Prospect-Lefferts Gardens was unusual when
Elaine and Bob first visited in 1974 and it
remains unusual today because it is racially
integrated. “Saul Alinksy said integration is
the brief period between when the first Black
people move to a neighborhood and the last white people
move out,” says Bob, quoting the famous activist. “That
didn’t happen here.”
They were looking for just such a neighborhood and an
old house to live in when they accidentally stumbled on
the area. One weekend they had been planning to go on a
drive in Manhattan but it rained so they went on a house
tour in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens instead. They were
pleasantly surprised to find marvelously intact homes
with historic details and appealing layouts as well as a
stable, integrated community.
“We had never seen a brownstone that didn’t have a long
hallway,” says Elaine. (The couple asked that only their
first names be used.) “These were the first modern homes
that took advantage of central heating and didn’t have to
close off rooms,” adds Bob. The tour was in June, and by
October they had closed on a house.
Made of brick and stone with a bay and round-arched
windows, the 1899 Romanesque Revival/Neo-Renaissance
home was neglected but intact when they bought it from an
out-of-town relative of the previous occupants, who’d lived
there since the 1920s. Although unoccupied, it was completely
furnished.
“We crossed out ‘broom swept’ on the contract of sale
and told them they could leave anything they wanted,
so there was a lot of junk and papers but they left a lot of
nice pieces,” says Bob. Finds included a sideboard in the
dining room, a library table in the middle parlor, light
fixtures and even some jewelry.
The three-story, single-family house has an expansive
parlor floor with all manner of woodwork, including a coffered
ceiling, and fireplaces with colorful tile spread over
its three parlors and library. Upstairs among the bedrooms
is a well-preserved bathroom with a skylight, original tile,
claw-foot tub, and handsome 1910 pedestal sink.
42
A painted detail takes the place of a stair runner. The first
riser commemorates their cats.