In the summer of 1969, Charles Lockwood walked
into the now-shuttered Donnell Library Center,
located on 53rd Street in Manhattan directly
across from the Museum of Modern Art. Between
his junior and senior years as an undergraduate
at Princeton's Art and Archeology department, he was
spending time in the city and came looking for books
about brownstones. He was told, quite simply, that none
existed. “It’s never been written,” he recounted the
librarian telling him. But how could that be? So Lockwood,
energized by what he called “youthful enthusiasm
and more than a little naivete,” decided to fill this gap
in architectural knowledge by making it the focus of his
upcoming thesis.
He hit the ground running, walking hundreds of blocks
by his own estimation to become more familiar with the
architectural styles of remaining nineteenth-century
row houses. He met people who invited him into their
homes, where he could view period interiors firsthand.
The research was hands on and, sometimes, could be
dangerous. During one of these excursions in March
1970, he was on West 11th Street in Manhattan when
a house exploded on the block, later discovered to be a
bomb-making factory for the radical activist group the
Weathermen; photographer Robert Mayer, who worked
with him on the original version of the book, took the
picture that ended up on the front page of the New York
Times the next morning.
Three years later, that thesis, in greatly expanded form,
was published by McGraw-Hill as “Bricks & Brownstone:
A Guide to Architectural Styles and Interior Decoration
for Period Restoration.” Lockwood was only 24 years old,
something that surprised even the original publisher.
Rizzoli, which published an edition with color photographs
in 2003, this fall released a highly anticipated
major update of the book, seven years after Lockwood
passed away from cancer at the age of 63.
The book’s reemergence has been a cause for celebration.
Since its original publication, it has become a vital artifact
of the early years of brownstoning and remains one
of the most detailed tomes dedicated to the row houses
of New York City. It quickly became “a bible for buffs,
architects, and preservationists,” Judith Thurman wrote
in the New Yorker, and its fans remain indebted to Lockwood’s
massive and ambitious project.
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The new edition of ‘Bricks & Brownstone.’