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Rrow nstone %u2022 Brow nstone %u2022 Br ow nstone %u2022 Brow nstone %u2022 Brow nstone %u2022 Brow nstone %u2022 BrownstcTouring Neighborhoods On The Brownstone CircuitBY VIRGINIA CAREYIi promises to be a busy weekend with a two day Brownstone Fair, an Atlantic Antic and four house tours all in two days, but whoever will not be able to see all in the next few remaining October weekends four more house tours are scheduled.PROSPECT HEIGHTSHeading the list is the October 13 Prospect Heights House Tour, a small neighborhood nestled between Flatbush Avenue, Grand Army Plaza and Washington Avenue. Four of its brownstoncs and gardens will be shown, and lours will leave from the Brownstone Fair at 195 Montague Street on the day of the lour, for information call 636-5545.PROSPECT LEFFERTS GARDENSThis neighborhood might soon be the newest addition to the city%u2019s historic landmark areas. Bounded by Empire boulevard to Clarkson and Ocean to New York Avenues it will have an Open House on both daysof the Fair, October 13 and 14. Each day will feature two different turn of the century houses that can be seen between 1 and 5 pm, for information call 284-6210.FORT GREENEFort Greene will have a Mini House Tour on October 14. This historic landmark area includes Fort Greene Park designed byFrederick Law Olmsted and is bordered in the West by the Academy of Music and Vanderbilt Avenue in the East. Buses will leave from the Brownstone Fair to sec three of its houses at 12, 2:15 and 3:45 pm for 95 cents, for information call 875-4106.THE SOUTH SLOPEThe South Slope, below 9th Street that is, one of those areas that has been overlooked in the past but this part of Park Slope was singled out for a tour in the spring and now the Prospect Park Environmental Center will lead a fall lour on October 14. Led by architect Carol Kaiscrman visitors can sec both historical and architectural facets of one of the oldest neighborhoods in Brooklyn. It will cost $1, meet at 1 pm at the Lafayette Monument at 9th Street and Prospect Park West, call 622-7686 for information.BEDFORD STUYVESANTHomeowners \Bedford Stuyvcsant%u201d is the theme for the second annual house tour of these two neighborhoods. Between 12 noon and 5 pm on Saturday, October 20 visitors can delight in the well preserved Stuyvcsant Heights Historic District and tour landmarks of the Bedford area. Tickets can be obtained at the Senior Citizens Center at 375 Stuyvcsant Avenue and Decatur Street for $4, for information call 778-6005.SUNSET PARKBrownstones that have been purchased within the past two years for less than $40,000 were the criteria used to select the eight houses included in the Sunset ParkBrownstone facades may be only 20 feet wide and 4 stories high, but they come in a smorgasbord of architectural styles. Shown here from left to right: Federal, Italianate, Mansard, Greek Revival, and Queen Anne. Illustration from The Old-House Journal, 69A Seventh Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11217.House and Garden Tour. On October 21 the tour will start at the Old Courthouse at 4th Avenue and 43rd Street at 1pm. In addition to the eight homes, in the 43rd to 54th Street area, visitors can admire the Byzantinc/Romancsque styled St. Michael%u2019s Roman Catholic Church and enjoy a Jazz concert by Nova. Recently completed federally subsidized apartment renovations are also on view all for $3.50, call 492-5263 or 633-8979 for information.COBBLE HILLThe Cobble Hill House Tour on October 28 will have eight houses showing different life styles residents have chosen in renovating their brownstoncs. There arc modern renovations to be found as well as combinations of old and new and examples of restoration and preservations. Cobble Hill, between Atlantic Avenue, DcGraw, Hicks and Court Streets will show off its residential neighborhood between 1 and 5pm, tickets are $4 for information call 643-4104 or 625-2919.Park Slope Energy Expo Espouses Saving, Sealing And Solar Energy Alternatives for Brooklyn BrownstonesBY LINUS GELBERA propos of the mounting concerns over energy, energy costs, energy shortages and the energy crisis, Park Slope is preparing to hold a fair on brownstone energy. Dubbed %u2018Energy Expo %u201979%u2019 and conceived by the Park Slope Clergy Association, it is designed to present prudent possibilities in the way of efficient insulation and adaptations to solar energy for the heart of the Brooklyn brownstone belt.%u201c Basically, this is about how to cut costs-il%u2019s not pic in the sky,%u201d states Richard Harmon, a Slope resident and energy consultant who is coordinating the Expo. %u2018%u2018Our focus is, how can we develop a useful alternative here?%u201d Harmon explains that the Expo, to be held in John Jay High School on Oct. 20, has essentially three focal points: the first is to impress on consumers the importance of saving, the second to demonstrate the adaptive abilities of solar heating, and the third to display electric vehicles, which also act as an cast to the condition of the air around us.ENERGY EFFICIENCYHarmon believes that a lot of the point of the Expo is in the packaging. For example, he says of cutting costs that %u2018%u2018the bad word for that is %u2018conservation%u2019-my good word is %u2018sealing.%u2019 Conservation comes out of a kind of Puritanism, and doesn%u2019t communicate very much to the American public. What we%u2019re really talking about is energy cfficiency--we have to make people understand that in effect saving energy is actually the same as producing more energy.%u201dBeyond %u00a3 basic boost in theenergy reserve, he also hopes to show that solar and scaling alternatives may hold a tremendous boon to the economy. Based on the premise that 15,000 Park Slope homes could invest $3000 a piece over three years, he contends, as many as 1000 jobs could be created from veritable thin air. Expanded to a citywidc range, he estimates that as many as 150,000 jobs could crop in a very short time. \energy is economical and practical for Brooklyn right now, Harmon believes. %u2018%u2018Between Scaling and solar, a consumer can save 30 to 50 percent on his energy use, and there are also a tremendous number of jobs that can be created in the conversions.