Prospect Heights Historic District Maintains Integrity: Study

PROSPECT HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — Prospect Height's proposed historic district has been preserved with integrity comparable to the city's other protected regions, a new study, commissioned by those advocating for landmark status, shows.

More than 100 century-old Prospect Heights buildings — bordered by Eastern Parkway, Lincoln Place, St. John’s Place, Butler Place and Plaza Street — maintain as much of their original condition as the Morningside Heights Historic District in Manhattan and the Grand Concourse Historic District in The Bronx, according to a survey from a Columbia University graduate student of architecture.

Andrés Julian Alvarez Davila surveyed primary entrances, principal doors, windows, facades and cornices in 107 buildings and concluded the proposed Prospect Heights Historic Apartment House District had maintained much of its original character, he wrote.

"The Prospect Heights Apartment House District remains largely intact, retaining its distinct character as an apartment house district and its remarkably cohesive streetscape," wrote Davila.

"This indicates the district displays levels of integrity that are at the very least comparable to those of the Grand Concourse or Morningside Heights Historic Districts."

The report was commissioned by neighborhood preservationist groups Cultural Row Block Association Eastern Parkway and Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council, who have been advocating for years for protected landmark status for the region, developed between 1909 and 1929, as one of Brooklyn's first "modern" apartment house districts.

"Current and future development pressure may now threaten the character of this unique section of Prospect Heights that each year welcomes thousands of visitors to Brooklyn’s premier cultural institutions," CuRBA writes.

"Excess development rights, combined with a superheated real estate market, make many properties within the Prospect Heights Apartment House district potential targets for uncharacteristic additions, or even redevelopment."

CuRBA and PHNDC garnered 1,000 signatures on a petition to the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2018 and successfully lobbied to have the district included in New York City's Housing Development Corporation list of "Six to Celebrate" that same year.

"The buildings, representative of a period in Brooklyn history when building patterns shifted to accommodate a rising middle class," wrote HDC officials. "[They] remain exemplary for their architectural integrity and as housing stock for a diverse population."