Architecture

A Montrose Morris Queen Anne Confection in Bed Stuy

On the corner of Hancock Street and Marcy is a wonderfully flamboyant house, mixing brick, limestone and terra cotta, towers, turrets, gables, loggias and balconies, stained glass and carved ornament.

brooklyn architecture 232 hancock street bed stuy montrose morris

by Suzanne Spellen

07/19/2017 0

Editor’s Note: This post originally ran in 2011 and has been updated. You can read the previous post here.

For the growing number of people who are aware of Montrose Morris’ architecture, 232 Hancock Street is his house, where he lived with his wife and children. Unfortunately, that’s not true.

Yes, it is his house, because he designed it, but the Morris family actually lived next door, in what is now an empty lot. The Morris manse burned down in a fire in the 1970s. But this house gives us the greatest hints as to what Morris’ own home looked like, as he built it to look very similar to his, both inside and out.

brooklyn architecture 232 hanock street bed stuy montrose morris — Montrose Morris’s home at 234 Hancock Street. Illustration via Brooklyn Daily Eagle

In 1885, Montrose Morris designed his home at 234 Hancock Street to be both a wedding present to his wife, and a showroom for his work. (I can imagine that conversation.) When it was constructed, he held an open house, allowing thousands to examine his style and tastes. It was a very successful advertisement, and he picked up some of his most important commissions from it, including the Alhambra Apartments.

By 1888, Montrose Morris was well on his way to becoming one of Brooklyn’s busiest upscale architects. He was also his own developer, and owned the row houses he developed on this block, selling them to his high end clients.

This house was built in 1888, three years after his own home, but designed to complete and complement his home, keeping in the Morris style of multiple houses looking like one larger mansion.

It’s a wonderfully flamboyant Queen Anne confection, mixing brick, limestone and terra cotta, towers, turrets, gables, loggias and balconies, stained glass and carved ornament.

Montrose Morris' Hancock Street home at right. Photo source unknown — Montrose Morris’ Hancock Street home at right. Photo source unknown

A period photograph of the two houses shows that this one once sported a fine conical roof, another Morris signature. It’s a big house, with a large kitchen extension.

Inside, Morris copied his own home yet again, and this house, like his, has a two-story atrium parlor, and once had a top-floor billiard room with a stained glass skylight.

Over the years, the home belonged to doctors and judges, and other professional people, keeping with the tradition of fine living in Montrose Morris homes. In the 1970s, the Landmarks Preservation Commission did a survey of Bedford Stuyvesant, intending to create several historic districts in that vast neighborhood.

At the time of the initial survey, Montrose Morris’ home was still standing. It burned down in a ferocious fire that also partially destroyed this house. Much of the interior was destroyed, and today, there are very few original interior details left. Other external changes have taken place, but the house remains one of Bedford Stuyvesant’s most photographed and memorable homes.

It is now included in the Bedford Historic District, which was designated in 2015.