YE OLD TIMBER TAVERN ON COURT ST (1926)
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. Do you know the history of YOUR house? ******************************************************************************************************************************** Old English architecture is a rare sight in New York City. Rare, interestingly, because it once had a distinct place and time in the history of New York City’s 20th century architectural development. As tastes changed, however, its look – sometimes referred to as Tudor, Chester, Jacobean, Elizabethan, &c. – quickly fell into disfavor. Also, its reliance upon such materials as wood and stucco – those that can easily wear if not well maintained – forced owners of these structures to look for more long-term solutions to their maintenance. One of these solutions usually meant simply covering their more wearable materials with those that stood up better to weather. Although it would take nearly a century to do, such is the case with No. 93 Court Street, initially designed in the Old English style. “Brooklyn’s most distinctive office building,” started a Brooklyn Daily Eagle article in October of 1926, “may well be the description of the new home of Malkind & Weinstein, architects, which is being completed at 93 Court st., and is expected to be ready for occupancy in November.” The article went on to highlight the building’s design and beauty. “The building will carry out the style of Old English architecture in every detail in its exterior, while the […]
WHICH LANDMARKS TO DEMOLISH? (1913)
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. Do you know the history of YOUR house? ******************************************************************************************************************************** In 1913, Brooklyn was looking to tear down long rows of stately brownstones. These brownstones were “substantial residences” in the “Court Street Section” comprising Nos. 24 to 40 Schermerhorn Street and Nos. 141 to 137 Clinton Street. The owners of these homes, upon discovering that their residences were in the path of the newest Brooklyn courthouse, were, understandably, up in arms. Eminent Domain or no, they were having none of it, and they started a campaign to force the city to locate a building site more suitable. Apparently, these men got to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, which published this spread showing their houses – along with their names (5 out of the 7 of whom were doctors) – and compared their residences (favorably, of course) to an alternative site that they had seclected comprised of “several blocks of lodging houses, dance halls and the like in the Bridge Plaza District,” asking the question: “WHICH SITE CAN BE BETTER SPARED FOR A COURT HOUSE?” Playing upon the morals of the people of Brooklyn, it would be clear which site would meet the wrecking ball when, the following day, an assemblyman from Brooklyn by the name of Burr announced that the New York State Assembly would soon adopt his bill “taking from the […]
