GREENPOINT (from AIA Guide to New York City)

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Greenpoint (pronounced Greenpernt in those gangster movies of the 1930s) is a quiet, ordered, and orderly community of discrete ethnic populations, with a central charming historic district all but unknown to outsiders, even those in neighboring sectors of Brooklyn.

Its modern history began with the surveying of its lands in 1832 by Dr. Eliphalet Nott, president of Union College, in Schenectady (America's first architecturally planned campus), and Neziah Bliss. Much of it was purchased for development by Ambrose C. Kingsland, mayor of New York (1851-1853), and Samuel J. Tilden, who went on to fame in politics and who is happily remembered for leaving a bequest for the establishment of a free public library in New York, an act that triggered the merger of the Astor and Lenox Libraries, and the establishment of the New York Public Library.

The area soon became a great shipbuilding center. It was here, at the Continental Iron Works at West and Calyer Streets, that Thomas F. Rowland built the ironclad warship Monitor from plans created by John Ericsson. The "Yankee cheesebox on a raft" was launched on January 30, 1862.

By 1860 the so-called five black arts (printing, pottery, gas, glass, and iron) were firmly established in Green Point, as it was first known. In 1867, Charles Pratt established his kerosene refinery (Astral Oil Works)—the first successful American oil well had flowed in 1859 at Titusville, Pa. Pratt's product later gave rise to the slogan, "The holy lamps of Tibet are primed with Astral Oil." Astral Oil provided the wealth that later made possible Pratt Institute, myriad Pratt family mansions, as well as Greenpoint's Astral Apartments.

[1] McCarren Park Play Center, N.Y.C. Department of Parks & Recreation, McCarren Park, Lorimer St. bet. Bayard St. and Driggs Ave. E side. ca. 1936. N.Y.C. Department of Parks. Aymar Embury II, consultant.
Gutted by fire in 1987, this ceremonially arched pavilion, with its imposing clerestory, announced the grand dip behind. It is one of4 WPA-built swimming pools erected in Brooklyn during the Depression (the others are Red Hook, Sunset Park, and Betsy Head).

[2] Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, 228 N. i2th St., SE cor. Driggs Ave. 1916-1921. Louis Allmendinger. The Winter Palace at St. Petersburg is remembered in the yellow and beige tones of this magnificent cathedral, crowned with 5 verdigris-copper onion-domed cupolas. The real treat, however, is within: the space is small (only 250 seats), and the central cupola is supported on 4 great columns painted to simulate richly veined marble. The triple-altared eastern end is separated from the body of the church by the iconostasis, a handcarved wooden screen on which icons were painted by the monks in the Orthodox Monastery of the Caves in Kiev. A visit should include the celebration of Divine Liturgy: architecture, incense ritual, and sound, combined in many tongues, create a deeply moving saturation of the senses.

[3] Public School 34, Brooklyn, The Oliver H. Perry School, Norman Ave. bet. Eckford St. and McGuinness Blvd. N side. Central block, 1867. Additions, 1870. Samuel B. Leonard. Wings, 1887-1888. James W.Naughton.
An austere mixture of Renaissance and Romanesque revivals. Leonard and Naughton were sequentially architects for Brooklyn's schools; Leonard from 1859-1879, Naughton following until 1898.

[4] Greenpoint Historical District, roughly from Java to Calyer Sts., Franklin to Manhattan Aves.
A rich trove of intact churches with both row and freestanding housing. Pride of ownership here translates into buildings maintained (for the most part) in their original shape.

[5] Greenpoint Savings Bank, 807 Manhattan Ave., SW cor. Calyer St. 1908. Helmie & Huberty. Roman pomp under a pantheon dome, shingled delightfully in a fish-scaled pattern in slate. The Pantheon in Rome was similarly shingled hut in bronze, stolen for valuable metal in medieval times. This grand Doric-columned bank is of lime- stone over a granite base.

[6] St. Elias Greek Rite Catholic Church/formerly Reformed Dutch Church of Greenpoint, 149 Kent St., bet. Manhattan Ave. and Franklin St. N side. Church, 1869-1970. William B.Ditmars. Sunday school, 1879. W. Wheeler Smith.
Bulky brick, brownstone, and whitestone, with the Victorian Gothic polychromy (note the alternating red and gray voussoirs) promoted by writer-architectural historian John Ruskin and hence termed Ruskinian Gothic. Note the cast-iron fence with its Gothic crests, and the octagonal Sunday school.

[7] Church of the Ascension (Episcopal), 129 Kent St., bet. Manhattan Ave. and Franklin St. N side. 1865-1866. Henry Dudley.
Granite ashlar with brownstone trim, a double-pitched silhouette and red Episcopal doors. Its low and friendly scale is reminiscent of an English country church. Note the 3 oval oculi.

[8] 114-124 Kent Street Houses, bet. Manhattan Ave. and Franklin St. S side. 1867-1868.
Cast-iron lintels and sheet metal cornices enliven plain brick facades.

[9] 130 Kent Street (row house), bet. Manhattan Ave. and Franklin St. S side. 1859. Neziah Bliss, builder.
A star on this handsome street of town houses. Here a bold Corinthian-columned porch enlivens the streetscape.

[10] Originally Mechanics and Traders Bank, 144 Franklin St., NE cor. Greenpoint Ave. ca. 1895. Brooding but glorious Renaissance Revival in Pompeian red terra-cotta, brick, and rock-face brownstone, with grand pilasters crowned by fantastic Composite capitals. Savor the terra-cotta frieze among other riches adorning this lovely building.

