FROM THE PAGES OF BROWNSTONER.COM Now on
COURIER L 48 IFE, FEB. 22–28, 2019 M BR B G
BY STEPHEN ZACKS
The lavish details of this
1899 Axel Hedman-designed
Brownstone in the Stuyvesant
Heights Historic District make
it one of Brooklyn’s most coveted
showpieces of the Renaissance
Revival.
The home, at 392 Stuyvesant
Ave., has numerous fretwork
screens; fl uted, scrolled
and wreathed moldings; seven
original mantels, including
three working gas fi replaces;
a pier mirror with a built-in
bench in the foyer; stained
glass and a pier mirror with
classical columns and griffi
n brackets in the parlor; inlaid
and herringbone fl oors; a
center hall stair; an original
passthrough and built-in cabinets;
and a window seat behind
an elaborate fretwork screen
in one of the bedrooms.
The two-family is confi gured
as a fl oor-through apartment
over a triplex.
The drawback of the center
hall stair is that it tends to
squeeze out some of the living
space and make everything
except a garden-fl oor rental
awkward. A triplex over a
garden-fl oor rental is often a
current solution to this predicament.
The passthroughs would
originally have been installed
with sinks, which are no longer
in evidence, but that can
be easily remedied, and the
original kitchen was most
likely in one of the rear rooms
on the garden fl oor. It is now a
somewhat meager strip in the
hallway, which a new owner
may want to redo, along with
the bathrooms, none of which
are pictured.
The facade is equally eclectic
and detailed, displaying a
mixture of brownstone on the
ground level, a dogleg stoop
and asymmetrical ornamentation
associated with Queen
Anne-style, and lines of rough
hewn stone characteristic
of the Romanesque Revival;
neighbors exhibit white limestone
popularized by the 1893
Columbia Exposition and associated
with the Renaissance
Revival.
The home at 392 Stuyvesant
Ave. belongs to a row of
10 limestone and brownstone
houses designed by Hedman
and built by Walter F. Clayton,
who had already constructed
25 row houses around the corner
on Decatur Street, hiring
Magnus Dahlander, a sometime
partner of Hedman.
The designation report describes
some of the notable
characteristics of Hedman’s
design, such as the alternation
between rounded and polygonal
bays — this one is polygonal
— which extend from one
edge of the house to the stoop,
and the elaborately decorated
doorways.
The only title transfer record
for the property on ACRIS
is an estate sale in 1971,
and the property has been in
the same family ever since, so
it is really a rare gem of a landmark
building. Listed as fi ve
bedrooms and three baths by
Walston Bobb-Semple with Urban
View Realty, it will start
showing on Sunday, Feb. 24.
It’s asking $2.699 million.
What do you think will
happen to it?
Renaissance Revival
Bedford-Stuyvesant Brownstone asks $2.699M
The details inside this 1899 Brownstone make it a coveted showpiece of
the Renaissance Revival style in Brooklyn. Urban View Realty
/BROWNSTONER.COM