Estate Condition Bed Stuy Brownstone With Fretwork, Mantels Asks $1.45 Million | Brownstoner

2022-08-13 05:49:35 By : Ms. savory lee

The listing for this 1890s Bed Stuy brownstone includes some “after” renderings for potential buyers whose imagination isn’t up to the task of seeing the potential behind the peeling paint and the crumbling plaster. Some original details can be spotted inside 733 Putnam Avenue in the handful of actual interior shots, including fretwork, mantels, wall moldings and wainscoting, but it will need an owner able to envision the possibilities in a house that needs more than a little TLC.

The three-family dwelling, which has been in the same family hands since the 1940s and vacant since 2020, was constructed as one of a row by owners and builders Mitchell and Herr. Behind a number of houses on the block, the builders filed plans for this row in 1891 with architect F. J. Lessing behind the design. By 1892, the owners were pitching three-story “artistic stone houses” on the stretch. The new owner of No. 733 was already advertising for renters for the upper floor of the house that same year, noting the property had all the modern conveniences, including electric bells and a furnace.

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There likely aren’t any modern conveniences by contemporary standards in the just over 18.5-foot-wide house. Kitchens and bathrooms aren’t shown in the listing photos, so presumably they are not in working order. The floor plans show a duplex on the garden and parlor levels with one-bedroom apartments on the second and third floors. Each unit has a full bath and while floor plans show sinks in the kitchens of the apartments, there is isn’t one indicated in the duplex.

What the duplex does have is an entry with original stair and wainscoting leading to three parlors. The front parlor has a mantel, wall moldings and ceiling medallion. A columned fretwork screen separates it from the windowless middle parlor.

Pocket doors lead to the rear parlor, which has plasterwork, a mantel, a hallway door with stained glass, and a niche with closets on either side. There seems to be a vintage sink in that niche — barely visible next to a piano –indicating a possible prior kitchen location.

Views of the units above show more wall moldings, window trim and ceiling medallions, along with exposed lathe and brickwork, floors in rough condition and plenty of peeling paint.

The house is outside of the any of the locally designated Bed Stuy historic districts but is within the National Register-eligible Stuyvesant Heights Boundary Increase Historic District.

Listed with Toni Martin of Corcoran, it is priced at $1.45 million. Worth the ask?

[Listing: 733 Putnam Avenue | Broker: Corcoran] GMAP

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