Witches’ hats and other Crown Heights South eye candy

Eye On Real Estate

June 22, 2016 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Union Street rowhouses have nifty roofs. Eagle photos by Lore Croghan

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They look like witches’ hats.

One of our favorite blocks in Crown Heights South has a row of bow-fronted houses with cone-shaped roofs. The houses are on Union Street between Albany and Kingston avenues.

They were designed by architect Harry Albertson and built in 1908, according to a 1978 report about the neighborhood by city Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) researchers.

The part of Crown Heights South that the researchers proposed as a historic district did not wind up being designated as such. Nor did any other section of the neighborhood. The Crown Heights South Association is now working to remedy this.

Eastern Parkway — which is considered the north border of Crown Heights South — was designated as a scenic landmark. The property protected by this landmark designation includes the roadways and median strips — not the buildings alongside the parkway.

But more about Crown Heights South architectural eye candy. Another great place to find it is on Union Street between Kingston and Brooklyn avenues.

There’s a set of dignified, semi-detached mansions designed by architect Henry Congdon and built between 1902 and 1904.

These homes were known collectively as “Spotless Town,” the LPC report notes. That’s probably because they shared a communal steam plant that provided heat in a cleaner manner than other neighborhood homeowners’ furnaces, which burned coal or wood.

There’s so much eye candy on so many nearby blocks. Rather than describe it all, we’ll show you photos.