373-365 & 363-355 6th Ave
1892
Walter M. Coots

As development intensified in Park Slope, multiple dwellings gained increasing favor as the preferred residential typology during the second half of the 19th century. They were typically four-story structures without elevators in the popular styles of the time and differed from tenements as they had only one apartment on each floor.

This group was developed by one of Park Slope’s most prolific builders, Louis Bonert, who hired prominent architect Walter M. Coots. They had previously collaborated when designing 338 356 6th Avenue and continued working on 6th Avenue over the next few years, developing Nos 345 353, thus creating a cohesive and unique corridor between 5th and 7th Street.

The four residential brick structures include a brownstone-faced mixed-use building on the corner lot. The top story features arched windows with decorative panels below, as well as continuous cornice detailing.

338-356 & 345-353 6th Ave
1891
Walter M. Coots

This group of 5 four-story flats were the first to be built on 6th Avenue by Louis Bonert, with designs by Walter M. Coots.

Although Coots opened his office in Manhattan, by 1885 he was listed in Brooklyn directories and became one of the most noted architects of the late 19th century. His work can be found in the Park Slope, Crown Heights North, Prospect Heights and Alice & Agate Courts Historic Districts, as well as in the Cobble Hill, Bushwick, and East New York neighborhoods.

Directly across the street, on the west side of 6th Avenue, stands another group of 5 four-story brick and brownstone structures by Bonert and Coots. Dating from 1893, the buildings feature details in the Neo-Grec style, maintaining the geometry and expression of their façades. This group is also the location of the Park Slope Ale House, at No. 356, a popular local hangout for over 30 years.

432-446 6th St
1887
J. J. Collins attributed

The Queen Anne style, popular from about 1870 to 1890, is characterized by an asymmetrical massing of forms and details, contrasting materials, colors and textures, eccentric details, projecting bay windows, juxtaposition of window pane size, multi-paneled wood doors, multiple, tiled or slate-covered gables, with dormers and chimneys.

This group of houses developed by Theresa B. Collins are a notable example of this style. Although the design is attributed to her husband, they have a striking resemblance to a group of houses designed by prominent architect C. P. H. Gilbert at 54-64 Prospect Place. Collins hired Gilbert in 1887 to build four houses at 340-344 9th Street in the newly popular Queen Anne style, and would later commission another six houses to be built at Prospect Park West. Gilbert would go on to create some of Park Slope’s most eclectic and beautiful rowhouses, designing mansions for the elite in several Brooklyn neighborhoods, as well as in Manhattan.

402 7th St
ca. 1880

Wood frame houses are among the oldest structures in Park Slope. A few can still be found in the neighborhood, especially in its southern area, possibly due to the late implementation of the city’s “fire limits” (the boundary within which it was illegal to erect a wood house).

This example at 7th Street was first recorded on a fire insurance map in 1886. It features elements from the French Second Empire style, which had been the predominant style after the Civil War, although it appeared only briefly in Park Slope. Its typical feature was the slate mansard roof with iron cresting, as well as enframement on windows, moldings, imposing cornices, and double front doors with horizontal panels at knob height and kickplates at the bottom. The arched doorway, however, was often almost indistinguishable from its Italianate predecessor and was crowned by a low arched or triangular pediment.

415-419 7th St
1869-70

This red brick structure was originally built as the All Saints Episcopal Chapel. The congregation grew considerably over the next two decades, prompting the construction of a larger building on 7th Avenue, completed in 1893.

The chapel was purchased in 1903 by the Emanuel German Evangelical Lutheran Church, a congregation formed in 1884 by several families who left St. John’s Lutheran after it ceased to be a strictly German- speaking church. They had previously purchased a church in Williamsburg, but in 1901 the city condemned all the buildings in the area for the construction of the East River (now Williamsburg) Bridge. The chapel was home to this congregation until 1948 when it merged with St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church. Not much is known about the use of the building for the next decades, but in 1992 it was purchased and restored by Kingsboro Temple.

441-457 7th St
1887
Charles G. Peterson

By the mid-1870s the simpler Neo-Grec style supplanted the rounded, ornate Italianate, and its later variations, as the preferred style for rowhouses and other residential buildings.

Popular until about 1890, Neo-Grec architecture is characterized by extremely stylized classical details, angular forms, and incised detailing formed by mechanical stone cutting; high stoops with massive, angular cast-iron handrails, fences, and newel posts; massive door hoods and enframements with angular decorative elements resting on stylized brackets; double-leaf wood entrance doors with angular ornament; stylized, angular incised window surrounds; projecting angular bays; and projecting cornices resting on brackets.

The style is the second most popular in the Center Slope, with both rowhouses and flats designed in it.

This group of nine brownstones at 7th Street is an interesting example of Neo-Grec rowhouses. They were developed by Charles G. Peterson, a local builder, and architect who in 1886 had completed two Neo-Grec houses at 7th Avenue (Nos. 360 & 362). He would later build another long row at 7th Street (Nos. 583-603), featuring three-sided bays, high straight stoops, wrought iron hand-railings, and slender cast iron newel posts.

