The Garden Community for Garden Lovers

Mansions of Clinton Hill, Brooklyn

28 comments


The garden is fast going brown and going to sleep. What to do now? Well, let’s check out some of the grand & historic homes in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.

Brooklyn is the 4th largest city in the United States! Ahh! but it’s not really a city in it’s own right. That idea was squelched in 1883 when 21 elephants stormed across the Brooklyn Bridge at it’s grand opening, making Brooklyn an outer borough of New York City.

Here are some fascinating homes in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Enjoy…

2241 Clinton Avenue – Romanesque Revival with English Arts & Crafts influences (1890)
This house, designed by William Tubby for Charles M. Pratt, is considered to be the finest Romanesque Revival single family home in New York City. Built as one of four wedding presents for the four Pratt sons by oil baron Charles Pratt, who lived right across the street, this home is now the official residence of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Brooklyn.

This beautiful classic Gothic Revival villa, at 284 Clinton Ave., is a rare gem. It was the former William W. Crane House, and was built in 1854.

This is my friend Paul’s house and the reason I go to Clinton Hill in the first place. He has really good parties. Look at that beautiful blue sky!

The affluent neighborhood’s mixture of apartment buildings, mansions, brownstone and brick rowhouses, and the Pratt Institute and St. Joseph’s College, built at various times in a number of different styles, is a great part of its charm.

278 Clinton Avenue – Eclectic Victorian (Mid-1880s)
There are no records in Brooklyn’s archives for this unique and eclectic house, but it remains a beauty nonetheless. The overall materials used, the square castle-like tower, the carved balcony, large etched glass windows and the profusion of arched windows, doors, and cornice all make this the Hill’s most eccentrically beautiful home.

The area is named after Clinton Avenue, which in turn was named in honor of New York Governor DeWitt Clinton (1769–1828).

136 Clinton Avenue – Greek Revival (1835-1840)
The Lefferts-Laidlaw House was built during the first wave of Clinton Avenue’s development, when the Hill was considered a suburban county retreat high above Wallabout Bay and the Navy Yard. The house was built by the Lefferts family, one of Brooklyn’s largest landowners, and is the only remaining temple-front Greek Revival home in Brooklyn.

The Steele house, built in 1812, is prized for being the largest and best remaining example of a wooden suburban mansion in the transitional Greek Revival/Italianate style now standing in any of the five boroughs.

The Clinton Hill Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The district includes the mansions of Clinton Avenue, built in the 1870s and 1880s. The most prominent of these are linked to Charles Pratt, who built a mansion for himself at 232 Clinton Avenue in 1874, the year his Charles Pratt & Company was acquired by Standard Oil,4 and one each as wedding presents for three of his four sons. These four mansions can be seen on Clinton Avenue between DeKalb and Willoughby. The rest of the historic district is noted for its prominent Italianate and Beaux-Arts rowhouses.[

184-186 Clinton Avenue – Queen Anne (1890s)
This pair of houses was also designed by Montrose W. Morris in 1892, this time for builder William H. Beard and his son William, heirs to the fortune derived from the development of Red Hook’s Erie Basin and the Beard Stores, now home to Fairway Market. Beard was as wealthy as anyone else on this rich street, but chose to build two smaller adjoining family homes, which he did not live to see completed.

Snow White (the address is 313 Clinton Ave.) with Red Riding Hood at right (315 Clinton Ave.).

Pistachio (460 Clinton Ave.) and Vanilla (458 Clinton Ave.) Eagle photo by Lore Croghan

More blog posts by bathgate

Previous post: Paul's Lemonade

Next post: Saks Fifth Avenue Holiday Windows



Comments

 

Your photos are beautiful. I love the variety of the architecture and the tempting selections of food !
Marjorie

18 Nov, 2016

 

Thank you Marjorie. I'm so glad you enjoyed it and thank you for your comment.

18 Nov, 2016

 

Super photos Bathgate.....?

18 Nov, 2016

 

thanks

18 Nov, 2016

 

Fascinating blog Paul. Your friend Paul lives in a beautiful mansion! Thanks for the tour☺

18 Nov, 2016

 

thank you Sheila. Im glad you enjoyed it. :)

18 Nov, 2016

 

It was great seeing the homes of the rich and famous, the different styles I find fascinating but give me Waltons Mountain style any day, out of the ones pictured in your photo's, I like the Bishops residence the most, thankyou Paul, Brooklyn to me means Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand, lol.....

19 Nov, 2016

 

Thanks, Bathgate, for depicting and describing so many amazing homes. I like to imagine them being designed and constructed... carpenters working on the staircases etc.
Fascinating blog.?

19 Nov, 2016

 

what a great read .... thanks for sharing ....

PS A bit spooky for me ... I think I have watched too many american horror movies lol

Gg

19 Nov, 2016

 

LOL. Gnarly thats the feeling I got as well, Freddie Kruger came to mind with a couple of them, gave me a back crawling sensation, glad I'm not the only one affected like that....

