The Crown Jewel of the Brooklyn Public Library is the Central Library located on Grand Army Plaza. Despite its imposing appearance, the building we see here nearly wasn’t built. Construction delays, funding cuts, and the literal merger of Brooklyn and New York all played a role in scrapping the first design that was under construction, to the Art Deco design that was eventually built. Are you a fan of the current building or do you like the classical beaux-arts design of the original?
Soho has gone through many transformations, from the premiere residential neighborhood in the city in the early 1800s, to entertainment, manufacturing, art, and back to residential. 97 Crosby Street, seen here, was an example of the manufacturing past. It was built in 1894-95 by owner/ architect Edward Judson as a factory. This has had some rather “interesting” tenants. In 1902, it was home to the Strassburger Wax Figure Co. which must have been terrifying to see in person. Over the past century, it was also home to a delicatessen, a card company, silversmith, handkerchief manufacturer, glass blower, you get the idea. In 1987, it became a co-op. This is also probably the widest angle photo I have ever taken. It was landmarked as a part of the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District on May 11th, 2010. #soho
It’s Monday, which means it’s time for more Gilded Age History. Today we’re taking a look at the Height Casino in Brooklyn Heights. Founded in 1905, it is one of two remaining Gilded Age Clubs in Brooklyn. It was formed as a tennis and social club for the elites of Brooklyn Society. Casino simply meant little house and hadn’t received its connection with gambling yet. Today it still has squash and tennis courts, and despite opening up who could become a member in the mid-1900s, it is still incredibly difficult to get into. If you belong or have been inside, I would love to hear more about your experience in the comments.
This is an excerpt from my book “Hidden Landmarks of New York.” If you want a copy it’s available at most major retailers. This is one of the oldest homes in Harlem, constructed in either 1864 or 1865. Harlem was an independent village founded in 1656 by Peter Stuyvesant, the director general of New Amsterdam, and it would remain pretty rural until the end of the nineteenth century. Although there were some rail lines running through the town, getting from Harlem down to New York City was a tedious journey. In the 1830s for example, only ninety-one families lived there. In the 1860s, due to a decline in good farmland, speculators began buying up subdivided properties and began to build homes similar to this one. However, the real development would not occur until the arrival of elevated trains in the 1880s. Most of the
town houses in Harlem date from that construction boom. Most wood-frame homes were torn down, but no. 17 survived. Throughout its entire history, it remained a single-family home, with those families doing a decent job of
keeping it original. It was owned for decades by Carolyn Adams and her husband. Adams was a principal dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company from 1965 to 1982 and has been an advocate for Harlem preservation and pride. The home sold in 2015 for $3.6 million. It was landmarked on December 12, 1981.
I’ve seen a lot of different kinds of buildings around New York, but I’ve never seen what appears to be cottages up till this point. 935-947 Prospect Place in Crown Heights has these six little homes built in 1920 by owner Thomas H. Fraser and designed by A. White Pierce. They are known as Arts & Crafts houses which were popular around the turn of the century, and were some of the last single-family homes built in Crown Heights. The homes were mostly set back from the street, with driveways and garages located behind them. Having a garage made these homes attractive to upper-middle-class Brooklynites who could afford cars in 1920, including polo players, doctors, and small business owners. They are a unique set of houses in an already unique neighborhood and were landmarked as part of the Crown Heights North Historic District on April 24th, 2007. What are your thoughts on this style? Too much or just right?
Did you know there’s a tiny courthouse wedged between the skyscrapers of Madison Square Park? This is the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York. It was completed in 1899 and designed by James Brown Lord. Lord drew on Renaissance revival themes for the all marble facade, and it was likened to an English country estate when it was finished. What makes this courthouse unique is its sheer number of statues of various legal minds throughout history. These include figures such as Confucius, Moses, Louis IX, and, up until 1955, Mohammed. His statue was removed that year at the request of local Islamic leaders. 33% of all of the construction costs went solely towards the sculptures. In total, there were 26 statues on the exterior, sculpted by 16 different artists, including Daniel Chester French, the artist responsible for Lincoln’s Statue in the Lincoln Memorial. Unlike most buildings of this size, it still serves its original function as a court. Both the exterior and interior are New York City Landmarks and were designated on June 7th, 1966.
