Building of the Day: 400-404 Washington Avenue

Editor’s note: An updated version of this post can be viewed here.

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Row Houses
Address: 400-404 Washington Avenue
Cross Streets: Greene and Lafayette Avenues
Neighborhood: Clinton Hill
Year Built: 1885
Architectural Style: Queen Anne/Romanesque Revival
Architect: Mercein Thomas
Other buildings by architect: Methodist Home for the Aged, Park Pl at NY Ave, Crown Hts North.
Landmarked: Yes, part of Clinton Hill HD (1981)

The story: By the 1880’s, Clinton Hill was experiencing its largest growth spurt as one of the best neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Its two main showcase streets, Clinton and Washington Avenues, were being built and re-built upon by some of the city’s most successful entrepreneurs and businessmen. Free standing mansions, semi-detached, and attached rowhouses line both of these streets, each one larger and finer than the next.

These three houses are designed to look like one very large mansion, yet, each separate house has its own personality and design elements that are unique unto itself. There was no attempt to cookie-cutter build here. The architect, Mercein Thomas, was responsible for quite a few buildings in Clinton Hill, many for people of more modest means, but he could build them grandly, when needed, even for speculative housing. Thomas doesn’t leave a lot of records behind, as to his training or personal life, but he was very busy in Clinton Hill from between 1878 and the early 20th century. He also is on record for factories in the DUMBO area, as well as his largest work, the Methodist Home for the Aged, on Park Place in Crown Heights North.

The buildings were built for developer George Harvey, who had very successful people in mind as buyers. The massing of shapes, the ornament and materials, as well as the gravitas of these houses all announce success, and a worthiness of living on this grand street. These houses have all the details that I love about Romanesque and Queen Anne houses: the mixture of materials, the turrets, bays, porticos and balconies, the masterful use of arches, fine brickwork, and the liberal use of ornament. Thomas freely decorated these houses with terra-cotta, as well as carved stone ornament. The corner house especially near the entrance, has Byzantine Leaf carved ornament, with faces and animals, (a boar) peeking out of the leaves. The first house, #400, has a spectacular, and rather scary, terra-cotta frieze of a wild, horned spirit, flanked by two demonic animals, with tiny dragons popping out of the buds in the foliage. After years of neglect, these buildings are finally getting a new lease on life. They remain some of the best later rowhouses in Clinton Hill. GMAP