86-94 Garfield Place
1892
Philemon Tillion

This group of 5 two-story Romanesque Revival rowhouses were built by Theodore P. Cooper with designs by British architect P. Tillion, who established his practice in Brooklyn in 1880, before moving to Manhattan in 1905. Tillion’s early work includes rowhouses in the Greenpoint Historic District and this group in the Center Slope. Most of his known work, however, was done after his sons Philip and Clement joined the firm. Some examples are the additions to the Eberhard Faber Pencil Factory and the Masonic Temple and the Home for the Blind in Greenpoint, and the Trinity Baptist Church on New York Avenue in Crown Heights.

All five houses are brownstone-faced, featuring a mixture of rough-cut, smooth and undulating stone. Carved ornaments include quoins around the upper windows, a stone bar bisecting the stained-glass transoms from the elements below, and decorated cornices. All of these elements make it a cohesive group, while at the same time giving each house their own individuality.