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