Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Former Charles A. Schieren Mansion
Address: 405 Clinton Avenue
Cross Streets: Gates and Greene Avenues
Neighborhood: Clinton Hill
Year Built: 1889
Architectural Style: Romanesque Revival/Queen Anne
Architect: William Tubby
Other Buildings by Architect: 241 Clinton: Chas M. Pratt Mansion, Library: Pratt Institute, other homes and buildings in Clinton Hill and Brooklyn.
Landmarked: Yes, part of Clinton Hill HD (1981)

The story: Here’s the house of a German immigrant who made it to the big time – the Mayor of Brooklyn. He was one of the last mayors of Brooklyn, actually. His name was Charles Adolph Schieren, and this enormous, late Victorian pile was his home. It was built here on Clinton Avenue, at the time, the Gold Coast of Brooklyn, home to wealthy manufacturers, oil men, and financiers.

Charles Schieren came to Brooklyn from Germany as a young man, arriving, like a large number of German immigrants, after the 1848 Revolution. He gained employment at a belt manufacturing plant; the industrial kind, not the ones for your trousers. By 1868, he had his own company, and by 1882, that company, the Charles A. Schieren & Co., held several patents for the manufacture of belts and the machines that made them, for the new, high speed electric dynamos and other modern machinery. His plant was in Brooklyn, and then moved across the river to Manhattan, in 1905.

Schieren commissioned William Tubby to design this mansion, suitably large and impressive enough for his status. Charles Pratt, the über-rich oilman, who lived only a couple of blocks away, may have recommended Tubby, as he employed him to design his son’s fine house, also on Clinton Ave, as well as several buildings on the Pratt Institute campus, and other building projects. Tubby gave Schieren a grand mansion of brick and brownstone, with a deep arched porch, with brownstone balusters and columns. The house is a Queen Anne style massing of shapes and materials, with a very interesting patinated copper oriel on the side, and a steeply pitched roof of Mediterranean tile, fronted by a Flemish gable.

In 1893, he successfully ran for Mayor of Brooklyn, and served one term, presiding over a borough that was even then, well on its way in the planning stages of becoming part of Greater New York, something most manufacturers and businessmen like himself, were in favor of. He was Brooklyn’s next to the last mayor. He still lived here, as mayor, and was often visited by his constituents, who would ring his bell asking to speak to him. He had to curtail the visits, as he noticed that his hats, coat and umbrellas were disappearing from the front foyer at an alarming rate. “I will not see strangers at my house,” he would announce to the Brooklyn Eagle, in 1894. Schieren died in 1915, only hours before his wife, both from pneumonia. They are buried together in Green-Wood Cemetery.

Fast forward to the late 1970s, early 80s, when the house was in terrible shape, neglected, like many of the grand old mansions on this street. The house had many owners over the years, and was home to Teen Challenge in the late 1960’s. In 2009, the house was purchased from the last owner, who had received it from his employer, according to local lore. Much work needed to be done, and the price was high. The sale was followed with great interest on Brownstoner. It was gutted and rebuilt as a two family home. The company that did the renovation, Blue Bird Construction Inc., has some very interesting pictures of the present day interior. This is one of the great houses of Clinton Hill. It’s good to have it back. GMAP

Photograph: Blue Bird Construction Co.
Photograph: Blue Bird Construction Co.


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