"For an old-house lover or preservationist, the recent renovation of one of Brooklyn Heights' oldest houses, now on the market, is heartbreaking. While the exterior of the circa 1820s wood frame at 24 Middagh Street has been beautifully restored, per the Landmarks Preservation Commission requirements, the rare almost fully intact historic interior has been gutted and reconfigured so that, apart from one or two mantels, it is unrecognizable."
"What was needed, perhaps, was a deep-pocketed preservationist to guide the house gently into the 21st century, making what structural reinforcements were needed without disturbing the historic fabric. But such an approach can be more costly than gutting, and such characters are thin on the ground - and evidently none stepped forward. Contrast the fate of 24 Middagh with nearby 48 Willow Place, a townhouse designed and built in 1965 by owner-occupants and architects Joseph and Mary Merz."
An early 19th-century wood-frame house at 24 Middagh Street in Brooklyn Heights received a landmark-compliant exterior restoration while its rare, nearly intact historic interior was gutted and reconfigured, leaving only one or two mantels recognizable. A sensitive preservation approach could have reinforced structure while retaining historic fabric, but such options are often costlier and lacked a willing deep-pocketed sponsor. By contrast, 48 Willow Place, a 1965 townhouse by Joseph and Mary Merz, was bought in 2021 and carefully updated and flipped in 2024; the owners updated it for modern living in ways that are hard to discern and preserved its style and spirit.
Read at Brooklyn Paper
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]