June 26 Community Board presentation - The Good Life in Flatbush

By the late 1920's, Flatbush was a lively residential community with a wide variety of housing types including new six story elevator apartment buildings and semi-detached brick houses with garages, older four and five story walk up tenements, limestone and brownstone rowhouses from the early 1900's, and freestanding frame houses from the turn of the century. It was already reaching that elusive and desirable balance that my neighbors call "halfway between the suburbs and the city".

As I researched the development of our neighborhood (still known simply as "Flatbush") in local newspapers, I was struck not only by long forgotten or buried architectural details and building amenities, but the wonderful variety of shops, restaurants, athletic recreation and family oriented entertainment depicted in newspaper ads (THANK YOU BROOKLYN EAGLE for preserving all this history!)  In particular, Flatbush was known for theaters. There were seven movie theaters - often ornate buildings - in the Prospect Lefferts Gardens area, and thirteen in greater Flatbush. The circus came to town. Oh and the garages. There was ABUNDANT parking and service stations all along Parkside/Clarkson and Empire Boulevard for all those new Ford Model T's, Chevrolets and Buicks. And of course there was Prospect Park, the Botanic Gardens, and the new Brighton line subway to Manhattan.

It must have been a good life, and a wonderful place to raise a family.

April 26 Building of the Week - Roof Gardens

With warm weather approaching, this issue will focus on roof gardens in PLG. (Bet you didn't know they existed!) Beginning in the early 1900's, roof gardens were promoted by social reformers and builders in New York City as way to use otherwise "wasted" space on top of apartment buildings to provide a place for children to play that was close to their parents and away from the dust and dangers of the street, as well as an amenity for residents who could enjoy cool air and views in the summertime. Some roof gardens were equipped with playground equipment and deck chairs, others might have had just an awning covered walkway or deck.  Ellis Island got a children's roof garden in 1908, as part of a complete renovation of facilities to improve the experience of immigrants who were detained there for long periods of time.  

265 and 273 Ocean Avenue -  Designed by Slee and Bryson for Charles Chase in 1913, this pair of brick and limestone buildings featured "All Modern Improvements" including electric lights and steam heat, plus amenities like a roof garden and 24 hour "hall service" (this meant a porter or doorman). The building was dubbed the "Saint Charles" (perhaps the builder had a high opinion of himself!) Slee and Bryson were also active in the PLG historic district, designing brick houses on Fenimore, Rutland, and Midwood, most of the free standing houses on Lincoln 1, and the Grace Reformed Church on Lincoln and Bedford. 

  (sadly both buildings seem to have lost their cornices on top and one got hit with the ugly stucco stick on the entryway)

145 Lincoln Road - This 6 story elevator building with a fanciful, turreted facade was built in 1929 by Gustav Kellner, who also built dozens of other apartment buildings in PLG and Flatbush, as well as his personal home on Maple 1. The architect was Boris W. Dorfman, a Russian Jewish immigrant who also designed several other apartment buildings in PLG and Flatbush (including 99 Ocean Avenue which also had a roof garden). In addition to the roof garden, the building featured cedar closets and Murphy beds. 

232-234 Midwood Street - Of course the flat roof of a townhouse is also a great place to build a roof garden. Roof gardens are back in vogue today, in the form of "green roofs". Green roofs involve covering portions of the roof with soil and plants, usually sedums or grasses, that help to insulate the roof and absorb excess storm water. They are being used to grow vegetables, raise chickens and even bees in Brooklyn today.  "PLG Rooftop Honey" was a hot selling holiday gift item at local stores a couple of years ago. Does anyone know where exactly it was made? 

These two brick townhouses were likely designed by architect William Fernbach in 1907-1908. Apart from the color of the brick, which is tan rather than white, and a different decorative design on the roof cornices, their form and ornamentation is exactly the same as the rest of the townhouses on this block. 

    (Note the safety railing on top of the roof at 232 Midwood!) 

April 11 Building of the Week - Architect Benjamin Driesler

This issue is really going to be an "architect of the week", focused on the work of 
Benjamin Driesler, a German born architect who was extremely active throughout
 Brooklyn in the early 20th century. 

Driesler designed a wide variety of buildings including in greater Prospect Lefferts 
Gardens. His work is also common in the Prospect Lefferts Gardens Historic District
 on Fenimore Street, Sterling street, and Midwood street where he designed both
 rowhouses and detached frame houses. He often worked for W.A.A. Brown, a 
prominent businessman and developer throughout the southern half of Prospect 
Lefferts Gardens. He is mentioned in the original historic district designation report as being one of three architects whose work give the PLG historic district its distinct character. 

