Colonnade Row in Brooklyn Heights

Colonnade Row

Greek Revival Home

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Neighborhood: Brooklyn Heights
Address: 43-49 Willow Place 

The houses pictured above, built in 1846, represent “the last surviving colonnade row on Brooklyn Heights”. The houses were designed in the Greek-Revival style. Colonnade rows were popular during the height of the style’s popularity in the 1830s-1840s. The colonnade row lends a lot of grandeur to homes with otherwise little architectural embellishment. The houses are unified with a continuous grand scale portico with square wooden columns supporting deep entablature. The city used to have many colonnade rows. Brownstoner lists La Grange Terrace across from Cooper Union in Manhattan as the best known remaining colonnade row. However, remnants of the design feature can be found in other, more modest places as well. In Williamsburg near the BQE is a singular home (pictured above) that was once part of Colonnade row.

Decrepit Greek Revival Home

Colonnade House in Williamsburg

My favorite of the remaining houses isn’t one among the row. It’s the one across the street. Currently in ill repair, the single remaining Greek-Revival house on the north side of Willow Place looks like an anachronism being swallowed by a modern building. The weird juxtaposition and decrepit façade makes the historic home look like a place lost in time. 

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Sources:

1. Lancaster, Clay & Gillon, Edmund V. Old Brooklyn Heights: New York's First Suburb. Charles E. Tuttle Company Publishers, Rutland Vermont 1980
2. White, Norval, Willensky, Elliot, and Leadon, Fran AIA Guide to New York. Oxford University Press, 2010
3. Spellen, Suzanne "Building of the Day: 43-49 Willow Street" Brownstoner 10 September, 2012