Co-op of the Day: 86 Prospect Park West 3 BR
At first glance, the layout of this three-bedroom co-op at 86 Prospect Park West is a little unorthodox—railroad style with living and dining rooms at opposite ends—but actually we think it looks like it might work just fine. The apartment’s biggest draw has to be the extensive original woodwork; it’s also got a recently renovated…
At first glance, the layout of this three-bedroom co-op at 86 Prospect Park West is a little unorthodox—railroad style with living and dining rooms at opposite ends—but actually we think it looks like it might work just fine. The apartment’s biggest draw has to be the extensive original woodwork; it’s also got a recently renovated kitchen. The monthly maintenance is $846, a relative bargain for a 1,600-square-foot pad (though it certainly reflects the fact that there’s no doorman). We’ll see whether the $1,349,000 asking price flies. On the one hand, it’s Prospect Park West for well under $1,000 a foot; on the other, it’s a walk-up, non-full-service building. Guesses?
86 Prospect Park West [Brooklyn Properties] GMAP P*Shark
WestElm08,
There is no likely way they got a toilet added unless there was already a waste stack for toilets right about in that spot. Granted, there may have been just a toilet and sink or maybe just a toilet, not a full bathroom.
As I wrote above, that stack *may* have been added a good number of years after the building was built, but unlikely added in the last bunch of years.
Knowing something about these things, indeed, I confirm that it is quite possible this apartment had a maid’s bedroom and a *small* kitchen. This was quite common in houses and apartments with some pretension in cities all over the country. Indeed, even in the late 1930’s into the early 1940’s, progressive architects like Walter Gropius of the Bauhaus built his Lincoln, MA house, one of the first “modernist†houses in the US, with a small galley kitchen with the small maid’s room off it.
Yes, today it may seem that most of the apartments that still have maid’s rooms are relatively large Manhattan apartments…interestingly during the Big D Depression of these large apartments were actually reconfigured from much larger apartments. So, the Park Avenue apartment one commenter on this thread lived in had two maid’s rooms with a bathroom between them (which seems lavish-ish I guess) BUT that apartment which was maybe a little over half of the floor of a building was actually the result of a 1930’s redo during that huge housing bust. Just 20 yrs before, when that building went up, it had full floor apts and some apts sprawling over two floors with their own interior staircases.
I’m pointing this out to illustrate that even when things were being downsized, maid’s rooms with their own (often small) bathrooms were still common in new construction and reconfigurations of existing dwellings.
Have a look at many plans for small, even tiny houses in the 1920’s into the 30’s and you’ll see lots of small kitchens with a service porch (deliveries, iceman, etc.) with small maid’s rooms and a little bathroom as in the Gropius House and the other modernist houses nearby (and all the many, houses –not so modernist–built all over the country). Much of this may be obliterated today if a later owner (during the post-WWII period, esp in renos of the last bunch of years) expanded a kitchen by removing the partitions.
You can see lots of houses that may still have a maid’s room used as a home office or turned into a breakfast nook in many houses in residential sections of lots of cities in the US with a powder room off the kitchen or back door.
I agree with you elm08. When we were in the market to buy the only condo we saw with a true maids quarters located behind the kitchen was a pre-war 4 bed 3 bath that had two entrances into the apartment from the hallway. One through the grand foyer, the other was a service entrance that went directly into the kitchen. The kitchen as you noted was quite large. While I think this apartment is quite lovely, it doesn’t seem to been built with that level of grandeur.
NOP, no fireplace from what I can see. The future generations will be amazed to hear we used to be able to heat our homes for $86 a month.
Thanks, Biff.
Know what my parents paid for it?
Eighty-six bucks a month! French doors, parquet de Versailles floors, and wood paneling included!
True, the fire place was only decorative. But I don’t think this apartment has a wbf, does it?
NOP
ks8000, thanks for the additional thoughts. It’s nice having a civilized debate!
NOP, I always love your posts.
BrooklynGreene: I’m no architectural historian, but I think you are very, very wrong. I think there is no way this apartment would have had “maid’s quarters”. No way, no how. Instead, like many older apartments (and homes and all residences), one bathroom would have been considered more than sufficient. A kitchen would have been much more prized than a second bathroom and no apartment in the running to have a “maid’s quarter’s” would ever have had such a miniscule kitchen. You say maybe there was a “smaller” kitchen–how much smaller could it be for such an apartment? The sellers obviously stuck in a second bathroom because one bathroom is roundly seen as insufficient these days.
No, I definitely would not pay asking for this place. I might offer a million, but that’s projecting the price I think this place will go for in a couple of years.
I have basically decided it’s not productive for me to try to fight the market. I’ll just rent and wait as prices go down, which they are doing. I have plenty of cash and can pounce on the right property very quickly when the time comes.
Brownstoner:
Whoever wrote that this apartment isn’t conducive to a family with a couple of kids is wrong!
My family lived in a place just like it in Crown Heights during the 50’s — with three kids and one bathroom!
And it was great!
The long hallway was actually our favorite part of the apartment. On rainy days we used it as our playroom, setting it up as a whiffle-ball bowling alley, toy train yard, or wood-block construction zone. It was also a great place to race our pet turtles!
For a family who can afford it, enjoy!
Nostalgic on Park Avenue
TownhouseLaddy,
You mention you find it a clever way to add a second bathroom. I don’t think the bath was added. I would assume the bathroom is just a redo of one that was already in there…though I’m just assuming it’s redone since I do not remember a photo of that room.
Not sure if this building would have been the type, but often there is a second small bathroom reached through a maid’s room. Maybe there was a configuration of the walls either long ago or possibly by the current owners who apparently renovated. Would not surprise me there once was a smaller kitchen with a small servant’s bedroom with a bathroom all his/her own. Often the bathroom can be tiny with just a WC and a small, deep square tub (about the footprint of a shower pan). That would have made the bedroom just large enough to be doable and the sink, if there was one, would have been in the bedroom.
I would be shocked if anyone would have *added* a bathroom since 1930 since it would involve massive work and having a nearby stack for the toilet. I’m sure there’re bathrooms in the building in the apartments above and below this bathroom unless someone has ripped them out to create a bigger kitchen.