated parapets.  The armory is currently a city-owned homeless shelter. The second largest Amory in New York City and maybe the country but this building sit unprotected.  We have lost one tower of this great building already.  I hope that we do not lose more.

Orginial Amory Located at Altantic Center

                                                                         Amory Today

Located in the proposed Stuyvesant North Historic District the Thirteenth Regiment Armory covers almost the entire bloc k on Sumner Avenue (Marcus Garvey), between Putnam and Jefferson Avenues.  The cost of its construction was about $650,000.  The architecture of the structure is of the old Norman style with modern improvements of the time.  R. L. Daus  the architect, thinking that the Thirteenth Regiment would prefer a building, suggestive of the Thirteenth Century, and believing  that, apart from sentiment, the Norman barons of that period knew what was serviceable in military architecture with that idea.  The building was regarded by experts as the very expression of simplicity, strength and dignity.

Architect Rodolphe Lawrence Daus was born on August 10, 1854 in Mexico, where his parents ( Lepold and Emma Ruben-Daus a German and French couple) were residing temporarily. Owing to business relations of his father, who was a wholesale merchant. When he was only a few months old he was brought to New York, where he grew up.  At the age of 20 he came to Europe for his studies, entering the world famous Paris School of Fine Arts or École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts .  Among his classmates he was the first to graduate from the second to the first in class, a distinction that entities him to a special prize.  In assertion he gained medals in construction and mathematics, and his first “project.” Or design in the class gained him the highest award obtainable.  Another distinction he gained was the “Achilles le Clair” prize

Before returning to the United States he was married in Paris to Madamoiselle Louise Perrin.  He lived at his first home at 1419 Pacific in Crown Heights North.  During the latter part of his live he lived in the winter in the St. Hubert Hotel and the summers were spent at Sea Gate.  Daus had two daughters, Henriette and Emma and one son William Thallen Daus, who followed his father’s footsteps being a student of architecture at the Beaux Arts.

In 1899 Daus was appointed a member and secretary of the New York Building Code Commission, and, being the only architect in that body.  Daus was, moreover president of the Brooklyn American Institute of Architects, as well as an active member of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences and the Beaux Arts Society.  Among the clubs of which he was a member may be mentioned the Brooklyn Club, the Rembrandt Club, the Atlantic Yacht Club, the Riding and  Driving Club and the Riding Club.

Daus was a painter of oil and water color in which he achieved success. Daus died on September 30, 1916 at his Paris home located at 36 Avenue de la Bourdonnais.

Other Daus Buildings in Bedford Stuyvesant:

• 74 Halsey Street 1886 (unprotected but calendared)

• 615-613 Throop Ave 1890 (landmarked in 1971 Stuyvesant Heights)  

Daus also designed:

• 81 Willoughby Street NY& NJ Telephone Bldg. , Brooklyn

• Lincoln Club in Clinton Hil, Brooklyn
• NY County National Bank, 8^th and 14th St, Manhattan
• 266 West End Avenue, Manhattan
• 47 Montgomery Pl., Brooklyn
• Greenpoint Library, Brooklyn 
• 135 Plymouth St Dumbo, Brooklyn

Street address:	357 Sumner Avenue (now Marcus Garvey Boulevard, between Putnam and Jefferson avenues)
City:	Brooklyn
County:	Kings
Year constructed:	1892 - 1894
Architect:	Rudolphe Lawrance Daus
Size :	Regiment
Square footage:	232,606 NSF
Acreage:	2.62 Acres
Status:	Closed in 1971 / Used for homeless men's shelter

Units Stationed:	Years:
13th Regiment	1894 - 1899
13th Heavy Artillery	1900 - 1905
13th Coastal Artillery	1906 - 1907
13th Artillery District Co. 1-12	1908 - 1913
13th Coast Defense Command (Co. 1-12)	1914 - 1921
13th Coast Defense Command (Co. 357 - 368)	1922 - 1922
245th Artillery (Batteries A-M)	1923 - 1923
245th Coast Artillery Regiment	1924 - ????
Transportation Battalion	1961 - ????