Did you know Ikea in Brooklyn paved a dry dock and put up a parking lot? The Redhook Waterfront used to be full of shipyards, supporting a variety of trade. The Erie Basin, as it was known, also had the largest and first dry docks in the country when they opened in 1866. The Graving Docks, so called because the giant basins where ships were repaired vaguely resembled a coffin, were active in ship repair facilities up until the early 2000s when they were sold to Ikea for their first New York store. They filled in the dry dock to create their parking lot and left a thin strip of bricks around it to outline what used to be a large part of Brooklyn’s Industrial Waterfront. Have you ever seen this when you’ve gone to get a bookshelf?
Whenever I research a Gilded Age Mansion, you come to realize that the societal elites really were a small group, and that all of these families were interconnected either through business, marriage or both. Take this house on 54th Street for example. This is the former home of Minnie Young. It was designed by the firm of Hiss & Weekes and built in 1900 between 5th and Madison Avenue. Minnie Young was a widow at the time; her husband, Albert Young, who was a stockbroker, passed away in 1899. Despite her husband’s death, Young had a sizable inheritance from her uncle Lewis Ginter. Ginter had founded the company of Allen and Ginter, which produced tobacco and related products. Ginter’s company was acquired by American Tobacco, where he served as a board member. The person who bought him out also resided in New York: James Duke. Duke was the chairman of American Tobacco and had multiple homes throughout the Northeast for his family, including his personal home at the corner of 78th Street and 5th Avenue which still stands today and is used as the NYU Institute of Fine Arts. Minnie Young would live in the home until 1920, when she began to lease it out as the neighborhood had become more commercial. Her first tenant was a dress maker, followed by an antiques dealer. It was then home to the English Speaking league until it was sold in the late 50s to Henry Payson who leased it to a famous hair dresser Kenneth Battelle, who was credited with giving Jackie Kennedy her iconic haircut. A fire in 1991 gutted parts of the second and third floor, which required extensive renovations. In 1993, the current occupants of the building, InterAudi Bank took over. 19 East 54th Street was landmarked on November 22nd, 2016.
While it’s not too hard to find wooden houses in Brooklyn, it is to find any with these kinds of shingles. This is 126 Noble Street in Greenpoint. It was constructed alongside its neighbor in 1867 for a merchant named John Petri. Petri resided at 124 and rented out this house. At the time of construction, the houses would have a simple clapboard facade. In the 1880s, however, the Queen Anne style of architecture swept across the United States. The style liked to emphasize asymmetry, which led to the rise in popularity of something called “novelty shingles” that looked like a fish scale or diamonds to break up the facade. It was at this time that 126’s exterior was renovated with this new pattern, which incorporates both. It’s one of the best examples left in Greenpoint. It was landmarked as a part of the Greenpoint Historic District on September 14th, 1982.
Today I’m continuing my Gilded Age series, this time looking at multiple mansions. The Pratt family were oil magnates and philanthropists who built out one of the best surviving collections of Gilded Age homes on Clinton Avenue by the intersection with Willoughby Avenue in Brooklyn. There are currently four remaining in this neighborhood, owned by St. Joseph’s College, the Pratt Institute and the Diocese of Brooklyn. I’ll be doing more specific deep dives on each of these so make sure you follow along.
In 1826, the United States turned 50, had 24 states, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4th, John Quincy Adams was president, and this house was built on Hudson Street. 518 was part of a wave of development on the far west side of the village. Its builder, Isaac Hatfield, jumped into this headfirst building over 7 buildings wrapping around from west 10th Street. Apart from the storefront, this house retains most of its original features, including a peaked roof and dormer windows. The home was built in the Federal style, which was all the rage in the early 1800s. This is an older photo, but today the building is occupied by Justine’s on Hudson. It was landmarked as a part of the Greenwich Village Historic District on April 29th, 1969.
Towering over Brooklyn Heights and New York Harbor is the shell of the former largest hotel in New York City, the St. George. Constructed in phases between 1885-1929 and occupying a whole block between Clark, Pineapple, Henry, and Hicks Street, the St. George was a notable hangout spot for F. Scott Fitzgerald, President Roosevelt, and Truman, amongst others. At its peak, it contained over 2,600 rooms, a saltwater swimming pool, and an incredible ballroom. The tower portion of the hotel, seen here, was designed by Emery Roth and completed in 1929 and included an Egyptian themed night club.
