Significance Assessment

The Cobble Hill and Boerum Hill historic districts were designated in 1968 and 1973, respectively, which today gives us close to a 50 year period to investigate changes and impacts upon the area.

As per the original designation reports, the neighborhoods are characterized by their low-scale, uniform rooflines, overall visual harmony, historic ironwork and their abundance of mid-19th century row houses that remain relatively unchanged. The residential architecture is predominantly Greek Revival or Italianate row houses with stoops, with brick being the most abundant façade material. The buildings average about 3 to 5 stories in height and are examples of the early development of the area in the 1830s to 1850s. Reading through the original designations, it is clear that the area was considered significant primarily for these residential architectural features.

However, throughout our investigation, we have uncovered other features of equal importance, and feel that the significance of the area can only be truly understood if these are taken into account as well.

While the row houses of the area are a main constituent of the building stock, the area was also an important testing ground for the development of the first reform tenement housing by Alfred T. White at Warren Place. Increasingly during the mid-20th century, in response to new waves of immigration, economic depressions, and changes in infrastructure, single-family rowhouses were broken up into apartments, stores and industry moved or changed, and new housing projects were constructed (such as the Gowanus and Wyckoff Houses to the south of the area). The study area – both in and out of historic districts – still contains many examples of tenements, apartments, and housing projects, which are today an integral part of the history of the area. Also unmentioned in the original designation reports are the diverse immigrant populations’ in and outflows throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, contributing to both the built and social fabric of the area including, but not limited to, the Swedish, Irish, German, Syrian, and Puerto Rican communities that will be later discussed in this report.

Though mainly residential in character, these neighborhoods are also defined by their commercial corridors along Atlantic Avenue, Court Street, and Smith Street, which developed during the advancement of transportation and infrastructure in the area. The streets in both neighborhoods contain mixed-used buildings with a noteworthy number of historic storefronts, at the level of which the community is able to interact with small businesses. Although many of these storefronts have been historicized and restored, the prevalence of this small-storefront typology is still an important character-defining feature of the area, and proof of the area’s material and typological adaptability to change throughout the 20th century.

State Street Source: student photo

Pacific Street Source: student photo

These storefronts are also indicative of another significant aspect of the area: the community’s investment and interest in keeping the character of the neighborhood. These various stakeholders, ranging from the Atlantic Avenue Business Improvement District (AABID), the Boerum Hill Association, the original brownstoners of the 1960s and 1970s, to individual business and homeowners of the area, have struggled to keep their store-lined streets largely consistent with the original historic fabric. Following guidelines of the Atlantic Avenue Special Zoning Subdistrict, many owners have renovated or remodeled their historic storefronts. While this will be discussed in further detail in the report, the stakeholders of the area have put much effort into these buildings, and therefore these storefronts remain a character defining feature.

Current high-rise developments to the north (in Downtown Brooklyn), following the construction of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to the west of Cobble Hill and of Atlantic Yards to the east of Boerum Hill, are beginning to infringe upon the fabric of the area, causing concern about the future of these districts and the surroundings. Compared to this rapid-tower building, the new construction within the study area seems to have developed in a sensitive fashion, sometimes aligning with the character-defining features of the neighborhoods, such as scale and material, while also retaining the neighborhood’s ability to adapt to changes in the population and economy.

While the fear of new, large-scale development is still strong, it is significant that the current development has limited itself to mostly low-scale, height-contextual development.

Today, in the rapidly changing urban environment, where rowhouses are turning back into single-family homes, new luxury apartments are being constructed and stores are changing to meet the needs of the new population, an investigation and perhaps re-evaluation of preservation tools used in historic districts is necessary, to continue to support the claim that historic districts are in fact models of a resilient built environment for the city as a whole. 231 Smith Street Source: student photo

360 Atlantic Avenue Source: student photo