Christopher Gray Not Optimistic About 1000 Ocean Avenue
Not living in the area, we mistakenly thought that the house at 1000 Ocean Avenue (at top) in Ditmas Park was about to get some renovation love when we drove past last May. We were disabused of that notion when we posted about it at the time. In his Streetscapes column yesterday, The Times’ architectural…
Not living in the area, we mistakenly thought that the house at 1000 Ocean Avenue (at top) in Ditmas Park was about to get some renovation love when we drove past last May. We were disabused of that notion when we posted about it at the time. In his Streetscapes column yesterday, The Times’ architectural historian Christopher Gray shares a similar pessimism about the colonial revival’s fate:
The house looks like an urban leftover of a fleeing population. A graffiti-covered truck with no license plates has been parked in the driveway for months, perhaps years. Much of the cornice and pediment, made of galvanized iron, is bare of paint; in fact the cornice is mostly gone, exposing the underlying timbers and brickwork. The fluted columns have been replaced by square ones. (Several vintage columns are rotting away in the front yard, but they seem far too short to be the originals.) A letter sent to the house and one to its listed owner, Bernice Schleicher, have produced no response.
Gray does dig up some interesting history about the house, which sits to the right of a very similar house at 1010 Ocean Parkway that is in much better shape and was bought for $1,500,000 earlier this by a doctor who plans to use it as his office. The The house at Number 1000 was designed by George Palliser for George Van Ness in 1899; the house at Number 1010 was designed in the same year by the same architect for a relative of Van Ness named Thomas Brush. (Check out an old photo of the Van Ness house on the jump.) Gray notes that 1010 was architecturally superior from the start. It certainly doesn’t look like that’s gonna change any time soon. Have there been any efforts by neighbors to contact the owner or bring about some beautification?
Kissing Cousins at 100: Only One Shows Its Age [NY Times]
Something Afoot on Ocean Avenue? [Brownstoner]
1000 Ocean Avenue: GMAP P*Shark
1010 Ocean Avenue: GMAP P*Shark
Photo from Victorian Flatbush: An Architectural History
I JUST READ (A LITTLE BELATEDLY) THE TWO ARTICLES ON 1000 AND 1010 OCEAN AVENUE, BROOKLYN AND WAS DISMAYED BY HE FLIPPANT WAY THENY TIMES REPORTER HAD. PERHAPS HAD HE DELVED A LITTLE MORE DEEPLY HE WOULD HAVE DISCOVERED THAT THE HARD WORKING PEOPLE WHO OWN AND LIVE AT 1000 OCEAN HAVE BEEN SLOWLY (BUT STEADILY) MAKING IMPROVEMENTS ON THE HOME. NOT EVERYONE CAN MAKE SUBSTANTIAL RENOVATIONS ALL AT ONCE. SOMETIMES, IT TAKES YEARS. HAD THE REPORTER GAINED ACCESS TO THE HOME (WHICH HE PROBABLY NEVER WILL AFTER HIS ARTICLE), HE WOULD HAVE SEEN THE INTERIOR IMPROVEMENTS AND THE NEW ROOF ON THE HOME. AS THE OLD PROVERB GOES “DON’T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER”.
Hi gang.
I lived at 1001 Ocean Avenue from 67-75.
Can anyone tell me who owned 1000 Ocean Avenue in 1967?
I remember an old gentleman who lived there. His wife was also there. I think another lady lived in the house too. I dont think the guy who I remember living there was a Van Ness, could have been. He was in his later years in 1967 so he must be dead by now.
1000 Ocean Ave. was always the “haunted house”. In the late 60’s the weeds were at least 4 feet tall in front of the house. Kids would sneak around back all the time. It was a mess of a place back then and seems to me to have just frozen in time with little change. I do remember when they changed a collum on the front from the round to a square one.
Anything anyone can tell me about 1000 Ocean would be appreciated.
Oh, I hear tell that Charlie Chaplin lived at 1010 back in the silent movie days. He worked at Vitagraph Studios back then.
Anyone else know about that story?
Regards
Tom
Brenda – you tend to be the most eloquent? Any chance of writing a letter to the Times?
Erin
Also, if this guy’s such a great architectural historian, he should know that the only actual bungalows out here are the fabulous arts and crafts examples on East 16th Street (yes, there are also a few one- offs scattered on nearby blocks).
Someone call Rupert Murdoch. Can you imagine the dishy, attention-grabbing headline and saucy investigative reporting the Post would have given that story? There would have inevitably been some unflattering picture of the owners making pentagrams out of tin cans or something. I think I will pop over there on Halloween. Let’s bring a picnic dinner and see if the creepy owners give us a show!
I third the motion that that article was a huge pile of turd in a sort of drive by reporting style. It wouldn’t of been hard to dig up more accurate info, even in his underwear and a dial up connection. We’ll have to introduce him to “the google” so he can really dig deeper on his future articles. I read it aloud to my wife, we live in ditmas, and both of us had fun making fun of the inaccuracies and condescending tone. Barfy mcbarf.
Argyle Road, having trouble signing in….
Brenda, I couldn’t agree with you more. My blood was boiling after I read the article in yesterday’s times. After the initial thrill of seeing the two photographs, my heart sank as I read the lazy, unimaginative and sometimes inaccurate reporting. BUNGLALOWS? TRASH EVERYWHERE? Please.
Brenda’s absolutely right. That reporter could’ve written that story in his underwear from a Manhattan apartment, as long as his Internet connection flickered in occasionally.
My rough recollection of acquaintance-neighbor’s hearsay was that the “good” house on the left had been subject to hard times as some sort of Haitian evangelical church for awhile (I seem to recall such signage), with amped-music-related noise complaints; the ‘spooky’ house had been owned by the same spooky folks for ages with nothing but deterioration, but I too recall there being talk of it changing hands and fates. I am tempted to start a whole new blog, “Scoop the Times,” where we send out someone–okay, me–to find more stuff than the Times got. But someone would have to pay me.
Now back to work, still hoping for more info…hey, Hallowe’en is coming…I dare every Brownstoner reader to go trick-or-treating there!