The hotel was used to help muster troops prior to being shipped out during WWII and the Korean War. By the 1960s, the hotel was sold multiple times and began to fall into disrepair. By the 1970s and 80s, different sections were divided into co-ops. In 1995, a fire erupted that was so large it would have counted as a 16 alarm fire if the FDNY hadn’t stopped at 5. Over 500 firefighters showed up to help fight the blaze, which destroyed much of the interior of the original building, including the lobby bar, which was used in the Godfather. After repairing that, portions of the building that weren’t already co-ops were turned into student housing. If you’re thinking to yourself, “where do I know this hotel from?” the answer is you probably read Jenny Jackson’s novel Pineapple Street. The Hotel St. George was landmarked as part of the Brooklyn Heights Historic District on November 23rd, 1965.
The Revolutionary war saw more Americans perish in captivity than in combat. This was in large part due to the terrible conditions on board prison ships located in Wallabout Bay near the site of the current Brooklyn Navy Yard. Very little food, a lack of clean drinking water and disease claimed the lives of over 11,000 people, whose remains were dumped into the swampy marsh land off of Brooklyn. These remains were found after the war and moved to a tomb in the Navy Yard before the reconstruction of Fort Greene park by Frederic Law Olmsted which was centered around this new crypt where the remains were moved and are today. If you want to learn more, I go into more detail about the monument in my book Hidden Landmarks of New York
Every spring and summer, like clockwork, I see something on social media featuring this building covered in ivy. So I did what any sensible content creator would do: I went up to 91st Street to get my own photo. The difference here is that I decided to look up a little more information about the history of the building. Located at the corner of West End Avenue and 91st Street, 640 West End was built in 1913 and designed by the firm of Townsend, Steinle & Haskell. This design firm had created its own development wing in 1906 and often had a financial stake in their buildings, including this one. Their other works are a laundry list of high-end Upper West Side large apartment buildings such as Kenilworth Apartments on Central Park West, the Herald Square Hotel, as well as multiple lofts and stores in midtown. When this building opened, each floor was its own apartment with over 20 rooms, complete with servants’ quarters. While there were originally 12 apartments, today there are quite a few more thanks to a renovation in the 1950s and 60s which subdivided the building initially into two apartments per floor, and now from what I can tell has up to four per floor. I already know your next question: “Does the ivy damage the building?” To which I respond: I have no idea, but if you’re a structural engineer or botanist, please let me know in the comments. 640 West End Avenue was landmarked as part of the Riverside-West Historic District on December 19th, 1989. This photo was taken with Kodak Portra 800. #filmphotography #portra800 #nychistory #upperwestside #nycphotography
It’s always interesting to me to read up on Staten Island before its mass suburbanization in the mid-20th century, with writers often describing its bucolic beauty. Take this house for example, built in 1836 near the present day historic Richmond Town. The LaTourette House was the centerpiece of a 500 acre family farm. This was considered one of the finest farms in one of the most picturesque locations on the island. With a commanding view of New York Harbor, it was used prior to the farm as a British observation post during the Revolutionary War by Lt. Col. John Graves Simcoe of the Queen’s Rangers. The farm itself was founded by David Latourette, who was a truck farmer, which, as a fun fact, just meant he grew vegetables. The LaTourette family would own the home until the 1920s, operating the farm all the way until 1910. They would go on to sell it to the city of New York, who turned it into a clubhouse for a new municipal golf course. The porch is not original and was added on by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. The LaTourette House was landmarked on September 13th, 1966. This photo was taken with Fuji 200 Film.
I love stumbling upon buildings like this. This is 78 Cambridge Place in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. It was most likely built in 1860 for Jeremiah Peterson. At the time it was built, this was a free standing house which would have been something to see. This area of Brooklyn was an upper middle class enclave, just a short jaunt over to the Fulton Ferry. However, because it was built on the property line and there are no windows on the free standing side, it is likely to assume that the builder didn’t think it would be alone for long. It is also more than likely that this house had a front porch when it was first built. For any of my millennial followers, this kind of gives me the vibes of the cover of the “I Spy” books from the Scholastic book fairs. 78 Cambridge Place was landmarked as a part of the Clinton Hill Historic District on November 10th, 1981.