The work of Magnus Emil Dahlander in Stuyvesant North

Stuyvesant and Jefferson 1894 Drawing Magnus Emil Dahlander Architect, built for Eli H. Bishop

591 Jefferson Ave Langston and Dahlander Architects 1891

Magnus Emil Dahlander

East side of Stuyvesant Ave M. Dahlander built 1892

Magnus Emil Dahlander - architect and heritage carers - was born in Sater Sweden on August 2, 1862 and died in the same city on 8 May 1951. This does not mean that all his life he lived in Sater. On the contrary. He led the next 55 years, a very active life. The father, who was a pharmacist and as such created a good financial standing, moved with his family in 1866 to Linde, where he built his own house. The drawings of the building were eventually the young Magnus' first primer in the building alongside the real abc book, where he became acquainted with the elementary school in the city and then to continue the preparation of learning acquisition in Gothenburg during the years 1872 to 1874 . Years later the father sold his pharmacy in Linde and purchase by hovapoteket crown in Stockholm. The family moved there and now Magnus continued his schooling in New Elementary School. It was during an era when this school with traditions from Carl Jonas Love Almquist time, as the state's sample school yet still took a rank position among Swedish high school. He stayed there mate with several young men, who in different ways and in different political camps would become known personalities, including Louis Stavenow, Karl Staaf, Bergegren and Daniel Fallström. His first acquaintance with art in its higher meaning he did in 1876 when he entered the Free Art The Academy in its elementary drawing school or, as it is also called, basically school. Here he met the first time, Anders Zorn. At that time he undertook a summer trip to Dalarna with some of his schoolmates, referred depicted by him in his remembrance. From that time never ceased Dalarna, his birthplace, to pull him to her. But before he would come to experience a lot. In 1879 he moved from Stockholm and New Elementary School to Örebro, where he graduated in 1883 matriculation. It was followed by a brief stay in Paris, where he in accordance with the family.

Stuyvesant and Jefferson c.1900

Stuyvesant and Jefferson built 1892

Dahilander recieved his Degree at the University of Technology in 1888, followed by studies in such United States and several European countries. City Architect in Örebro 1899-1914. Architect in army barracks building committee from 1914 to 1917. Moved to Sater 1917th County Architect in Kopparberg County 1920 - '. Chair. the Planning Committee in Sater 1919 -? Founded the local history museum Åsgårdstrand

500 Hancock built 1891 Langston and Dahlander Architects

500 Hancock built 1891 Langston and Dahlander Architects

500 Hancock built 1891 Langston and Dahlander Architects

While in the US Dahlander lived and worked in Brooklyn, New York.  He only lived in Brooklyn from 1888 to 1896.  In that short time this man would transform Brooklyn residential architecture into something the city has never seen before.   Many of Dahlander homes can be found in Crown, Heights, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Bedford and Stuyvesant Heights.  Dahlander worked with architect Frederick B. Langston for the first few years here finially going on his own.  Eli Bishop a local developer who I plan to write about in the near future often hired Dahlander to design his beautiful townhomes. Before Dahlander left for Sweden he linked up with another Swede name Axel Hedman and would design many homes in central Brooklyn.  Dahlander would past the torch to Hedman who would stay in New York until his death.

571 - 587 Jefferson Avenue built in 1891 Langston and Dahlander Architects

Stuyvesant North is not landmarked and we would love to protect the great work of Dahlander and the many other architects that worked in this area of Bedford Stuyveant. 

View other works of Magnus Emil Dahlander here

Architecture of George Pool Chappell in the Proposed Bedford Historic District

Architect George Pool Chappell with his first wife, Hester Louisa Candee Chappell

George Pool Chappell was born in 1857 in the then Bedford section of Brooklyn NY.  When I first moved to Bedford Stuyvesant it was George Chappell's 1888 First AMEZ Church ( Tompkins Avenue Congregational Church) on MacDonough Street and Tompkins Avenue  that caught my attention.  The campanile was Bedford Stuyvesant's own venetian tower I thought to myself. Tompkins Avenue Congregational Church AKA Dr. Meredith House was one of the largest protestant sanctuaries in the country.  I often wonder how such a young architect at the time got such a large commission. I think it has a bit has to do with Chappell living across the street from the church site at the time. 

