Page 360 - Demo

Sunday, June 2,19Continued from front pageI heir own very recent addition is the posh, new bathroom (upstairs) which replaces two tiny rooms and a hallway. Bedrooms can%u2019t be seen, quite simply because \But the den warrants a quick viewing for the sake of its collection of 17th-Century prints and its old pie cabinet.On their way to the next two houses, which are side by side, tour guests might well brow'se their way past the many antique stores that line Atlantic Avenue (see map). Two years ago this street was still an economic wasteland--today its collection of antique stores are out-numbered, according to New York magazine, only by M anhattan's Second Avenue. They run the gamut from junk (through which local brownstoners are forever rummaging) to the cream of the 18th Century. An innovative new zoning law, first of its kind in the city, has been proposed tooffering architectural advice to merchants who wish to renovate.Stroll along Atlantic Ave. and enjoy window-shopping on your way to the next house, on Pacific Street.2 549 PACIFIC STREET%u2022 Parlor floor onlyRestoration in Boeruni Hill has pretty much followed the path of the original builders from Fulton Ferry east to Flatbush, and this block is one of the last to be discovered by brownstoners, and still holds only an adventurous few. But this house and the one next door are so visually rewarding they couldn%u2019t be excluded.Totally gutted and re-built on the inside (with floor plans that might be dubbed Late 20-Century Restoration), both houses have central wells, the parlor floor forming a gallery.549 uses the parlor floor for a large living area, one two-fireplace wall stripped its length of pink brick, the others white plaster. Owners saved old fanlighted French doors and flanked them with bookcases similarly arched. White moire lines the cases, and on their shelves is a breathtaking collection of blue-and-white lmari porcelain combined with pressedglass candlesticks, the blue-andwhite motif is carried to the pillow-mounded couch and its twin coffee tables, middle-19th-Century Copeland china garden seats.Here at the north end of the gallery a Meshkin rug and two armchairs add rust to the color scheme, which subtly alters at the other gallery end to celery andp c a i i i , a g a in w i i l i ilic - a i u o f aMeshkin rug. In this area, too, is a collection of early English brass candlesticks--at last count, the room contained 38 candlesticks of one kind or another. And everywhere there is a wealth of French country antiques-two iron campaign beds, a beautiful chest, a LouisXV armchair. Parquetry end tables, incidentally, are Italian, not French.Pictures on the walls of this lovely room include two rare 18th-Century Tibetan paintings on silk and three even more valuable sketches (early 19th Century) by a Kyoto artist, Kawake Kakyo.The owners have asked that visitors not use the narrow stairway to the garden floor-too much of a bottleneck-but suggest the dining room, where the South wall is lined with Early American primitive art, can be seen from the well. Here too, is an ancient post office, formerly part of a northern New York general store, now a storehouse for wine bottles. Those with keen vision just might be able to* ' z r -i n r / ^ - U 1 . ja u i m i 'L a v _ iv %u00bb i- T %u00bb a i v , o n p i a i u i a n ubullet mould mounted on the West wall that were used by a great grandfather in the Battle of WilsonCreek,Through the French doors is the garden, where visitors may enjoy seeing how many stone animals lurk in the shrubbery that borders a horseshoe-shaped crushed-stone path-are sure to spot a fine pair of lions couchant.Q 551 PACIFIC STREET * 2 lower floorsUnlike its neighbor%u2019s, the 19th Century ambiance of this house has been carefully restored in spite of the fact that it had been so abused in its previous incarnation as a rooming house that it, too, had to be gutted and re-built. Here even the facade had to be torn down (because of a frontal bulge), then restored brick by brick. Exterior shutters, woodwork, stairway bannister, and a fine mahogany door are ail front a Stamford wrecking company well known to local brownstoners. Two cast-iron fireplaces. popular in Philadelphia but rare in New York, were carefully saved and can be seen in the bedroom and dining room.Present owners have brought with them both a collection of Chinoiscrie, acquired during a five-year stay in Hong Kong, and an inheritance of museum-quality furniture. Visitors who enter, in this case, on a gallery bedroom floor, are faced with two Chinese scroll paintings hanging on the wall of the staircase well. The mandarin and his wife, glowing in red robes, are quaintly matched in the hall leading to the bedroom by a pair of family portraits--dark dignified oils.Things to watch for on this floor: an 1820%u2019s Wag-on-the-Wall clockthat has made its way, generation by generation, from Scotland via Nova Scotia to its present location; a Federal cherrywood desk; and in the bathroom Teddy Roosevelt prints. According to their owner, the two most valuable pieces of furniture in the house are matching Windsor chairs in the bedroom --%u2018they aren%u2019t often found in pairs...