Eye candy: Crown Heights North, Phase III

Eye On Real Estate

February 18, 2015 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Shirley Chisholm lived on the corner of Virginia Place and Sterling Place for part of the time she served in the New York State Assembly. Eagle photos by Lore Croghan

Share this:

Where did the first black woman to serve in Congress, Shirley Chisholm, live when she ran for President in 1972?

What’s a Kinko house?

Do you know the way to Revere Place without resorting to Google Maps?

These questions pertain to the section of Crown Heights North that’s known in preservationist circles as Phase III.

These photos will provide answers.

Many homes in the Phase III area are Renaissance Revival-style designs built in the first years of the 20th Century, according to info posted on the city Landmarks Preservation Commission’s website. There are also clusters of homes in neo-Grec and neo-Grec/Queen Anne style from the 1880s.

The Crown Heights North Association is going to launch a fresh campaign to get the city Landmarks Preservation Commission to declare Phase III a historic district — like two other areas in the neighborhood. See related story.

So first, about the illustrious Shirley Chisholm. She and her husband, Conrad, lived at 1028 St. Johns Place — shown in this photo below — during her run for the White House, the LPC’s website notes.

Second, the Kinko Duplex House derives its name from the Kings and Westchester Land Company, which built these beautiful two-family homes in Crown Heights North at the beginning of the 20th Century.

They were “a radical new type of house” in their day, architectural history expert Suzanne Spellen wrote, using the pen name Montrose Morris, in a 2009 Brownstoner.com story.

Each duplex unit had its own front door and its own house number, and its own stairway, porch and cellar.

And as for that third question, Revere Place — shown in the photo below — is a block-long street that parallels Kingston and Albany avenues and runs between Dean and Bergen streets.