The city's Landmark's Preservation Commission, by unanimous vote, has designated Alice and Agate Courts in Bedford-Stuyvesant the city's 93rd landmark district.Touted by the Bloomberg administration as the 9th historic district outside Manhattan -- the highest number of designations since 1965 -- Alice and Agate Courts Historic District is a group of 36 late 19th-century Queen Anne-style rowhouses.
The houses sit on two cul-de-sac streets on the north side of Atlantic Avenue between Kingston and Albany avenues near the southern edge of Bed-Stuy.
They were built by Swiss-born industrialist Florian Grojean between 1888 and 1889 as rental properties.
The streets were named for Grosjean’s daughter, Alice Marie, and for "agate ware," an enamel-coated iron product made by Grosjean's firm, Lalance & Grosjean, in Woodhaven, Queens for around 100 years, until 1955.
The red brick, brownstone, bluestone and terra cotta buildings were designed by architect Walter M. Coots, designer of other row houses and apartment buildings in Brooklyn.
The buildings feature conical corner turrets, bays, carved stonework, decorative ironwork and stained glass windows.
LPC Chair Robert Tierney called the "charming, eclectic" houses a "quiet residential oasis in the midst of a bustling commercial district" -- as the late Green Church once was.
White collar workers, such as publishers, salesmen, builders, stenographers, clerks and bookkeepers once rented the houses.
The majority of the houses are now owner-occupied.
A designation hearing has been calendared for "Ocean on the Park Historic District", 12 early 20th century Renaissance Revival limestone rowhouses on Ocean Avenue between Lincoln Road and Parkside Avenue in Prospect/Lefferts Gardens.
The article, from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=5&id=26356
More from 1010 WINS:
http://www.1010wins.com/Row-Houses-in-Bed-Stuy-Get-Landmark-Status/3825602
More from Newsday:
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--brooklynhistoricd0210feb10,0,6779145.story
