Bed Stuy

No-Fee Bed Stuy Duplex With Mantels, Built-ins, Laundry Asks $6,600 a Month

A spacious brownstone parlor and garden floor rental comes with period detail, a renovated kitchen, office, and private backyard.

original rear parlor with mantel and wall of built-ins

Photo via Compass

by Susan De Vries

10/17/2024 0

For lovers of Gilded Age detail, this Bed Stuy rental has mantels, built-ins, and stained glass, but isn’t lacking in some more modern amenities, like an updated kitchen. The duplex unit takes up the parlor and garden floors of the 18-foot-wide brownstone at 558 MacDonough Street.

The brownstone stands out a bit from its neighbors with its Queen Anne style cupola atop a full-height bay. It was completed by 1893 when prolific builder Charles B. Reynolds advertised it and its neighbors along the block for sale. Among the enticements to buyers were wood floors, gas logs, bookcases, and “mirrors throughout.” Much of the block was developed by 1894 and that year the Brooklyn Daily Eagle proclaimed the street a “thoroughfare lined with trees and ivy” where solidly brownstone blocks were eschewed in favor of a “diversified architecture.”

While much of the detail remains on the parlor level — including stained glass windows and a mantel with mirror in the front parlor, and built-ins and another mantel in the rear — the layout has been altered so the rooms can serve as bedroom space. An en suite bathroom has been added to the front parlor and another inserted into the rear extension, which retains a non-working fireplace. Both have been recently renovated, one with a shower and one a tub.

Entry to the apartment is through the garden level, which has been opened up to create an open plan living, dining, and kitchen space. The original dining room in the front keeps its wainscoting, plate shelf, and mantel. The large kitchen, with white cabinets to match the white finishes throughout the unit, has a generous amount of cabinet and counter space and a dishwasher. Laundry is tucked into a closet adjacent to the kitchen.

While the floor plan labels the rear extension as a third bedroom, there isn’t a door between it and the kitchen. However, it would make a fine office space or dining nook, and it has access to a half bath as well as the garden.

Use of the rear yard is exclusive to the unit, the listing notes. Enclosed by a painted wood fence, it has a patio paved with stone slabs and landscaped planting beds.

Listed by Jennifer S. Bocian and Alex Gandelman of Compass, the no-fee duplex is priced at $6,600 a month. What do you think?

[Listing: 558 MacDonough Street | Broker: Compass] GMAP