Gowanus

Greenpoint: Housing stock to cherish

Eye On Real Estate

April 9, 2014 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle
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Greenpoint’s got an apartment house built by oil tycoon Charles Pratt – yes, the man who started the Pratt Institute – for neighborhood workers in the 1880s.

He produced Pratt’s Astral Oil at his Greenpoint refinery, and constructed the Queen Anne-style Astral Apartments at 184 Franklin St. One of the important architecture firms of the day, Lamb & Rich, designed the stately building, which is now a city landmark.

Other apartment houses and homes in Greenpoint may not have been designed by such prestigious architects, but nevertheless have big eye appeal. Here are a few of our favorites. What are yours? Tell us in the comment section below.

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* 258 Franklin St.

This golden-oldie apartment house commands the corner of Eagle Street – and the ground-floor tenant is coffee shop Eagle Trading Company, where the storefront windows are opened on nice days to Let The Sunshine In. (Remember that hippie anthem from the musical “Hair”?)

* 144 Franklin St.

This Renaissance Revival charmer with Romanesque Revival arches is a co-op apartment building now. But it came into existence in the 1890s as the Mechanics and Traders Bank of Brooklyn, according to Brownstoner’s history expert Montrose Morris, AKA Suzanne Spellen.

* 681 Leonard St.

Chocolate-brick designs add zing to this caramel-colored building. We’re not sure whether the bird on the roof is a decoration or a live creature.

* 90 Dupont St.

Maybe we’ve got chocolate on the brain today – but this candy-bar-colored shingle house with green trim looks good enough to eat. Interestingly, photographer Dinanda Nooney took a picture of this rowhouse in 1978 that’s in New York Public Library archives, in a collection called the Nooney Brooklyn Photographs. It looked just as good back then.

* 56 Dupont St.

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright …

It doesn’t much matter what the house looks like. We want to while away our days with the stuffed animals in the yard, especially the jungle cats in the tree.

* 99 Huron St.

Most. Adorable. House. Ever.

* 139-149 Milton St.

Here’s some eye candy: Balconies you can to play Shakespeare on, and green-trimmed bay windows.

By the way, photographer John D. Morrell took a 1958 shot of part of this row of houses, which is in Brooklyn Historical Society archives.

Also by the way, one of the homes, 145 Milton St., sold in December 2011 for $1.265 million, city Finance Department records indicate.

* 131-139 Calyer St.

The impeccably carved stone over the doors and windows won us over. The five rowhouses are neo-Grec in style and were built around 1880, according to the 1982 Greenpoint Historic District Designation Report that got landmarked status for part of the neighborhood.


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