It’s another Monday which means it’s time for part 2 in my series of Gilded Age Mansions that you can still visit in NYC. The Gilded Age tended to be a family affair when it came to real estate. Entire blocks could be developed for a single family, which was the case here on Madison Avenue. This is the former Phelps Stokes House, later the J.P. Morgan House on the corner of 37th Street and Madison Avenue. Originally this was developed, as well as the rest of the block, with four brownstones for the Phelps-Stokes family in 1853. This date would technically predate the Gilded Age, which took off after the Civil War. However, most of the stories you hear about that time period would have taken place in brownstone mansions like this one in Murray Hill. That being said it was enlarged and updated in 1888 in order to keep up with Gilded Age tastes.
In 1904, J.P. Morgan purchased the home for his son, J.P. Morgan Jr. It’s hard to keep track of the two Morgans in this story, why Gilded Age families had to name all their kids the same names drives me crazy when I research, but I digress. Morgan Sr. had purchased additional Stokes homes on the Madison Avenue block where he began to accumulate a large collection of books and manuscripts. In 1906 after demolishing some of the brownstones he built his library. J.P. Morgan Jr would continue to live at this home, and opened the library to the public in 1924. The Morgan House was landmarked on February 26th, 2002. #gildedage #gildedagemansions #nychistory
Downtown Brooklyn has seen a dramatic change over the past two decades, with skyscrapers and new housing sprouting up seemingly daily. You might be surprised, as I was, to literally stumble onto these houses. If you think they’re out of place, they kind of are. Today they’re known as the Duffield Street Houses, but they were moved here in 1990 from Johnson Street, where they were constructed in the 1830s and 40s. Reverend Samuel Roosevelt Johnson built them on a farm that he inherited from his father. The family had owned the farm since the colonial period of the city. This area of Brooklyn became a middle and upper middle class neighborhood. Over the years, doctors, contractors, merchants, and lawyers called these buildings home. They’re a great example of what once was in downtown Brooklyn. In more recent news, a developer is currently planning to build a tower incorporating the homes into it on the site, though no official plans have been filed with the Landmarks Preservation Commission yet. I’ll add more info when I get it. All four houses were landmarked on April 24th, 2001.
Happy Pride! Today marks the anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, one of the most important events and locations in the fight for equal rights of the LGBTQIA+ community. In the 1960s, bars in New York were prohibited from serving gay patrons, and the state liquor authority would often revoke licenses of bars who did not comply with this rule. As a result, many such bars were forced underground and run by the mafia, with The Stonewall Inn being no exception. By bribing the police and registering as a social club and not a bar, raids were less frequent and were generally known in advance.
That all changed on June 28th, 1969, when police raided the bar without tipping off the owners, and beat up patrons and employees. However, unlike busts at other bars, members angrily waited outside instead of dispersing. After a patron was beaten on the head while being put in a squad car, a full-blown riot ensued. Thousands of other members soon surrounded the bar, forcing the cops to barricade inside. Eventually, the fire department and riot police were able to disperse the crowd; however, protests continued for another five days. The uprising would spur on the creation of brand-new activist organizations such as GLAAD, the Gay Liberation Front, and PFLAG as well as start the New York City Pride Parade, which was celebrated on the first anniversary of the riot in 1970. The Stonewall Inn was and remains a pivotal institution in the fight for equal rights.
Because this is Landmarks of New York, I couldn’t end this without mentioning that The Stonewall Inn was built in 1843 originally as a stable and in 1930 merged with the building next door. On June 24th, 2016, The Stonewall Inn was designated a national monument by President Obama, making it the first to be dedicated to the LGBTQIA+ community. It was landmarked by the City of New York on June 23rd, 2015. #pride
On 136th Street, just off the Major Deegan, sits the Bertine Block Historic district. This small street is home to a group of buildings that date back to the 1870-90s, and also happened to be the block that my great great grandfather lived on. The Mott Haven section of the Bronx became a part of New York City in 1874 after it was annexed, and spurred on a wave of development. One of these developers was a man by the name of Edward D. Bertine. Bertine developed the block in sections, with the buildings pictured here on the south side of the street being built in 1895 by local architect Adolph Balschun, Jr. in a renaissance revival style. This is one of the few areas of the Bronx where row houses were popular relative to say Manhattan or Brooklyn. Residents of the area pushed for increased public transportation which set off a small building boom. Many of the people who either purchased or rented these homes were firmly middle class, split between native born New Yorkers and Immigrants. They were landmarked as a part of the Berntine Block Historic District on April 25th, 1994.