Most of Petersen’s work is located within the Park Slope Historic District, including examples in the Romanesque or Renaissance Revival style, and some Neo-Classical buildings.

286-88 7th Ave
1891-93
John Welch

Founded in 1867, the congregation of All Saints Episcopal Church met initially at a Military Hall at the corner of 5th Avenue and 9th Street. Its first building (All Saints Chapel, Site 7) was a small brick structure on 7th Street, built in 1870. After years of financial difficulties, the church moved in 1891 to this Romanesque-Moorish structure designed by Scottish-born architect John Welch, who had just completed the Church of St. Luke in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, to great critical acclaim.

The overall configuration of the building recalls the shape of an Early Christian Basilica, with a small sanctuary apse reminiscent of those of Italian Renaissance architect Donato Bramante. It also features two distinctive towers, a bright barrel-vaulted interior with ornate terra cotta detailing, and many stained-glass windows, including one by Louis Comfort Tiffany. After a fire in 1976, some of the interior and east front of the church needed to be rebuilt, and much of the stained glass was replaced.

Today, All Saints is a growing and diverse congregation, with activities and events open to all members of the community.

461 6th St
1900-01
Adolph Leicht

The Greenwood Baptist Mission played a significant role in the growth of the Baptist faith in Brooklyn from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century. It began as a mission school in 1855, with their first chapel erected in 1863 on 15th Street near 4th Avenue. The congregation grew and prospered over the next few years, and in 1874 a new church was built at the same location. By the end of the 19th century, however, plans were made to move to another location.

Designed in the Gothic style, this two-story structure was erected in 1900, featuring rough-faced light grey stone façades, and two gabled fronts with large windows. At the corner where the façades meet, a square tower was built at an angle, with the main entrance located at its base. It is highlighted by three tall lancet openings with round windows above, two bands of terra cotta tiles, and a stepped design at the top.

Because of its architectural and cultural significance, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.

203 7th Ave
1892-93
Lewis Anderson

Originally owned by Gold, Nicoll, & Anderson, this five-story apartment building is part of a development that includes four brownstones on 3rd Street. Of these structures, only 509 3rd Street is included within the Park Slope Historic District.

With Romanesque Revival influences, the structure features light-colored brick with brownstone trim and corner quoins, and an archway at the entrance. Like many of the buildings on this stretch of 7th Avenue, the Annandale included commercial space on the first floor, with one shop on the corner of 7th and 3rd Street and another next to the main entrance. The latter was the first location of one of Park Slope’s oldest businesses, Tarzian Hardware. Opened in 1921 by the Tarzian brothers, Charlie and Marty, this store sold hardware, paint, and repaired small appliances. In 1936 it moved a few doors down to the current location at 193 7th Avenue.

142-154, 156-170 & 151-159 7th Ave
1887-88
Cevedra B. Sheldon

Following the economic upturn of the late 1870s, 7th Avenue transitioned into commercial uses mainly south of Berkeley Place. While residential and religious structures were still being built at the southern end of the avenue, during the 1880s more modest apartment houses and commercial buildings were the predominant typology. Most of them were designed as mixed-use, with shops on the ground floor and flats above, and those on prominent corner lots often featured a projecting angled or rounded bay.

These three corner buildings at Garfield Place still retain their original
configuration. They are the work of C. B. Sheldon, a notable builder active in Brooklyn
from 1863 until 1894. He was also responsible for all the buildings on the west side of 7th
Avenue between Garfield Place and 1st Street, as well as many of the buildings between
Garfield Place and Carroll Street. His work can be found all over the Park Slope Historic
District, and its extensions, as well as in the Fort Greene Historic District. Photo: Building at
142-154 7th Ave.

729 Carroll St
1891
George L. Morse

Also known as The Reformed Dutch Church of the Town of Breukelen, this iconic structure is one of the staples of Park Slope’s built and cultural landscape. The congregation was founded in 1654 by Governor Pieter Stuyvesant, as one of three “collegiate churches.” As its numbers grew, the church occupied a series of buildings in the area until the congregation was subdivided. This branch, Old First, is a Neo-Gothic structure dedicated in 1891 and replaced a chapel on Carroll Street used until 1886.  The Cathedral was designed by George L. Morse, one of the borough’s most respected and successful 19th-century architects, credited with single-handedly giving early Brooklyn a skyline of its own. Although much of Morse’s work downtown was razed in the 1930s, Old First remains his only religious building and is a notable and unique example of his skills.

The church’s 212-ft spire is the tallest in Brooklyn. It is made of Indiana limestone without a wood or steel interior structure. The façade also features limestone with stained-glass windows and a solid granite foundation.

The interior was designed in the Gothic Revival style, and features work by renowned artists like Otto Heinigke, William Willet, and Tiffany Studios. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. Its restoration is on-going.