[11] The Astral Apartments, 184 Franklin St., bet. Java and India Sts. E side. 1885-1886. Lamb & Rich.
Commissioned by Charles Pratt as housing for his kerosene refinery workers, by the same architects who created his Pratt Institute Main Building. This many-entried block was patterned after the Peabody Apartments in London. Alfred Tredway White had initiated such housing experiments in Brooklyn at Riverside in Brooklyn Heights and the Tower Home Apartments in Cobble Hill. Here we see patterned brickwork, rock-face brownstone arches and lintels, and structural steel storefronts with the rivets themselves as decoration.
Milton Street: This rich block between Franklin Street and Manhattan Avenue is crowned on axis by St. Anthony's Church. It sums up the finest urban values of Greenpoint, here reaching the urbane.

[12] 93-103 Milton Street. N side. 1874. James R. Sparrow, builder.
Six brickfronted houses (Nos. 105-109 were originally three more in a set of nine) that retain their delicate archivolts over their entrance doors, curved Renaissance Revival window lintels, each facade now painted individually for identity.

[13] 118-120 Milton Street. S side. 1868. Thomas C. Smith. This Second Empire pair has been sullied on one side by a defaced mansard roof, on the other by a bastardized cornice. Where was the Landmarks Preservation Commission when we needed it?

[14] 119-121,123-125 Milton Street. N side. 1876. Thomas C. Smith.
The left pair survives as a single composition, the right pair have been desecrated. All four bear the ubiquitous metal canopies vended to the Brooklyn innocent.

[15] 122-124 Milton Street S side. 1889. Theobald Engelhardt.
Brick and brownstone Queen Anne. The bracketed canopies over the entrances are lusty celebrations of entry.

[16] 128-134 Milton Street. S side. 1909. Philemon Tillion.
Three cool, corniced, and bay-windowed tenements, well kept and well loved, in brick and limestone.

[17J Greenpoint Reformed Church/originally Thomas C. Smith House, 138 Milton St. S side. 1867. Thomas C. Smith.
Italianate Greek Revival (those warring peoples could combine in style on occasion). Before 1891 this congregation resided at what is now St. Elias Church, two blocks north on Kent Street.

[18] 140-144 Milton Street. S side. 1909. Philemon Tillion.
The streetscape here is enriched by grand neo-Classical porches at street level, grand neo-classical cornices above.

[19] 141-149 Milton Street. N side. 1894. Thomas C. Smith.
Arched and recessed loggias at the third floor enliven Milton Street's third dimension.

[20] St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, 155 Milton St. N side. 1891-1892. Theobald Engelhardt. In somber painted brick, this German neo-Gothic is a stolid place incised with it's original name, Evangeliche-Lutherische St. Johannes Kirche. Token flying buttresses and lancet windows enliven the facade.

[21] St. Anthony of Padua Church (Roman Catholic), 862 Manhattan Ave., at the end of Milton St. E side. 1875. Patrick C.Keely.
Attired in red brick and white limestone, a quasi-cathedral on this religious block offers fancy dress to this dour neighborhood. Its 240-foot spire, at a bend in Manhattan Avenue, is a visual pivot not only for Milton Street and Manhattan Avenue but for all of Greenpoint.

[22] 128-132 Noble Street Houses, bet. Manhattan Ave and Franklin St. S side. 1867-1868. Cast-iron lintels for this Italianate row,

[23] Union Baptist Church originally First Baptist Church of Greenpoint, 151 Noble St., bet. Manhattan Ave. and Franklin St. N side 1863-1865.
An early Romanesque Revival Baptist dissenter from the English Gothic Revivalism of the Protestant Episcopal church—a lusty architectural route for some lusty Protestant congregations.

[24]Greenpoint Home for the Aged, 137 Oak St., at the head of Guernsey St. N side. 1887. Theobald Engeldhardt. An eclectic brick mansion with Italianate massing and Romanesque Revival arches.

[25] 133-135 Oak Street (row houses), bet. Guernsey St. and Franklin Ave. N side. 1890's.
The rockfaced lintels in juxtaposition with brick arches give this pair a special image.

[26] Sidewalk clock, in front of 753 Manhattan Ave. E side. One of the city's few remaining freestanding cast-iron clocks, now protected by landmark designation.

[27] St. Stanislaus Kortka Vincentian fathers Church (Roman Catholic), 607 Humboldt St., SW cor. Driggs Ave. ca. 1890.
Two complex, asymmetrical, octagonal spires of this, the largest Polish Catholic congregation in Brooklyn, dominate the local skyline, Humboldt Street and Driggs Avenue are here renamed Lech Walesa Place and Pope John Paul II Plaza with the fervency that only a monolithic local ethnic population can supply. The spires' heavy encrustation of stone ornament is in rich contrast to the painted aluminum clapboard and asbestos shingles that line the local streets like exterior wallpaper, Archie Bunker style.

[28] 650 Humbboldt Street, bet. Driggs and Nassau Aves. E side.
An unsullied remnant of wood housing; built for a single family. It demonstrates the texture and color of the community prior to the street's recladding in artificial aluminum, genuine asbestos, and real what-have-you.

[29] Monsignor McGolrick Park/originally Winthrop Park, Driggs to Nassau Ayes; Russell to Monitor Sts. [25a.] Shelter Pavilion, 1910. Helmle & Huberty.
A park on the scale of London's Bloomsbury, with surrounding row houses too low to supply the same architectural containment. Within is a monument (Antonio de Filippo, sculptor) to the Monitor and its designer, John Ericsson, and the Shelter Pavilion, in 18th-century French neo-Classical style.