A magnificent 1850s house dubbed the Blue Belle of Brooklyn

https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2023/09/18/the-story-of-a-magnificent-1850s-house-dubbed-the-blue-belle-of-brooklyn/

by samclemens • 3 years ago

71 13 3 years ago

ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com

susodapop• 3 years ago

I just moved to Brooklyn and have seen this property. Stories like this are precisely what gives this city texture and excitement. Just about every visible feature has a long and compelling history.

mikegioia• 3 years ago

I lived on 10th street and 4th avenue for a few years and I used to walk past this house frequently. I love it, and I love Brooklyn and the entire feeling the city has. I miss it so much and this article has really taken me back there.

ughitsaaron2• 3 years ago

Apropos of nothing about the house, I’m confused why someone would use the “Antebellum era” to periodize something in New York?

gcanyon• 3 years ago

Because they know that word, and not another more geographically relevant word for the time period?

They could have just repeatedly said "the 1850s" but they wanted to be more diverse. Kind of like how "temblor" gets hauled out every time someone writes about earthquakes.

I'm super-curious if you know of a term for the 1850s that is geographically relevant to New York, or the region?

ughitsaaron2• 3 years ago

Mid-19th century?

anjel• 3 years ago

Mid-Tammany https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammany_Hall

gumby• 3 years ago

Was the state of New York not a combatant in that war (Brooklyn was not yet part of New York City; at that time the city was only Manhattan).

Also that war had a major impact on NYC, as that city (and Boston) were the major sources of slave mortgages, which were all invalidated at the end of the war.

jonahbenton• 3 years ago

I dunno, the wars are good bookends/shorthands for eras in NYC.

"Pre-war" is a term of art in real estate, meaning post-WW1/pre-WW2, when the first big apartment buildings went up. Many of these buildings were the work of craft and are desirable residences today.

"Post-war" is also a term of art- post WW2- and generally means ugly/junky, in real estate terms.

Many of the brownstone/single family townhouse/rowhouse neighborhoods were built before and around the WW 1 time frame, 1890s to 1920s.

The need to refer to it is infrequent, but "antebellum"- literally also "pre-war"- is recognizable for pre- but proximate to the Civil War. The Civil War was so momentous, it deserves its own latin reference, lol. In real estate terms few structures remain of course, but it is helpful in terms of history to distinguish from the Revolutionary period (1760s to 1790s) and the immediate post-Revolutionary period, when tons of things happened. 1810 in Manhattan was when the grid plan was laid down and that period through the 1840s saw a huge population boom and the initial transition of NYC real estate from home/workshop of artisans to predominantly income production.

dang• 3 years ago

[stub for offtopicness]

voidfunc• 3 years ago

Nice house, don't actually think it is supposed to be painted that color - looks dumb with that blue on it.

Aeolun• 3 years ago

That is some eye searing blue. I appreciate the whimsical nature of it, but I wouldn’t want it on my own house.

tr3ntg• 3 years ago

Is the door actually off center or is that just every single photo making it appear that way?

A magnificent 1850s house dubbed the Blue Belle of Brooklyn

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