Mansions of Clinton Hill, Brooklyn

Your photos are beautiful. I love the variety of the architecture and the tempting selections of food !
Marjorie

Thank you Marjorie. I'm so glad you enjoyed it and thank you for your comment.

Super photos Bathgate.....?

thanks

Fascinating blog Paul. Your friend Paul lives in a beautiful mansion! Thanks for the tour☺

thank you Sheila. Im glad you enjoyed it. :)

It was great seeing the homes of the rich and famous, the different styles I find fascinating but give me Waltons Mountain style any day, out of the ones pictured in your photo's, I like the Bishops residence the most, thankyou Paul, Brooklyn to me means Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand, lol.....

Thanks, Bathgate, for depicting and describing so many amazing homes. I like to imagine them being designed and constructed... carpenters working on the staircases etc.
Fascinating blog.?

what a great read .... thanks for sharing ....

PS A bit spooky for me ... I think I have watched too many american horror movies lol

Gg

LOL. Gnarly thats the feeling I got as well, Freddie Kruger came to mind with a couple of them, gave me a back crawling sensation, glad I'm not the only one affected like that....

Yes you can just imagine Kathy Bates in the kitchen "Roanoke" comes to mind lol

but great Photos Paul

Gg

What! No cheesecake from Juniors? All kidding aside, these homes are very hard to maintain to prevent decay. Sadly, for every one you have shown, ten are gone because of the expense involved in restoration and maintenance and a shortage of those restoration artisans skilled enough to do the job. I was very happy to see builders permits posted on the windows of a house of one in your photos which indicates a restoration in progress. These Vic's were the first houses to have gravity pressured hot and cold running water from a faucet for they had water tanks in the upper levels of the houses...the turrets and or cupolas actually functioned to contain these tanks as well as stairwells. They were filled by servants hand pumping the water up or carrying the water up to the tanks. Also other new innovations were flush toilets and central heating systems. These amenities that I have just mention made these mansions true vanguards of the modern home and were marvels to the general population of that time most of whom were living in primitive conditions by comparison. Thank you for this wonderful presentation!

You're welcome Linclass. Have you seen Barbra lately? She looks amazing at 70. Amazing how the years fly by!

Gg. On a misty night with a full moon - all the makings of a horror story.

Thank you Terrotoonie. I'm so glad you enjoyed it and it's wonderful to see you back with us. :)

Loosestrife2 We now have cheesecake from Juniors. Not sure what I was thinking, lol. Thanks for the interesting "tidbits" Im glad you enjoyed it.

Such grand houses with interesting architecture and interiors. It was fascinating to read about them and their history.
There are two 'American style' wooden houses in a village near here but they are much smaller than the ones in your photos.

I might add that the mausoleums these Vic's built to memorialize their "magnificent" families where in many cases just as decorative as their mansions. Bath, there are quite a few in Queens which would make a great subject for a pictorial coffee table book.

Thanks for showing these fascinating buildings Paul,there were one or two that made me think of the Adams Family ... Your friend is lucky to have such an interesting house and you to be able to enjoy parties in beautiful surroundings ... I would have come but I was washing my hair LOL ...

Fascinating blog, Paul and certainly some grand houses. The food doesn't look too shabby either!!

I love mixed neighbourhoods like this. So interesting to walk through. I believe that many get restored as I can see realestate (?) pictures of inside. Thank you Bathgate for taking the time to put it all the interesting history together for us.
The cheesecake looks yummy.

A fascinating Blog and beautifully illustrated as always Paul :o) Hope everything is going along ok for you?

Thank you everybody for your thoughtful comments. Amazing how each house has its own story to tell. Houses today just aren't the

Paul, I think you got cut off mid-sentence! Houses today just aren't the... ??? :D

LOL, Sorry about that Tracey. I thought you were clairvoyant. Houses today just aren't built like this.

Some beautiful house there and loads of history. It seems strange that you get an historic house and then within a few feet a dirty great block of what looks like flats! Seems they should have their own acreage - but then they probably once did!

Fabulous pics. Aren't they just too beautiful. And the best thing is they have been saved!!! My brother-in-law is an architect and is also extremely interested in Restoration. He lives in and practices in NYC. David Beer. Thanks for posting. i always look at your stuff. zMerry Christmas too.

Honeysuckle - That's Brooklyn for you, an eclectic evolution of different styles and cultures overlapping. Many of those old historic mansions are icons of a bygone era. Some were replaced with more contemporary housing for various reasons - fire, demolition, impractical upkeep, etc. Each one represents somebody's life story.

Thank You Wells. This was a fascinating project to work on.

How these American Victorian houses and the families who lived in them made the transition or rather decline into the "bygone era" is told in Booth Tarkington's novel "The Magnificent Ambersons". Honeysuckle described the final result and appearance of these neighborhoods evolution into the industrial revolution...well, I could find no better words.

Yes, nothing can stop the "train of evolution" or ambition or some might say "progress." You've said it so eloquently. Just walking through these neighborhoods, you get a sense of what life might have been like then, but often there much trial & tribulation as well.