Robert H. Bryson was also born in 1875, but in Newark,
N.J. His family moved to Brooklyn and lived in several
locations within the Bedford section. In 1892, his father,
Robert, was listed as a machine inspector. He was educated
in Brooklyn, and by the 1900 census, was still living at
home and also working as a draughtsman.
Both men may have been working for architect John J.
Petit, a partner in the firm Kirby, Petit & Green. The firm
was making a reputation for itself, mostly on the strength
and imagination of Mr. Petit. The group designed residential
and commercial buildings in various neighborhoods
in Brooklyn. Petit was the chief designer of former
Senator William H. Reynold’s Coney Island amusement
park called Dreamland. He was also one of the architects
creating the new suburban neighborhoods in what we
now call Victorian Flatbush.
Beginning in the late 1880s, Petit had been working with
developer Richard Firkin. His enclave called Tennis Court
was the first suburban neighborhood in Flatbush, located
near the Prospect Park Parade Grounds. By the time
Slee and Bryson may have been working for Kirby, Petit
& Green, Petit was named the chief designer for Dean
Alvord’s much more ambitious and upscale Prospect Park
South, just next door.
Petit was quite busy designing his eclectic masterpieces
for Alvord, along with his work for other Flatbush developers,
so he gave his draughtsman a shot at designing in
Prospect Park South, as well. John Slee partnered with
another architect named Henry La Pointe for five houses,
while Robert Bryson paired with another area architect,
Carroll Pratt, on three houses. Slee designed seven houses
on his own, and Slee & Bryson were partners in 1905
when they designed ten more, the last one in 1927.
John Petit was only five years older than Slee and Bryson,
and in addition to being their boss and mentor, he was
also their friend, and travelled in many of the same social
circles. In 1898, John Slee’s cousin Susan Perrin Martin
married Edward Cole Howe. Petit was the best man and
Slee was an usher.
Slee & Bryson went into partnership in 1905, with offices
at 154 Montague Street, a large Italianate brownstone long
converted into a storefront with offices above. They hit
the ground running with commissions in Prospect Park
South and other growing suburban Flatbush developments,
as well as commissions throughout the brownstone
neighborhoods and southern Brooklyn.
Their work ran the gamut of residential styles. They
designed wood frame houses of various sizes and for
various incomes everywhere from Flatbush to Bay Ridge.
They designed apartment buildings, garages, additions
and alterations, the bread and butter of most architectural
firms, especially when first starting out. And they
designed hundreds of brick houses.
SLEE & BRYSON – THE ARBITERS OF COLONIAL
AND TUDOR TASTE IN BROOKLYN
By about 1910, America was firmly in love with Colonial
and Tudor architecture. The interest in Colonial-era life
and architecture really started back at the nation’s centennial,
in 1876, but it died down until it took off again at
the turn of the new century. As cities were expanding and
new suburbs were being created, Americans wanted an
architecture that was truly ours. The impressive Beaux-
Arts marble masterpieces were great for libraries and
train stations, but ordinary Americans wanted to live in
American-style homes.
The Colonial Revival style, a combination of British
Georgian and American Federal, brought symmetry,
order, and a classical elegance to the new homes. Toss in
Dutch Colonial elements such as gambrel roofs, and you
had a quintessential American home. It could be built in
wood or good American red brick.
Ironically, around the same time, America also fell in
love with Tudor and Medieval-inspired architecture.
This was about as European as you could get, but half-
timbered homes were soon popping up in the new commuter
suburbs as the new must-have American home.
The style was nicknamed Stockbroker Tudor due to its
popularity in upscale suburban counties like Westchester.
In the city, architects were designing six-story apartment
buildings as well as suburban homes with stucco and
half-timbered details. Slee & Bryson designed some of the
earliest and best in Prospect Park South and elsewhere.
Most Brooklynites who are aware of Slee & Bryson remember
them for their brick houses. They are quite prominent
as both row houses and detached and semi-detached homes
in Prospect Lefferts Gardens and the Albemarle-Kenmore
Terraces Historic District in Flatbush.
Slee & Bryson designed the entirety of the latter, which
consists of two short cul-de-sac parallel streets off the
beaten track near Twenty-First Street, a block away from
Flatbush Avenue and the Flatbush Reformed Church. The
houses were all built between 1916 and 1917 for developer
Mabel Bull, who sold all of them by the end of 1918. They
are all classic red-brick Colonial-style houses with white
limestone and wood trim. Some have Palladian windows
and most have twin mansard roof dormers, keystone
lintels and six-over-six windows. The houses on Kenmore
Terrace were built with attached garages in the front.
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