House of the Day: 52 Irving Place
Here’s a listing in our own backyard we hadn’t seen yet because its promotion appears to have been limited to Craigslist. It’s fairly unremarkable, though if you lost the white vinyl windows and non-period metal gate you might have something to work with. But it’s most notable for the fact that it is a brownstone…
Here’s a listing in our own backyard we hadn’t seen yet because its promotion appears to have been limited to Craigslist. It’s fairly unremarkable, though if you lost the white vinyl windows and non-period metal gate you might have something to work with. But it’s most notable for the fact that it is a brownstone in Clinton Hill available for less than a million bucks ($975,000). It appears to be quite narrow however and certainly in need of some work–just how much is hard to tell from the pics. There was an open house yesterday, so maybe someone can give us some color.
Clinton Hill One Family [Craigslist] GMAP P*Shark
Yeah i hear you, i guess i don’t really care either. i was just responding to people saying that the dave chapelle block party and biggie smalls were saying that area was bed stuy for some kind of street cred, when people have long thought of those areas as bed stuy. that’s all.
Who cares what you call the neighborhood? I live on Grand and am just happy to own a four story 20 ft wide brownstone that I bought for $600K in 2001. Call it Circusville for all I care because it is my home and I couldn’t be happier!
I’m Anon 10:28 – I reread my previous post and wanted to say that I think it sounds kind of snarky. I didn’t mean to so I hope I didn’t offend drew. I’m a bit of a history buff …
Drew – well, the newer residents of Clinton Hill like the original name of the neighborhood, so we’ll continue to call it that. I like Bed Stuy too, but I don’t live there. Just because someone in the 1970s didn’t know the difference between Clinton Hill and Bed Stuy doesn’t mean we should change the name of the nabe.
In the 1990s, everyone I know thought of St. James, Grand, Classon, etc. as Bed Stuy. Maybe people were technically wrong then, but people tended to refer to Clinton Hill as a pretty smalll sliver from maybe Vanderbilt to Washington. As evidence, Mos Def,Talib Kweli and Big Daddy Kane all referred to the block party location as Bed Stuy, and they grew up here. I’m not disputing the official landmark designation boundaries, and I’m def not talking about the 1840s, just the perception of most people who have been here for a while.
Anon 11:25, you are wrong. Clinton Hill was designated a landmarked historic district in 1981. It has been a neighbohood by name since the 1840’s. Just because you don’t know the history of an area you live in doesn’t mean it has no history.
Regardless of whether you believe the border of Bed Stuy is Classon or Franklin, the block party was definately in the boundaries of Clinton Hill.
I grew up in Brooklyn, and to my recollection, white folks generally did not differentiate between Clinton Hill & Bed Stuy. These areas were predominantly black, so of course there was differentiation – it’s too large to really be one nabe. Fort Greene was always a separate nabe.
IMHO, Bed Stuy was popularized by the phrase “Bed Stuy – Do or Die” in rap songs & merchandise.
Am I wrong, or was “clinton Hill” not an invented by real estate agents trying to repackage FG and BS right about ’95 – ’97 because they weren’t acceptable choices. Does anyone else remember wondering what the heck this new “Clinton Hill” nabe was? I’m a Pratt Grad, too, so spent ample time in the thick of whatever it was.
Sorry, I know this is supposed to be about the house, but just to quickly respond to anon 5:56, I wasn’t trying to say FG and CH didn’t have an identity before recent gentrication. I was just pointing out that the gray area within which CH turns into BedStuy has been pushed further and further into BedStuy as a result of the neg image of BS and the improving one of CH. I don’t really care about the 1800’s, I’m talking about the last 10-15 years. And as a Quincy Street res, I’m gonna speak for the whole street and say we’re all in BedStuy. Ha!