Explore Park Slope’s Inner Beauty

The 2012 edition of the Park Slope House Tour will give you a chance to see the architectural beauty that awaits inside the North Slope’s historic homes.

This self-guided walking tour of seven homes takes place Sunday, May 20, noon to 5 p.m. Advance tickets are $20 each, available through our website and at various merchants and realtors listed at parkslopeciviccouncil.org/house-tour. Tickets will be available on the day of the tour for $25 each only at our starting point, the Berkeley Carroll School, 181 Lincoln Pl. between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, where brochures and shoe covers will also be distributed.

Please note the tour’s rules: no children under 10, except for infants in front packs; no smoking, food, or drinks; no photos or videos of any kind; and no large backpacks.

Following the House Tour at 5:30, architectural historian Francis Morrone will narrate a slide show at the Montauk Club on “Brooklyn Lost and Found.” He will describe significant Brooklyn buildings that have been demolished and new Brooklyn architecture worthy of recognition. House Tour tickets are required, and seating is limited.

Funds raised at the House Tour go toward the Civic Council’s Grants Committee to fund projects at local schools, charities, and cultural institutions. Your participation in this year’s event will help ensure funding for our 2013 community grants.

Here’s a peek at four of the homes on the 2012 Park Slope House Tour.

Two pairs of fluted Corinthian columns separate the parlor floor of an 1889 Queen Anne; antique furniture and Persian Bakhtiari and Turkish tribal rugs are also on view. The rear garden is beautiful and serene, with a center slate patio, tiered planting beds, and a lion’s head wall fountain. An espaliered Blue Atlas Cedar takes center stage.

 

Splendid views of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty can be found on the fifth-floor roof deck of an 1882 Neo-Grec. This home is a work-in-progress -- the most recently completed project is the streamlined kitchen with stainless-steel appliances. An unusual, not-to-be-missed feature of this home is a light shaft from a skylight down to the floors below.

 

Originally the library of our 1887 Renaissance Revival, this handsome kitchen features mahogany woodwork; the dumbwaiter is now a pantry. Elsewhere on the parlor floor are unusually fine plasterwork, beautiful parquet floors, an exceptional high Victorian fireplace mantel, and an original gas chandelier that has never been converted to electricity.

 

In this late 1870s Italianate home, a major renovation and 10-foot extension have resulted in an open, sleek, and contemporary kitchen with custom cherry cabinetry and large-windowed dining room. Beyond the windows is a deck, where roses and lilies grow. Just out of sight is a wonderful collection of colorful wall-mounted lizards from Mexico.

Photos by Michael Cairl

from the Spring 2012 Civic News