Building of the Day: 139-153 Hicks Street

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Mansion House Apartments
Address: 139-163 Hicks Street
Cross Streets: Clark Street and Love Lane
Neighborhood: Brooklyn Heights
Year Built: 1935-1936
Architectural Style: Georgian style Colonial Revival
Architect: Yeoman Builders, architect unknown
Landmarked: Yes, as part of Brooklyn Heights HD (1965)

The story: Hicks Street in Brooklyn Heights is one of that neighborhood’s main streets, with a wonderful collection of residential buildings of all kinds along its path. You can trace the development of Brooklyn’s housing stock along this street, as wood framed housing gives way to brownstone and brick, and those are later replaced by apartment buildings of different size and vintage.

The first house on this plot of land was a summer villa owned by the Waring family, which purchased the home in 1803, as a summer retreat from their residence in lower Manhattan. Rebuilt in 1822, the house then became home to a private girls school called the Brooklyn Collegiate Institute for Young Ladies. The school stayed in this location until it moved to its new location on Joralemon Street, becoming in 1845, the Brooklyn Female Academy, and then, in 1854, Packer Collegiate Institute.

The old school building then became a hotel; the Mansion House Hotel. Located in the heart of Brooklyn, which at that time was Brooklyn Heights, the hotel soon grew in popularity and in size. Because it was only a short walk to the ferry to Manhattan, or to the banks and businesses now relocated from the Ferry area up to Montague Street, Court Street and Atlantic Street (now Avenue), the Mansion House was always full, and soon found itself in need of expansion. In 1875, it added two large new wings, one on either side of the original building, and expanded its stables behind it, on College Place.

The hotel remained in existence until the 1930s. It became a residential hotel, still catering to residents who commuted daily to Manhattan, now via the subway. Advertisements for the hotel in the ‘teens and early 1920s touted the amenities of the hotel, which among its many convenient attractions, offered a garden restaurant, with a one dollar dinner and a sixty-five cent breakfast.

The hotel suffered the fate of many buildings that we no longer have with us, a fire raged through the structure, destroying it. In 1935, it was announced that a brand new six story apartment building would rise on the site, owned and built by the Yeoman Building Company. The building would be in the Georgian style, perhaps a reminder of the old hotel, and would have suites of two, three and a half, and four and a half rooms, with dropped living rooms, and dining balconies with iron railings.

The bathrooms would have shower stalls with “chromium framed glass doors,” and each apartment would be furnished with Venetian blinds. The building would also have a twenty-four hour doorman. The new Mansion House Apartments opened in 1936. Today, the building is a co-op, and many of the original apartments have been joined together to make larger units. According to Property Shark, there are now 107 units in the large “I” shaped building that sits on a huge 163×150 foot lot. GMAP

(Photo: Nicholas Strini for PropertyShark)