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Looking at Living from Brownstone Brooklyn(Michael Cuiccio Photo)The Warren Place Mews:A Touch of OldE n g la n dBY VALERIE LEVYImagine, if you will, a small village %u2014 a hamlet%u2014 lined with 26 narrow three story cottages of good hard brick. On either end of the two neatly symmetrical rows of homes stand four larger anchor houses, four stories high, creating a secluded courtyard, a mews. Black cast iron gates enclose the mews and its center garden, garnished with gingho and wysteria trees, plants, roses and pachasandras, and a stone fountain.It is not the setting for a Dickens%u2019 novel, although it very well could be. The hidden courtyard framed by dark brick cottages, is the Warren Place Mews, a close-knit community stretching north and south between Henry jndHicks Streets, with an on Warren Street. Built in 1878 by Alfred Tredway White, the mews is still going strong - and, in fact, is celebrating its 100th birthday this weekend.The houses all face the courtyard and are grouped in pairs. Each bears arched covered by cast iron gates neatly the opening of the doorways. Each pair o f houses stands under a common segmented arch crowned by steep Gothic gables.A woman is capturing the enchanting scene on canvas in watercolor, while local cats scurry in and out of the garden plots.Everybody knows everybody else at the mews. Neighbor befreinds neighbor and all the residents participate in retaining the charming elegance unique to the communal lifestyle at Warren Place. %u201c Brooklyn, around here, is like living in a nice small town,%u201d noted Helen White, (no relation to Alfred T. White) a resident of the mews, with her husband Robert, for 15 years. %u201c Everyone knows each other on a first name basis, always inquiring about your family%u2019 s health.%u201dA DREAM WORLDCarolyn Anderson, the White%u2019s next door neighbor, chimed in while entering her home through the continuous cobblestone backyard. %u201c After Manhattan, this is a dream world to m e.%u201dEach resident shares in the outside chores. %u201c The tenants, too, have become members of our community and participate in all the efforts to enhance our mutual property. Fifteen years ago, there was little communication between the east and west sides. W e%u2019ve come a long way since then,%u201d said Helen White.When the Whites first moved into their small cottage at 4 Warren Place, the center garden had deteriorated greatly from its early days. But a long time resident, Axel E. Landerholm, through his love for plants and shrubs, purchased a great number of ornamental shrubs and trees for the central beds. According to White, his contribution for the maintanence of the mews subsequently inspired people to get interested in gardening.%u201c One man,\knew a tulip from a rose, and now hasin the Heartof Cobble Hillu C C u iu C %u00ab i n a v c n m i o 5 c v - a i c . %u2019 %u2019Participating has become a chain reaction at the mews. A few people began by showing a concern for the shared grounds and everyone else slowly follows suit. Helen White recalls the morning her husband woke up at 9 a.m., when they first arrived at the mews, and began plantingpachasandra plants. %u201c By 9:30 everyone was plugging pachasandra plants into holes,%u201d said White. It was the dawning of a new communal spirit.There is a great dedication shared by all the residents. The exterior lights and front yard are o f a concern of all. Any repairs or adjustments are a community expense. \resident signs a commitment to the mews. Everyone pays monthly dues,%u201d said White.Robert Frost could never have visited the mews when he said, %u201c Good fences make good neighbors.%u201d In the east side backyard is a plot of land which has been purchased by four different residents. And although each owner knows whose garden is whose and tends to his own planting and arranging, the division lines are invisible.When the garden is finished and snow falls on the mews, the love for their special community doesn%u2019t stop. Alice Haromura, a member of the Warren Place community for 22 years, remembers last winter%u2019s heavy snowfall and how her husband, Ace, and neighbor, Carl Greco, shoveled the pathways throughout the mews in the early hours of the morning to clear the way for the other residents.%u201c These are our roots. We take care of one another. It%u2019s a small town feeling.\said Haromura. %u201c They shoveled all that snow, but then they%u2019re just good men all the time.%u201dCOOKIE CUTTER CHARMThe exteriors o f the cottages are identical in appearance, and much of the original structural designs remain intact. Characteristic of all the cottages, is many small rooms in close proximity. Each home, according to the original condensed specifications drawn up in 1878. contained %u201c two stationary tubs, range, boiler,and iron sink in each kitchen.%u201dAll homes featured fireplaces%u201c fumished with slate mantels and summer pieces.%u201d Roof beams, which some owners have exposed for decorative purposes, are unusually large, according to Tom Waber a tenant in John Beaton%u2019s 7 Warren Place cottage. The beams measure \inches - all 16 inches from the centres,%u201d again, according to the specifications.The narrow winding stairs are of %u201c yellow pine, wainscoted with ash, oil finish%u201d and the front doors have remained according to the original plans: one and a half inches thick%u2014four panels each%u2014with solid mouldings....BUT PEOPLE UNIQUEAlthough the exterior remains fairly uniform, the people inside each home reflect a uniqueness and specialty of their own. The mews was originally constructed for and rented to the workingmen in nearby mills, navy yards and docks. %u201c The community is comprised of an astonishing mixture of educational backgrounds, ethnic origins and professions. Welsh, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Swedish, Jewish and Phillipine people all live togetner nere. there s a great cross-section,%u201d commented White.Along with a variety of personalities living under one roof, exists a multitude of interior designs and alterations. Everyone in the mews has created his own specialContinued on Page 13September 28, 1978, TH E PHOENIX, Page 11