The following is a sidebar to the article “Preserve and Protect” in the Summer 2012 Civic News.
It’s not easy to pick out individual buildings to highlight in the recent Historic District expansion, since the “whole” of Park Slope is always greater than the sum of its parts.
That being said, what truly stands out are the Ansonia Clock Works complex (top), which once housed the largest clock factory in the world and employed many Park Slope residents, and the buildings that housed its workers. One need look no further than the small row houses on 13th Street (middle) and in the multifamily buildings in the blocks around it to get a feeling for how this small part of our city functioned at the turn of the century. Their preservation captures part of the city’s essential history, when locally based manufacturing employed a significant part of its population.
The expansion area also encompasses rows of stately houses, including the Queen Anne homes exemplified by 470 Ninth St., between Seventh and Eighth Avenues (right of center in the main photo here). The new extension of the historic district also encompasses Eighth Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues (bottom), which may be without parallel in the neighborhood for its remarkable consistency and integrity.
— In addition to receiving the Lovgren Award at the Civic Council’s June General Meeting, Historic District Committee Chair Peter Bray was also voted in as a Civic Council trustee.
Photos: David Herman