There were a number of stunning homes on display yesterday for the 33rd Fort Greene House Tour, appropriately titled “The ♥ of Downtown Brooklyn.” Once again those industrious souls behind the scenes of this much sought-after review of historic homes produced the type of multifaceted tour for which they are well-known.
One of the houses in the collection this year, an 1852 antebellum frame home just steps from Fort Greene Park, had its history revealed, as well, when excerpts from the Brownstone Detectives’ second book, No. 231 Cumberland Street: The Story of a House, went on display.
Here is a brief timeline, matched up with “spreads” from the upcoming book:
The land beneath which No. 231 would someday rise, started out as a tobacco farm owned by the first Italian immigrant to New York, Pietre Cesare Alberti. The farmland would eventually be built upon in 1851-2, when builder John Ross constructed three homes there.
First owned by a woman with a tragic history, a melodrama involving treachery, another man, and an infant daughter – which became the gossip of the newspapers of the time – No. 231 was rented out throughout the the 1850s and 1860s, in addition to many returning Civil War veterans, to merchants and their small families.
One of those merchants featured prominently in the founding of the Lafayette Avenue Presbytery Church. Before this, however, he had begun his interesting career as a Night Soil Man – starting a company which, amongst other “agricultural” endeavors, collected human excrement from the backyard privvies of Brooklyn, selling this “compost” to Long Island farmers as the appropriately – if euphemistically – named “poudrette.”
The property was then owned by an immigrant, Philip P. Levy, who became a leader in producing and selling within the “small art” field – those “potboiler” productions of art, distributed throughout the country as one-off, individual works of art, which were actually mass-produced by out-of-work artists. Although Levy became rich selling such art, he died in penury in 1905.
By the 1900s, like many other houses in the neighborhood, the home began to be used as a rooming house, followed many years later as a Single-Room Occupancy (SRO).
In the 1930s and ’40, the attorney for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle owned the house. He also represented a number of mob figures – but only in their legal dealings – such as “Big Paulie” Vario, who was figured prominently in the movie, “Goodfellas.”
Run as an SRO for almost 70 years, the house fell into disrepair as various owners used the property primarily as an investment.
In 1971, however, Albert Corley, a WWII veteran who worked his way up from trundling racks of dresses in the fashion district in the 1950s to owning his production line, created a a dress design and manufacturing company with a grant from the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation. After successes in the industry, he moved away in the ’80s, conveying the house onto its next owner.
Finally, after the lion’s share of the house’s existence had been spent sliding less-than-graciously downhill, the current owners purchased the property and, working with nC2 Architecture and the New York City Landmarks Commission, invested in a top-tier renovation/restoration that has returned the home to its former glory.
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This story was composed from research performed by The Brownstone Detectives. Allow us to do an in-depth investigation of your house and its former owners and produce your very own House History Book. Your hardbound coffee table book will include an illustrated and colorful narrative timeline that will bring the history of your house to life. Contact us today.
