Architect Spotlight: Axel Hedman

Some of you might think you've heard that name somewhere before... and you would be right.

According to the 1979 landmarks designation report for the original Prospect Lefferts Gardens Historic District, he is one of three Brooklyn architects, along with Benjamin Driesler and the firm of  Slee and Bryson, who give the area its character. According to the report, "Hedman's neo-Renaissance designs are among the finest in New York City. Within the limited stylistic vocabulary of the neo-Renaissance, he consistently designed interesting and frequently original buildings with finely crafted details."

According to Brownstoner he was born in Sweden in 1861 and immigrated to America in the 1880's, dying in Brooklyn in 1941.

Hedman of course designed all of the limestone rowhouses on Maple Street between Bedford and Rogers, and several on the north side of Rutland Road between Bedford and Rogers, within the Lefferts Manor neighborhood. But like many prolific Brooklyn architects, he left his progeny on many a pretty block throughout the area.  Here are five more examples.
                                                                                                                                                                    74 - 102 Fenimore street and 66 Fenimore/631 Flatbush

and 21-43 Hawthorne street, all built between 1905 and 1908 by Charles G Reynolds

And around the corner ,  631- 647 Flatbush Avenue,
five four story apartment buildings , also built in 1905 by Charles G Reynolds.

185 - 211 Ocean Avenue, designated as a historic district in  2009

224-228 Winthrop Street  (built 1905 by J H Doherty & Co.)

And around the corner, 605 - 615 Rogers Avenue, four 3 story store plus residences built by W R Doherty

Terra Cotta on Lefferts Avenue Townhouses

Thanks to Bob Marvin for pointing these out. The terra cotta tile adorns all of the rowhouses on both sides of Lefferts between Bedford and Nostrand, with just a few exceptions.

Look Up! Look Close!

We're back from the holidays and there's lots of work to do to preserve PLG.

Today, on Martin Luther King's birthday, we bring you the work of prominent African American preservation writer Suzanne Spellen, aka Montrose Morris on the Brownstoner.com website.

Her latest posts on the site are about terracotta tile, and bank buildings, two endangered forms of historic commercial buildings in and around Prospect Lefferts Gardens. 

Here are some examples of terra cotta tile buildings in PLG

660 Flatbush Avenue. Stop in and say hi at your friendly neighborhood hardware store! 

210 Clarkson Avenue, built as a garage in 1927, recently occupied by a daycare and supermarket, now on the chopping block for an eight story residential building.  

103 Empire Boulevard. Admittedly this place could use some work, but we've seen the crowds lining up at the velvet rope for some unofficial nightclub action anyway. Maybe for the younger crowd, the the post industrial abandoned building vibe adds to the cool factor.  

And here's the former Flatbush Savings bank, formerly an HSBC bank, and also currently set to be demolished and replaced by an eight story residential building.  I hear the ornate original bank interior persisted even after it converted to a Dollar Junction. Mysteriously fabulous dollar stores - so New York.  

815 Flatbush