Here are a selection of his buildings just outside the original historic district

253-267 Clarkson Ave, builder W.A.A. Brown 1905

352-386 Parkside Avenue, W.A.A. Brown 1909

2007 -  2031 Bedford Avenue,  builder W.A.A. Brown 1911

116 Winthrop Street, W.A.A. Brown builder 1910-1911

Thank you to all of your who responded and offered to help with photography. 
As always, we look forward to hearing your stories about any of these buildings!

Next week, by request, we will focus on Rogers Avenue. 

April 17 Building of the Week - Rogers Avenue and Flatbush Avenue

495-499 Rogers Avenue - On the corner is the ever popular and aptly named neighborhood coffee house - PLG Cafe, formerly Gratitude. 

There is an ambiguity in the records, but we believe these were designed in 1899 by architects Lawton and Field (J. MacArthur, builder), who were responsible for dozens of neo-Renaissance townhouses in the Prospect Lefferts Gardens historic district on Lincoln Road, Fenimore Street, and Midwood Street. 

Moving north on Rogers Avenue to Sterling Street, we have another group of Shampan and Shampan designed 3 story buildings at 393-403 Rogers Avenue. These were built in 1915 for the Brooklyn Union Building company. They have their twins at 699-713 Flatbush Avenue.  Meanwhile, around the corner on Parkside Avenue, Shampan and Shampan were erecting the magnificent pair of four story apartment buildings at 253-259 Parkside Avenue, again for the Brooklyn Union Building Company. 

     

(yes, okay that's a satellite dish on the ornate iron fire escape, and what looks like a Trini flag in the window. This is PLG!)

If you're enjoying our updates and would like to get involved, share stories about buildings, or old photos, please email me and we will send out to the rest of the group next week. Also, please consider donating what you can so we can take our paid interns and unpaid volunteers work to the next level with a professional architectural and historic assessment and presentation of data for over 1500 buildings in the neighborhood. Checks should be made out to:

Concerned Citizens For Community Based Planning and can be dropped off at either 

79 Fenimore Street or 190 Lincoln Road.  

Happy Easter and Passover!

April 2 Building of the Week - 1059-1079 Nostrand Avenue, between Lincoln Road and Lefferts

These three story "shop houses" (often store on the ground floor, offices or tenants on the second floor and shop owners residence on the third floor) were common on all the commercial avenues of Prospect Lefferts Gardens. This handsome set were built in 1905 by Ritaro Realty, to the design of well known Brooklyn architects Shampan and Shampan. Shampan and Shampan went on to design many important buildings throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan including the Thrift Savings Bank on the Pratt Institute Campus in Clinton Hill, the Woodrow Wilson apartments at Eastern Parkway and Franklin Avenue, the National Register listed Temple Beth El Synagogue in Borough Park, and an art deco commercial loft building in Manhattan's fur district at 300 W. 38th street. 

It's a spiritual block! - bracketed on one end by the Mt. Moriah Church and the other end by St. Francis of Assisi on the south corner of Lincoln Road. 

With a shout-out to Nostrand Avenue Merchants Association - any good stories about beloved stores of yore and the evolution of our commercial blocks? 

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We hope you're enjoying these emails. As the weather gets warmer we are looking for volunteers to take more photos of the neighborhood. Please contact me if you're interested so I can let you know which blocks we're missing. 

Happy Spring!

Mar 11 House of the Week - 56 Hawthorne Street

56 Hawthorne Street (pictured below) was built in 1909 by architect George Roosen for owner Joseph Moore, of 185 Fenimore

George Roosen also built landmarked houses and flats in Crown Heights North, Park Slope, and Sunset Park.

The limestone townhouse is reminiscent of similar houses on the south side of Fenimore street and on Hawthorne closer to Flatbush, built a few years earlier by developer Charles Reynolds . Why was only a single townhouse constructed here rather than a row? Tell us if you have any theories!

By 1913, the house was rented out to Mr. Lockwood Barr, the young managing editor of the Wall Street Journal. He testified in court on behalf of his maid, Agnes Anderson, an immigrant who spoke little English and whose purse was snatched in Prospect Park by the son of none other than a local policeman. (Source: Brooklyn Daily Eagle)

If you're a neighbor and can offer any stories about more recent inhabitants of the house, email us and we'll send it out in the next edition.