Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: [v. 89, no. 2303]: May 4, 1912

Text version:

m^^s 3\imh MAY 4, 1912, PROSPECT PARK WEST SHOWS MARKED IMPROVEMENT. Numerous Fine Dwellings and Apartments Change the Sky Line — Bulk of the Vacant Land Restricted to Dwellings and a New Mansion is Planned. DROiSPECT Park West, in Brooklyn, has * undergone considerable improvement during the last two years through the erection of two block fronts of fine apart¬ ment houses and the building of several palatial dwellings. The latest dwelling to be built is that of Peter Winchester Rouss. the Manhattan drygoods merchant, at the southwest corner of Garfield place, which cost about $200,000. Abutting the Rouss mansion, at the northwest corner of Pros¬ pect Park West and First slreet. Alfred C. Feltman, a. prominent pavilion owner at Coney Island, will build a costly home for himself on a plot 100 x 125, which he bought about one month ago for a price approaching $70,000. Prospect Park West is that part of Ninth avenue that skirts the west side of Prospect Park, from Union street to Fifteenth street, a distance of about IVz miles. Practically all of the land on this thoroughfare originally belonged to the Litchfield Estate whose holdings once em¬ braced all of Prospect Park as well. It is only during the last decade that the peet Park West and President street, on a piot 100 X 100 feet. It was the first elevator apartment house on the Park Slope; and, its general features were cop¬ ied after the Astor Court apartments in Manhattan. A number of fine elevator apartment houses have since been erected on Prospect Park West, north of Oth street, but it is understood that future improvements in this part of the thorough¬ fare will ibe mostly private dwellings inas¬ much as all of the- land except the block front from 3d to 4th streets is restricted to such structures. There are a few large vacant plots and a few lots yet unim. proved in this section of Prospeet Park West, where front foot values are higher than in the section of it south of Oth street, which is mostly improved with four story non-elevator apartment houses. From 4th to oth streets is a block from of flne new apartment houses, while two vacant corner plots, one at 3d street and the other at 4th street, are the only re¬ maining unrestricted parcels north of 9th street. Court apartment house and between Presi¬ dent and Carroll slreets, is a vacant plot of two lots, which is held at $25,000. The practically vacant block front at the be¬ ginning of Prospect Park "Vi'est, from Union to President streets, is understood to be in the market at ."^TOO a front foot. Inasmuch as this parcel overlooks the Park Plaza it wiil probably be improved with a large apartment house. The vacant plot, about 100 by 100 feet in size, at the north¬ west corner of Prospect Park "West and Sth street recently changed hands, it hav¬ ing been held at about .$40,000. The ad¬ joining north half of this block to Tth street is improved with fine four-story stone front dwellings; while a row of three- story stone front dwellings covers the block from Gth to Tth streets and a row of four-story stone front dwellings extends from 5th to Gth streets. Number 94, at the southwest corner of 5th street, is a massive four-story brownstone house which is now on the market at $4<),000. A notable circumstance in connection with these large houses is that they are all oc- PROSPECT PARIv WEST AT THIRD STREET. HAMPTON COURT APARTMENTS AT PROSPECT PARK WEST AND PRESIDENT STREET. estate disposed of most of its holdings on Prospect Park West and in intersecting streets. Much of the property was given in payment for apartment houses and other improved property in Manhattan, while the remainder was sold to builders for improvement. The flrst improvements on Prospect Park West were begun twenty years ago, when Jacob G. Dettmer and Henry C. Hulbert bought land and erected costly homes for their own occupancy. There was no gen¬ eral building movement in the street until about ten years ago because the Litch¬ field estate until that time would not sell its holdings and would not im¬ prove them. Charles G. Peterson and Charles Hart, two speculative builders, were the first to make extensive improve¬ ments in the street, each buying half a block front and erecting a row of slone front four-story dwellings that were held at from $2S,000 to $40,000 each, the latter price 'being asked for the corner houses. The building ^'orkl admired the initiative of these men, but the houses were carried a long time before they were sold. How¬ ever, the structures gave character to the neighborhood and tended to cause the in¬ tersecting streets to be built up with fine dwellings. As a result the Park Slope sec¬ tion is the largest fine area of urban Brookiyn. Louis Bonert was another builder whose flne private houses gavii character to ■ the north half of Prospect Parlv West. He erected houses of rich de¬ sign which were sold at from $18,000 to -$25,000 or more each. After' these operations the thorough¬ fare remained dormant for a few years, or until 1902 when a Manhattan builder erected the six-story limestone elevator apartment house, known as Hampton Court, at the southwest corner of Pros- The 3d street corner, which comprises a plot about 100 by 100 feet, is held at $G5,00U; while the northwest corner of 4th slreet, 95 by 97.4V. feet, is held at $57,- 000, or a little less than $600 a front foot. The last vacant plot on the private resi¬ dence block between Montgomery place and Garfield place is 47 by 100 feet in size, is owned by Otto Singer, a builder, and is held at $28,000. A vacant lot. 24.8 by 89 feet at 20 Prospect Park West, between Carroll street and Montgomery place, is held at $10,000 and it is the only vacant parcel on an otherwise finely improved dwelling block. Adjoining the Hampton cupied except one and that is vacant be¬ cause of the death of the owner. A flne detached three-story brick and stone dwelling at the southwest corner of 2d street and Prospect Park West was com¬ pleted about one year ago by Ernest G. Draper, wlio occupies it. Three fine private mansions occupy the block of Prospect Park West from 1st to 2d street. A row of six-story elevator apartment houses ex¬ tend from 8th to Oth street. South of Oth street there are not sn many vacant plots on Prospect Park West, rows of four-slory non-elevator apartment houses predominating^. Apart- PETER W. ROUSS' RESIDENCE AT PROSPECT PARK WBST AND GARFIELD PLACE.