About two years ago I got my own commission to do renovation work on a beautiful landmarked George P. Chappell house on Dean Street.  While surveying that house I began to respect this very smart Victorian architect.  I wanted to know more about him his works, what kind of man was he... The good news is that we know much of his Brooklyn works (look here) the bad news is we know nothing about this mystery man except he was very respected and a stand-up citizen of Brooklyn .
According to Suzanne Spellen (aka Montrose Morris on brownstoner.com) Chappell appears in Brooklyn directories in 1878. We know nothing about his education or possible apprenticeships or training. We do know that he was extremely talented, and prolific. Most of his work was done in what is now Crown Heights North, Bedford Stuyvesant, and Park Slope, along with a lesser amount of work in Clinton Hill and other neighborhoods. He is listed in the census as living in Bedford Stuyvesant, on Monroe Street, when he was 23, with his mother and grandmother, and he is listed as a builder. Later in life, he moved to Crown Heights North, and lived on St. Marks Avenue, at least in the beginning of the 20th century. As more and more areas become landmarked, or at least researched, more Chappell buildings are being re-discovered and credited to him. Chappell should be name Mr Dean Street of Mr. Crown Heights.  Most of the ohh ahhh buildings in that neighborhood are done by Chappell.

Tompkins Avenue Congregational Church b.1888 G.P. Chappell Architect

 I want to focus on the George P. Chappell buildings in the Proposed but not landmarked Bedford Historic District.  According to a tour I attended with Guru Andrew Dolkart, architect  George Chappell earliest buildings in this Bedford area are 76 and 78 Halsey built sometime before 1885. Chappell was one of the first architects to not use the typical Neo-Grec house designs in Bedford.  Chappell's 76 and 78 Halsey Street is done in the simple Romanesque Revival Style which added some spice to this area.

78 and 76 Halsey Street George Chappell Architect built around 1883

 Front elevation of 76 Halsey Street George Chappell Architect

78 and 76 Halsey Street George Chappell Architect built around 1883

In 1886 Chappell out did himself in Bedford with the house he designed at 194 Hancock Street for Louis Gibbins.  194 Hancock Street uses Renaissance-inspired forms and details, which tend to exhibit a more elegant handling of materials and ornament.   The current owners have done a great deal of work restore this house back to its original glory.

194 Hancock Street b.1887 G.P. Chappell architect/ original owner Louis Gibbins

194 Hancock Street b.1887 G.P. Chappell architect/ original owner Louis Gibbins

1887 was a busy year for Chappell in Bedford District with the building of nine house being designed and built. 60 Macon Street Done in a classic Chappell style using a large bay front done in brick with a boat cut brownstone base. Oriels on the side to give this place great light and garden views. 

60 Macon Street b.1887 G.P. Chappell architect/ Built by Arnold Wagner

Chappell will be very surprise today to learn that many of his houses are now on the market for a million dollars here in Bedford, Crown Heights North and Park Slope.  This group at 271 - 279 Jefferson was built for developer Susanna and Walter Russell who built much of the Proposed Bedford District. We see from Prudential Douglas Elliman photos that Chappell's signature fret, woodwork and stain glass are still intact in 271 Jefferson.

271 -279 B. 1887 G.P. Chappell Architect; S.E.C. Russell Builder/Developer

 The last group of Chappell 1887 homes in Bedford are probably his most famous but not because of the architecture but due to Spike Lee movie Crooklyn filmed at 7 Arlington Place.  1 - 7 Arlington Place are some of my favorite but somewhat simple homes done by Chappell.  The end  two houses, which are united by continuous sills and moldings, also share rusticated stone first floors and denticulated moldings. The two middle houses share similar brownstone facades with stone trim, identical cornices, and continuous moldings, all four houses remain well preserved.

1 - 7 Arlington Pl /B. 1887 G.P. Chappell Architect; Horace Russell Builder/Developer

 

1 - 7 Arlington Pl from Halsey Street G.P. Chappell Architect 1887

George Pool Chappell with his second wife, Clare Chase Chappell, his daughter, Marjorie Halstead, and his 2 grandchildren, Hester and Berrian Halstead.

 Finally the Macon.  This is Chappell's largest residential building in the Bedford District. Chappell really took advantage of the curved intersection of Macon and Arlington Place.  This grand apartment was built sometime in the 1890s most likely after the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago in the classical style of the White City.  This building was built to compete with other high end flats such as the Alhambra and the Renaissance all within the same area.  George P. Chappell has many other buildings in Bedford Stuyvesant but I wanted to focus on the proposed landmarked buildings. 

1890s The Macon George P. Chappell Architect

George Pool Chappell at work…

Chappell worked over fifty years building much of Bedford, Stuyvesant Heights, Crown Heights North, Clinton Hill and Park Slope. George Pool Chappell died in June 1933.

To learn more about George Pool Chappell please join us tomorrow for a MAS Crown Heights North Walking tour: http://mas.org/tours/

595-605 Jefferson Avenue Stuyvesant North

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.

G. A. Schellenger Architect

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.