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Graham Home for Old Ladies ยท 320 Washington Avenue
Graham Home for Old Ladies
1

Graham Home for Old Ladies

Exterior view of Graham Home for Old Ladies, located at 320 Washington Avenue. Inscription: "One of many philanthropies for which Brooklyn is indebted to Augustus Graham [who founded it in 1851], this is a home for 70 women. Some have lived there for 20 or 30 years. Rooms are well furnished, like a private club, and a small hospital cares for the infirm." Image is not dated.

1955

Graham Home for Old Ladies

Graham Home for Old Ladies

Exterior view of Graham Home for Old Ladies, located at 320 Washington Avenue. Inscription: "One of many philanthropies for which Brooklyn is indebted to Augustus Graham [who founded it in 1851], this is a home for 70 women. Some have lived there for 20 or 30 years. Rooms are well furnished, like a private club, and a small hospital cares for the infirm." Image is not dated.

IMAGE DATE1955
FromBrooklyn Public Library logoBrooklyn Public Library

Former Graham Home for Old Ladies. Established in 1851.

This brownstone had two lives before it was turned into a condo. It began as the "Brooklyn Society for the Relief of Respectable Aged Indigent Females," for "gentlewomen...unfitted to accept willingly the public asylum provided by the state" by John B. Graham. Supposedly, admissions were overseen by women representing twenty six Brooklyn churches across many denominations. Women had to be at least 60 years old to take residence, and brought their own furniture. The home was funded by individual donors.

The old ladies home was shuttered sometime in the 70's, and was turned over to the Bull Shippers Motor Inn. A Fort Greene Newsletter characterized the new dormers as "ladies by the hour who brought only scanty-panty testimonials of propriety." The brothel was closed, and the building became a cheapo single-room occupancy hotel, a "magnet for crime" in the changing Clinton Hill area.

The building was gutted and cleaned up in 2000, when BRP Development Corporation purchased the brownstone. The sign, which reads "The Graham Home for Old Ladies" was added during the renovation to hark back to its less rowdy days.

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