The former rectory of a Presbyterian church in Brooklyn Heights is now an oasis of quiet in a red hot section of the city
by Matt Scanlon
By the middle of the 1820s, Brooklyn Heights had become, in effect, both the city’s and the nation’s first commuter suburb. When its private farms began to be subdivided that decade into 25′ x 100′ residential lots, a housing boom exploded among middle-class residents of Manhattan who were weary of both the overcrowding of its streets and an environment that could be accurately described as beset by squalor. Whereas there were just seven homes in the Heights in 1807, five decades later there were more than six hundred. In the height of that first building boom, the First Presbyterian Church was constructed on the corner of Clinton and Remsen streets in Gothic Revival style between 1850 and 1853. The congregation was renamed the Second Presbyterian Church, and later Spencer Memorial Presbyterian Church, before disbanding as a congregation. What remained, however, was a glorious example of Gothic architecture, with its signature pointed apex window design, complete with stained-glass.
The church and its associated rectory were converted into ten co-op homes in 1980, one of which is this two-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath duplex, with double-height ceilings of some 22 feet in the living room, original pine plank hardwood floors, a wood-burning fireplace, original stained glass, and wooden beams (once covered with drywall, but recently exposed during renovation). The kitchen and bathrooms were fully renovated as well (the master bath includes a Jacuzzi tub).
“The whole experience is an adventure in the unexpected,” said Gregory Williamson, a real estate agent for the property. “When I was introduced to the property, I walked past the main entrance about five times before I realized it was an apartment building. Here you are, in prime Brooklyn Heights, yet the façade is so unassuming that you don’t even know it’s a co-op building. You assume it’s a church and keep on walking.”
Once inside, the overwhelming first impression is one of silence. Even with nearby Montague Street’s dependable activity hum, the proximity to no fewer than eight subway lines, and the fact that the corner of Clinton and Remsen is itself fairly busy, the overbuilt nature of church structures of that period is in a position to offer buyers, “something very close to a one-of-a-kind property,” Williamson said.
“The borough, in part because we are such a heated real estate marketplace, is becoming an adventure in small, highly segmented apartments that tend to simply look alike,” he added. “Here, not only is there the unmistakable ‘Wow!’ factor, but also the very real sense that one is in a home.”
99 Clinton Street, #4
Cooperative, Brooklyn Heights
$1,995,000
Monthly Maintenance/CC: $1,793
Minimum Percent Down: 20%
3 Beds | 2 Baths | 1 Half Bath
Approximate Sq. Feet: 1,547
Gregory Williamson at Douglas Elliman
212.712.6088 or mobile, 718.490.6519
elliman.com