%u201dThe roots of the Expo dig back to last spring and the nuclear nearcat astophe at Three Mile Island, which prompted the 22 churches and temples in the Clergy Association to begin meeting on the subject of energy. Eventually, this branched out into savings and solar alternatives, and the fair idea slowly evolved. %u201cThe churches saw their role as one in which they should help to help families,%u201d Harmon says. The machinery then began to grind toward the public exhibition that is now nearly completed, picking up along the way the ideas for solar and insulation exhibits and panel discussions on technical data, like payback periods, tax breaks and installation costs. \of stuff that are mysterious to the consumer,%u201d Harmon summarizes.The issue also shan%u2019t beThree Ways To Finance A HouseContinuedborrowers didn%u2019t need nearly that much to make the transaction worthwhile.A small house with a good rental unit was for sale in another neighborhood and the purchasers saw that the house could \itself%u2019 if they could just tind a down payment. The loan on the $50,000 house was readily obtained from the Citibank %u2018%u2018Stretch%u201d program, with a $5,000 down payment and 30 years to pay. The monthlies arc higher than they would have been with a bigger downpayment and a smaller interest rate. With a 20 percent downpayment and 10-1/2 percent interest, the payments each month would be $457.37: under thestretch program, they are $544.67. But the rental unit and two regular salaries take care of that.RENOVATION COSTSIn a Crown Heights area neighborhood, a husband and wife wanted to purchase a big brownstone with a lot of detail and a lot of work to be done. The downpayment and monthly costs were hardly as problematic as the renovation would be, and they turned iO the Community Preservation Corporation for help. CPC worked out a way for them to buy the house and take out a construction loan, with a permanent loan at the end of the rainbow.The renovators put a lot of their energy into the paperwork, with a complete proposal for renovations,breathing its last when (he Expo is over: Harmon and the Association hope to keep the flame burning, so to speak, even afterwards, perhaps arranging some consumer co-op system to buy solar receptor parts, insulation, valves and other energy-savers in bulk, to bring down the costs and insure good quality equipment. \be a good beginning,%u201d predicts Harmon. \the concerns arc very timely.%u201d The Energy Expo will be held at John Jay High School, Seventh Avenue and 5th St., on October 20 from 10am to 8pm. For more information on the event, call Harmon at 768-0459, or Reverend Finley Schaef of the Park Slope United Methodist Church at 768-3093.and estimates in addition, to be looked over by an engineer whose fees they paid. The engineer followed the renovation closely, with money being paid from the construction loan only when a stage was approved.Filing of building plans and inspections by the city were also necessary, since a rooming house was being converted to a twofamily dwelling, and CPC wanted things done quickly. It was a lot of trouble, but the reward was two-fold, in that the renovation was done in short order, and the permanent financing was a loan at the standard interest rate paying off the initial purchase and the construction loan, a rare and enviable situation.From Fort Greene To Windsor Terrace, Brownstone Neighborhoods Make BrooklynContinuedand south by Empire Boulevard and Clarkson Avenue and on the east and west by New York and Ocean Avenues. Twelve blocks, the original Lefferts estate area, is currently being considered for historic designation.Neighborhood homes were built from around 1898 through World War I and are predominatly one-family two and three story renaissance, romanesque and colonial revival rowhouses, with some brick neo-Georgian mansions and Queen Annen %u00ab w . 1. _ J ____ 1 ; ___ ____Jll (Uiuuioudua. maiijr uiuau uee-imeustreets and individual gardens grace the community.Prospect Park and the Botanic Gardensborder the neighborhood, and the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Children%u2019s Museum, and Grand Army Plaza Library are only a short walk away. Both Flatbush and Nostrand Avenues pass through the area, supplying numerous commercial establishments.SUNSET PARKToward the end of the 19th century, this neighborhood containing Bates Cove, a popular shore resort, was still largely rural. As the shipping industry opened up in Brooklyn, residential expansion began;J J-..* n r i t n r. i P*... ! _t- J ^ %u201e1_aitu uui mg Tf unu nai t i uuuoii uuuvworkers built the first cooperative apartments in New York.Stretching from the waterfront to EighthAvenue, and from 15th to 65th Streets, Sunset Park includes a large portion of the historic Greenwood Cemetary where such famous Americans as Lola Montez, Currier and Ives, and Samuel F. B. Morse are buried.Fifth Avenue serves as the main shopping district, but ethnic shopping is scattered along other avenues. The Lutheran Medical Center, located in a converted factory building, provides neighborhood, as well as health services.WINDSOR TERRACETree-iiiieu and faiinly-oiicnicu u csciiu ethis neighborhood developed in the early 1900s. Most of the homes are one-, two-, and three-family predominently brick orlimestone rowhouses with a few scattered brownstones; and many of the families have roots in the community that go back generations. In the past few years some new two-and three-family homes have begun to be built on vacant lots.Two major 19th century landmarks%u2014 Greenwood Cemetery and Prospect Park%u2014 flank this community. Prospect Park West and Calon Avenue complete the rough neighborhood boundaries. Ninth Avenue provides the main shopping mainly old-time Mom and Pop stores interspersedwiiii liuaim icmju, nan ,