1872, Architect: Unknown|

This building is one of only four timber-frame houses in the Stuyvesant Heights district, which makes it one of the oldest structures in the area. This free-standing structure is also unusual as it was built for two family occupancy. It was designed in the French Second Empire style, and possesses many original features like its third story mansard roof, segmental arched entries and windows, and front porch.

583 Throop Avenue;
Thomas Houghton,1891-1895|

The parish of Our Lady of Victory was organized in 1868.When this church was erected to replace a smaller wooden structure it was heralded by the Brooklyn Eagle as one to the most beautiful churches in the city. The Gothic style building is constructed of contrasting Manhattan schist and limestone, and its western facade features a stained-glass rose window. The interior includes a number of original features, such as the white marble alter designed by Thomas Haughton and decorative painting by Philadelphia artist Ferinand Baraldi.

87 MacDonough Street;
Architect: Unknown, 1863|

This villa-style home is one of the oldest surviving structures in the neighborhood and a vestige of  Bedford-Stuyvesant’s bucolic days. It was constructed for William A. Parker in 1863, who was a local hops and malt merchant. The house was later occupied by James McMahon, the founder and president of the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank. Since 1945, this structure has been occupied by the United Order of the Tents. The United Order of the Tents was founded as part of the underground railroad, and after the Civil War, was officially organized as a charity and lodge. It is one of the oldest lodges for African-American women in the nation.

54 MacDonough Street;
George C. Chappell, 1889|

When it was constructed in 1889, what was originally built as the Tompkins Avenue Congregational Church was the largest structure of its denomination, with seating for over 2,000 people. This massive brick-and-granite structure presides over a corner lot, and its 140-foot-tall campanile dominates the block. In 1942 the congregation merged with and moved to the Flatbush Congregational Church, and the first African Methodist Episcopal Church took title to the Italianate style structure.  

391-399, 402-410, 411-419 Stuyvesant Avenue ;
William Debus,1910|

These homes were part of the final wave of rowhouse development in Bedford-Stuyvesant.  These elegant, neo-classical structures drastically compare with their brownstone and red-brick neighbors because of their limestone cladding. This shared materiality gives the impression of a single, large unit, a common aesthetic throughout this neighborhood. The choice of limestone as a material was indicative of the amassed wealth of the middle class that resided in this neighborhood in the early twentieth century.

404 Tompkins Avenue, 1880s, Architect: Unknown|

404 Tompkins is a typical red-brick tenement building with a pressed-metal cornice. It also happens to be the birthplace of the teddy bear. At the turn of the 20th century, the ground-floor commercial space was occupied by  and whose ground store commercial space was once occupied by Rose and Morris Mitchom Russian-Jewish immigrants, who became another great immigrant success story in New York City. President Theodore Roosevelt was known for his near-fanatical hunting hobby, but in 1902 he spared the death of a baby bear. Political cartoons depicted the bear in the papers, and the Mitchoms turned the bear as a stuffed novelty toy. The Mitchoms received permission from the White House to use the term ‘teddy bear’ for their creation. The name stuck, and their bear became so popular that full-time production was devoted to producing teddies. The Mitchoms’ invention became the symbol of the Republican Party in 1904, and eventually grew to form the Ideal Toy Company, which remained in the family until the 1970s. The original teddy bear survives, and can be viewed at the Smithsonian Institute, in Washington D.C.

THE JOHN C. KELLY HOUSE;
247 Hancock Street;
Montrose Morris, 1880s|

This impressive house, one of relatively few free-standing structures in Bedford-Stuyvesant, was designed and built for the well-to-do Irish immigrant John Kelly. Completely clad in brownstone, this three-story Renaissance Revival mansion features first- and second-story projecting bay windows; a recessed rounded-arch entry; stone stoop and railings; and belt courses, carved panels, pilasters and a stone cornice and balustrade. The house’s sheer size, triple the width of most single-family structures in Brooklyn, coupled with the ornate stone cladding, results in a monumental and handsome residence.

THE BOYS’ HIGH SCHOOL;
832 Marcy Avenue;
James W. Naughton, 1891–92|

The monumental Boys’ School was designed in the Romanesque Revival style and features quintessential design elements, such as rounded-arch windows and doors, dormer windows, gables, terra-cotta ornament, smooth brick façades and a rough-cut ashlar stone foundation. The imposing corner towers create a picturesque silhouette between this massive structure and the sky. Along with the Girls’ High School, it was the first public secondary school in New York City, and both were designated New York City landmarks in 1983.