19 Nov, 2016

 

Yes you can just imagine Kathy Bates in the kitchen "Roanoke" comes to mind lol

but great Photos Paul

Gg

19 Nov, 2016

 

What! No cheesecake from Juniors? All kidding aside, these homes are very hard to maintain to prevent decay. Sadly, for every one you have shown, ten are gone because of the expense involved in restoration and maintenance and a shortage of those restoration artisans skilled enough to do the job. I was very happy to see builders permits posted on the windows of a house of one in your photos which indicates a restoration in progress. These Vic's were the first houses to have gravity pressured hot and cold running water from a faucet for they had water tanks in the upper levels of the houses...the turrets and or cupolas actually functioned to contain these tanks as well as stairwells. They were filled by servants hand pumping the water up or carrying the water up to the tanks. Also other new innovations were flush toilets and central heating systems. These amenities that I have just mention made these mansions true vanguards of the modern home and were marvels to the general population of that time most of whom were living in primitive conditions by comparison. Thank you for this wonderful presentation!

19 Nov, 2016

 

You're welcome Linclass. Have you seen Barbra lately? She looks amazing at 70. Amazing how the years fly by!

Gg. On a misty night with a full moon - all the makings of a horror story.

Thank you Terrotoonie. I'm so glad you enjoyed it and it's wonderful to see you back with us. :)

19 Nov, 2016

 

Loosestrife2 We now have cheesecake from Juniors. Not sure what I was thinking, lol. Thanks for the interesting "tidbits" Im glad you enjoyed it.

19 Nov, 2016

 

Such grand houses with interesting architecture and interiors. It was fascinating to read about them and their history.
There are two 'American style' wooden houses in a village near here but they are much smaller than the ones in your photos.

20 Nov, 2016

 

I might add that the mausoleums these Vic's built to memorialize their "magnificent" families where in many cases just as decorative as their mansions. Bath, there are quite a few in Queens which would make a great subject for a pictorial coffee table book.

20 Nov, 2016

amy
Amy
 

Thanks for showing these fascinating buildings Paul,there were one or two that made me think of the Adams Family ... Your friend is lucky to have such an interesting house and you to be able to enjoy parties in beautiful surroundings ... I would have come but I was washing my hair LOL ...

20 Nov, 2016

 

Fascinating blog, Paul and certainly some grand houses. The food doesn't look too shabby either!!

22 Nov, 2016

 

I love mixed neighbourhoods like this. So interesting to walk through. I believe that many get restored as I can see realestate (?) pictures of inside. Thank you Bathgate for taking the time to put it all the interesting history together for us.
The cheesecake looks yummy.

22 Nov, 2016

 

A fascinating Blog and beautifully illustrated as always Paul :o) Hope everything is going along ok for you?

23 Nov, 2016

 

Thank you everybody for your thoughtful comments. Amazing how each house has its own story to tell. Houses today just aren't the

24 Nov, 2016

 

Paul, I think you got cut off mid-sentence! Houses today just aren't the... ??? :D

26 Nov, 2016

 

LOL, Sorry about that Tracey. I thought you were clairvoyant. Houses today just aren't built like this.

26 Nov, 2016

 

Some beautiful house there and loads of history. It seems strange that you get an historic house and then within a few feet a dirty great block of what looks like flats! Seems they should have their own acreage - but then they probably once did!

7 Dec, 2016

 

Fabulous pics. Aren't they just too beautiful. And the best thing is they have been saved!!! My brother-in-law is an architect and is also extremely interested in Restoration. He lives in and practices in NYC. David Beer. Thanks for posting. i always look at your stuff. zMerry Christmas too.

24 Dec, 2016

 

Honeysuckle - That's Brooklyn for you, an eclectic evolution of different styles and cultures overlapping. Many of those old historic mansions are icons of a bygone era. Some were replaced with more contemporary housing for various reasons - fire, demolition, impractical upkeep, etc. Each one represents somebody's life story.

Thank You Wells. This was a fascinating project to work on.

25 Dec, 2016

 

How these American Victorian houses and the families who lived in them made the transition or rather decline into the "bygone era" is told in Booth Tarkington's novel "The Magnificent Ambersons". Honeysuckle described the final result and appearance of these neighborhoods evolution into the industrial revolution...well, I could find no better words.

25 Dec, 2016

 

Yes, nothing can stop the "train of evolution" or ambition or some might say "progress." You've said it so eloquently. Just walking through these neighborhoods, you get a sense of what life might have been like then, but often there much trial & tribulation as well.

25 Dec, 2016

Add a comment

Recent posts by bathgate

Members who like this blog

  • Gardening with friends since
    30 May, 2010

  • Gardening with friends since
    18 Aug, 2016

  • Gardening with friends since
    4 Oct, 2008

  • Gardening with friends since
    22 Oct, 2008

  • Gardening with friends since
    14 Aug, 2008

  • Gardening with friends since
    2 Dec, 2011

  • Gardening with friends since
    2 Nov, 2009

  • amy
    Amy

    Gardening with friends since
    17 Apr, 2008

  • Gardening with friends since
    9 Aug, 2009

  • Gardening with friends since
    17 Nov, 2014

  • Gardening with friends since
    2 Jan, 2012

  • Gardening with friends since
    29 May, 2013