%u201d Downstairs are a Hepplewhite table, a Chippendale secretary and chair, a Victorian \kitchen a Hoosier cabinet.In the cool, shadowed interior of the living room, very old and rare Chinese embroideries gleam--so does a collection of pressed glass. On the mantlepiece sparkle crystalglass girandoles. Two windows and a glass-panelled door overlook the garden, %u201c live paintings%u201d in a room otherwise hung with Oriental ones. The tasteful garden itself rises from a flagstone terrace at ground level to a raised section of flower beds arranged around a tree that serves as a centerpiece. Final terrace provides a background of shrubbery.There are no false notes in either of these Pacific Street houses. One is tempted to think civilization could be preserved in them much as it was once preserved during the Dark Ages in monasteries.As is detailed elsewhere in this folio, Boerum Hill has a long and interesting history-before there was a Brooklyn, even before there was a United States. Literally all the houses within the community are more than 100-years old, and there are few, if any, primarily residential areas left in the city bearing this honor.To help celebrate this record, in the first year of Landmark designation, Boerum Hill will offer a modest historical exhibition of old maps, photos, memorabilia, etc. at 140 Bergen at the corner of Hoyt and Bergen.So, come early; there%u2019s a lot to see and do on June 2.Map of the TourJL BETHLEHEM LUTHERAN CHURC 490 Pacific StreetOn April 14, this church celebrated its 1 Romanesque structure was not its first hoi first years at several other locations. Not According to the September 11th issue ol congregation was to march in a processii Street near Smith Street, following a fares new church at Pacific Street and Third ASunday. %u201cThe new edifice will seat l,20CjBy this time, the church was servij communities in New York -Atlantic Aven prosperous community had already found* Orange, New Jersey, when its first classe! And while its Scandinavian parishioners years of the Depression, it continued stal and has strong links today with Boerum H in town-meeting fashion-a vital amateur and stages its plays in the basementattended.The handsome decor of the church, crii Scandinavian origins. The statue of Chris: %u201c bidding%u201d Christ who offered rest to allK 195 DEAN STREET* Parlor, 2nd, and 3rd floorsThis comfortable, spacious late Victorian brownstone was purchased two years ago by a couple, both teachers at New York Uni versity, who had wearied of rootlessness. Once a rooming house, it had already been restored by previous owners; and the lucky pair had only to re-finish the original pine flooring, paint, and build a deck overlooking the roomy, two-lots-wide garden. (Women%u2019sLib types take note: She built the deck with the help of a friend.)Perhaps in no other house on the tour will the visitor find so much of the original woodwork intact. There are lovely door arches in the hallway and wall niches on the 3rd floor, all gracious relics of the past. The living-room marble fireplace and a dark green marble one with a gold-leaf etching on its face (in the 3rd floor sitting room) are both the originals. Only with the installation of bathrooms and a kitchen wall in the back parlor (throwing what is now dining room and kitchen into one room) has this house known much alteration.The parlor is awash in Tiffany lamps, and there%u2019s another yellow, flower-shaped one hanging over the dining room table. Above the living room couch there%u2019s a Mexican rebozo, stretched on board, that tells the %u201c story of life,%u201d%u00bbin4-V%u00bb c o o / l r o f ir l rv^ '- & * %u201c ***%u201c & \%u2014 Owith lions-no homo sapiens. Other art includes a Haitian painting and wood carving, the latter hanging above a Federal desk.Oldest piece of furniture in thge house is a hand-whittled chair in the dining room. (Look for the whittler%u2019s initials and tiny decorative wood insets.) Here, too, is a stand-up desk discarded from an old Connecticut bank.