John G. Prague;
1886|

This handsome Queen Anne and Renaissance Revival house was first owned by William J. Howard, who lived here with his family from 1886 until his death in 1919. Howard was a glove manufacturer and founder and owner of the Howard Estates Development Company. By 1914, having accumulated over 500 acres of land, Howard developed streets, water and gas mains, and 35 residences in Howard Estates, which became the present day Howard Beach.

ENOCH GRAND LODGE;
423 Nostrand Avenue;
Heins & LaFarge, 1890|

This exuberant building features a dominant corner tower, contrasting brick and terra cotta, finials, stylized capitals and stained glass from its days as the Reformed Episcopal Church of the Reconciliation. The building is notable for its architects. George Lewis Heins and Christopher Grant LaFarge met while studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and both trained under the renowned architect H.H. Richardson. A year after this church was completed, they won the design contest for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan. They later became the designers of stations and buildings for the city’s first subway system, the IRT, in 1901.

THE GIRLS’ HIGH SCHOOL;
475 Nostrand Avenue;
James W. Naughton, 1885–86|

James W. Naughton immigrated with his family from Ireland to Brooklyn when he was eight years old. Naughton became a trained architect and was closely involved in Brooklyn politics, which led him to the position of Superintendent of Buildings for the Board of Education from 1879–1898. As superintendent, Naughton designed all schools constructed in Brooklyn. The Girls’ School is the oldest surviving structure built as a high school in New York, and it served as the prototype for later high schools constructed in the city. A combination of Victorian Gothic and French Second Empire styles, the school is faced in red brick, terra cotta and contrasting stone. It is symmetrically massed, with a central towered entrance and three pavilions, each of which project and are connected by recessed sections. At the rear of the building is a large Collegiate-Gothic style addition designed in 1912 by long-time New York City Superintendent of School Buildings C.B.J. Snyder.

RENAISSANCE APARTMENTS;
480 Nostrand Avenue;
140–144 Hancock Street;
Montrose Morris, 1892|

Montrose Morris, a Brooklyn architect, designed his own residence in Bedford-Stuyvesant and opened it to the public to advertise his services. His house attracted Louis Seitz, an investor, who then commissioned Morris to design the Renaissance Apartments as well as the Alhambra Apartments at 500-18 Nostrand Avenue, 29-33 Macon Street. The single-family rowhouse was the standard unit of housing for middle-class families at the time, while multi-family buildings were limited to often squalid tenements. Both of the Alhambra and Renaissance Apartments are early examples of elegant multi-family dwellings designed to sway public opinion.

The Renaissance is reminiscent of a Loire Valley chateau with its corner towers, a steep mansard roof, monumental arches and surface treatment in buffcolored brick and terra cotta. The structure was designed with features to attract residents—parquet floors and other decorative materials that mimicked neighboring brownstones. The Landmarks Preservation Commissioned described the Alhambra and Renaissance Apartments (both individual New York City landmarks) as the “most prestigious and impressive multi-family buildings in Brooklyn.”

ALHAMBRA APARTMENTS;
500–518 Nostrand Avenue;
29–33 Macon Street;
Montrose Morris, 1889–90|

Montrose Morris, a Brooklyn architect, designed his
own residence in Bedford-Stuyvesant and opened it
to the public to advertise his services. His house attracted
Louis Seitz, an investor, who then commissioned
Morris to design the Renaissance Apartments as well as the Alhambra Apartments at 500-18 Nostrand Avenue, 29-33 Macon Street. The single-family rowhouse was the standard unit of housing for middle-class families at the time, while multi-family buildings were limited to often squalid tenements. Both of the Alhambra and Renaissance Apartments are early examples of elegant multi-family dwellings designed to sway public opinion.

The Alhambra is a combination of Romanesque Revival and Queen Anne styles. It features rounded-arch windows, carved brackets, open terra-cotta arcades and a slate-covered mansard roof. Its patterned brick and stone bandcourses and quoins create a polychromatic composition.

The structure was designed with features to attract residents—parquet floors and other decorative materials that mimicked neighboring brownstones. The Landmarks Preservation Commissioned described the Alhambra and Renaissance Apartments (both individual New York City landmarks) as the “most prestigious and impressive multi-family buildings in Brooklyn.”

 74 HALSEY STREET Rudolphe L. Daus, 1886|

Ruldolphe L. Daus trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and was a prolific Brooklyn architect. He also served as Surveyor of Buildings in Brooklyn during 1899-1900. His most famous work in Brooklyn was the New York and New Jersey Telephone Building, an individual landmark at the corner of Willoughby and Lawrence Streets in downtown Brooklyn. This elegant Queen Anne house on Halsey Street features Romanesque details such as rusticated rounded arches. The house is a beautiful example of Daus’s early work, as he shifted toward classicist styles after the World’s Columbia Exposition in 1893 in Chicago.