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Six to Celebrate: Bedford-Stuyvesant

The Bedford-Stuyvesant community in northwest Brooklyn is a residential area, home to ornate rows of brownstones, early middle-class apartment buildings and several institutional structures. Bedford-Stuyvesant is characterized by its wide, tree-covered avenues and low-scale residences; generally only church spires and school towers rise taller than four stories. The majority of the buildings were constructed on speculation to house New York’s growing middle class, generally between 1870 and 1920.

As late as 1869, Bedford-Stuyvesant was largely rural, with only some country houses and frame dwellings. In 1872 masonry rowhouses appeared when developer Curtis L. North commissioned 23 Italianate style rowhouses. From this point until the 1890s, development proceeded with many speculative builders and investors employing local architects to build residences; schools, churches and other institutions also appeared to serve the growing community. The Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883, followed by the elevated line along Bedford-Stuyvesant’s commercial artery, Fulton Street, in 1888. Easier access to downtown Brooklyn and Manhattan greatly increased real estate values in the neighborhood.

By the 1890s, speculative apartment houses debuted in Bedford-Stuyvesant, officially marking the change from a suburban to an urban area. The opening of the Williamsburg Bridge in 1903 bolstered this urbanization, and Bedford-Stuyvesant was densely built up by the end of the 1920s. The 1930s marked a population shift for Bedford-Stuyvesant as it became an increasingly African-American neighborhood. When the IND transit lines connecting the area to Harlem opened in 1936, Harlem residents were eager to leave cramped quarters for newer, more spacious options in Bedford-Stuyvesant. By 1950 the area was 90% black, and it remains a thriving African- and Caribbean-American neighborhood today.

Bedford-Stuyvesant is an aesthetic gem of elegant residences. Many houses have yards with plantings surrounded by original cast-iron fences. Rowhouses are set back from the street and possess their original stoops and railings. The architectural style of buildings followed the trends popular during the area’s development, including Italianate, Neo-Grec, Romanesque Revival, Queen Anne, and, at the turn of the 20th century, Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Georgian appeared. The materials of the buildings also give an idea of their age; older buildings were constructed of brick and brownstone, while light-colored brick, terra-cotta and limestone became increasingly popular toward the turn of the 20th century.

Stuyvesant Heights in Bedford-Stuyvesant was designated a New York City historic district in 1975, and a large extension of its boundaries had a public hearing in 2011. Residents in other areas of Bedford-Stuyvesant, including Bedford Corners, Stuyvesant North and Stuyvesant East, are also advocating for the landmarking of their neighborhoods. The low-scale buildings on tree-lined streets share architects, styles and details, together making Bedford-Stuyvesant a distinctive piece of New York City.

ByHistoric Districts Council logoHistoric Districts Council
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500 Nostrand Avenue icon

500 Nostrand Avenue

ALHAMBRA APARTMENTS 500–518 Nostrand Avenue and 29–33 Macon Street Montrose Morris, 1889–90 Montrose Morris, a Brooklyn architect, designed his own residence in Bedford-Stuyvesant and opened it to the public to advertise his services. His house attracted Louis Seitz, an investor, who then commissioned Morris to design these two apartment houses. The single-family rowhouse was the standard unit of housing for middle-class families at the time, while multi-family buildings were limited to often squalid tenements. Both of these apartment buildings are early examples of elegant multi-family dwellings designed to sway public opinion. The Alhambra is a combination of Romanesque Revival and Queen Anne styles. It features rounded-arch windows, carved brackets, open terra-cotta arcades and a slate-covered mansard roof. Its patterned brick and stone bandcourses and quoins create a poly- chromatic composition.
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140 HANCOCK STREET icon

140 HANCOCK STREET

RENAISSANCE APARTMENTS 480 Nostrand Avenue and 140–144 Hancock Street Montrose Morris, 1892 Montrose Morris, a Brooklyn architect, designed his own residence in Bedford-Stuyvesant and opened it to the public to advertise his services. His house attracted Louis Seitz, an investor, who then commissioned Morris to design these two apartment houses. The single-family rowhouse was the standard unit of housing for middle-class families at the time, while multi-family buildings were limited to often squalid tenements. This apartment building is an early example of elegant multi-family dwellings designed to sway public opinion. The Renaissance is reminiscent of a Loire Valley chateau with its corner towers, a steep mansard roof, monumental arches and surface treatment in buff-colored brick and terra cotta. These structures were designed with features to attract residents—parquet floors and other decorative materials that mimicked the neighboring brownstones. The Landmarks Preservation Commissioned described these individual New York City landmarks as the “most prestigious and impressive multi-family buildings in Brooklyn.”
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Girls High School icon

Girls High School

James W. Naughton, 1885-86 James W. Naughton immigrated with his family from Ireland to Brooklyn when he was eight years old. Naughton became a trained architect and was closely involved in Brooklyn politics, which led him to the position of Superintendent of Buildings for the Board of Education from 1879–1898. As superintendent, Naughton designed all schools constructed in Brooklyn. The Girls’ School is the oldest surviving structure built as a high school in New York, and it served as the prototype for later high schools constructed in the city. A combination of Victorian Gothic and French Second Empire styles, the school is faced in red brick, terra cotta and contrasting stone. It is symmetrically massed, with a central towered entrance and three pavilions, each of which project and are connected by recessed sections. At the rear of the building is a large Collegiate-Gothic style addition designed in 1912 by long-time New York City Superintendent of School Buildings C.B.J. Snyder.
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404 TOMPKINS AVENUE icon

404 TOMPKINS AVENUE

BIRTHPLACE OF THE TEDDY BEAR 404 Tompkins Avenue Unknown architect, 1880s No. 404 Tompkins is a typical red-brick tenement building with a pressed-metal cornice. It also happens to be the birthplace of the teddy bear. At the turn of the 20th century, the ground-floor commercial space was occupied by Rose and Morris Mitchom, Russian-Jewish immigrants who became another great New York City success story. President Theodore Roosevelt was known for his near-fanatical hunting hobby, but in 1902 he spared the death of a baby bear. Political cartoons depicted the bear in the newspapers, and the Mitchoms turned the bear into a stuffed novelty toy. They received permission from the White House to use the term “teddy bear” for their creation. The toy became so popular that full-time production was eventually devoted to making it. The Mitchoms’ invention was the symbol of the Republican Party in 1904, and their business eventually grew to form the IdealToy Company, which remained in the family until the 1970s. The original teddy bear survives and can be viewed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.
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